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The automotive industry faces three major challenges – shortage of fossil fuels, politics of global warming and rising competition from new markets. In order to remain competitive companies have to develop more efficient and alternative fuel vehicles that meet the individual requirements of the customers. Functional Integration combined with new Technologies and materials are the key to stable success in this industry. The sustaining upward trend to system innovations within the last ten years confirms this. The development of complex products like automobiles claim skills of various disciplines e.g. engineering, chemistry. Furthermore, these skills are spread all over the supply chain. Hence the only way to stay successful in the automotive industry is cooperation and collaborative innovation. Interdisciplinary and interorganizational development has high demands on cooperation models especially in the automotive industry. In this case study cooperation models are analyzed and evaluated according to their applicability to interdisciplinary, interorganizational development projects in the automotive industry. Following, the research campus ARENA2036 is analyzed. ARENA2036 is an interdisciplinary, interorganizational development project housing automobile manufacturers, suppliers, research establishments and university institutes. Finally, based on interviews with the partners and the precede analyses of cooperation models, suggestions for implementation are given to ARENA2036.
In the luxury Fashion industry, consumers could be categorized into two groups: fashion leader and Fashion follower. Both groups of consumers purchase luxury fashion products aim at satisfying both their functional needs and social needs (i.e., social influence). Thus the demands of both consumer groups are related. In this paper, we construct a model to examine the effects of pricing and online retail service in luxury fashion firms with social influence. To maximize profit, we identify the optimal prices and online retail service when the luxury fashion firms provide the non-differentiated and differentiated online retail services, respectively. More insights are discussed.
Due to the increasing awareness of social and environmental issues of the consumer, sustainability has become significantly important in the fashion businesses. Therefore, developing a sustainable supply chain is crucial for fashion companies to meet consumer´s consciousness. According to Bin Shen (2014), the Fast Fashion Retailer H&M is more likely to select suppliers in countries with a low score on the human wellbeing factor of the Sustainable Society Index (SSI). This paper extends the findings of Bin Shen (2014) and investigates fashion firms of different segments on their scoring at the 8 underlying categories of the SSI. This approach let the researcher assume that fashion firms of different segments which are active in sustainability are selecting their suppliers in countries with a low degree on the 8 categories of the SSI. Consequently, by utilising the SSI as a tool, the findings of this paper will be helpful to profile and compare Fashion companies of different segments in their supplier selection in regards to sustainability.
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the communication of sustainability of fashion retailers via their websites with a focus on the involvement of the consumer and the varying communication processes, based on the sender-receiver model. For the empirical study, 10 fashion retailers were analyzed in terms of their communication of sustainability via their websites, with a focus on the consumer involvement. The results of empirical study were applied to the theoretical communication process model and illustrate the varying communication processes among the ten fashion retailers. The communication of sustainability via the Fashion retailer´s websites varied strongly. Only one fashion retailer communicated environmental- and social as well as all consumer-related aspects. As a result, the loop of the communication process has only been closed for one fashion retailer. Accordingly, these findings confirm that there is a need for fashion retailers to inform consumers in a holistic way about sustainability, especially in terms of sustainable fashion consumption when communicating sustainability via websites.
Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy (SNOM) has developed during recent decades into a valuable tool to optically image the surface topology of materials with super-resolution. With aperture-based SNOM systems, the resolution scales with the size of the aperture, but also limits the sensitivity of the detection and thus the application for spectroscopic techniques like Raman SNOM. In this paper we report the extension of solid immersion lens (SIL) technology to Raman SNOM. The hemispherical SIL with a tip on the bottom acts as an apertureless dielectric nanoprobe for simultaneously acquiring topographic and spectroscopic information. The SIL is placed between the sample and the microscope objective of a confocal Raman microscope. The lateral resolution in the Raman mode is validated with a cross section of a semiconductor layer system and, at approximately 180 nm, is beyond the classical diffraction limit of Abbe.
Background: Multicapillary column ion-mobility spectrometry (MCC-IMS) may identify volatile components in exhaled gas. The authors therefore used MCC-IMS to evaluate exhaled gas in a rat model of sepsis, inflammation, and hemorrhagic shock.
Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were anesthetized and ventilated via tracheostomy for 10 h or until death. Sepsis was induced by cecal ligation and incision in 10 rats; a sham operation was performed in 10 others. In 10 other rats, endotoxemia was induced by intravenous administration of 10 mg/kg lipopolysaccharide. In a final 10 rats, hemorrhagic shock was induced to a mean arterial pressure of 35 +/- 5 mmHg. Exhaled gas was analyzed with MCC-IMS, and volatile compounds were identified using the BS-MCC/IMS-analytes database (Version 1209; B&S Analytik, Dortmund, Germany).
Results: All sham animals survived the observation period, whereas mean survival time was 7.9 h in the septic animals, 9.1 h in endotoxemic animals, and 2.5 h in hemorrhagic shock. Volatile compounds showed statistically significant differences in septic and endotoxemic rats compared with sham rats for 3-pentanone and acetone. Endotoxic rats differed significantly from sham for 1-propanol, butanal, acetophenone, 1,2-butandiol, and 2-hexanone. Statistically significant differences were observed between septic and endotoxemic rats for butanal, 3-pentanone, and 2-hexanone. 2-Hexanone differed from all other groups in the rats with shock.
Conclusions: Breath analysis of expired organic compounds differed significantly in septic, inflammation, and sham rats. MCC-IMS of exhaled breath deserves additional study as a noninvasive approach for distinguishing sepsis from inflammation.
The analysis of exhaled metabolites has become a promising field of research in recent decades. Several volatile organic compounds reflecting metabolic disturbance and nutrition status have even been reported. These are particularly important for long-term measurements, as needed in medical research for detection of disease progression and therapeutic efficacy. In this context, it has become urgent to investigate the effect of fasting and glucose treatment for breath analysis. In the present study, we used amodel of ventilated rats that fasted for 12 h prior to the experiment. Ten rats per group were randomly assigned for continuous intravenous infusion without glucose or an infusion including 25 mg glucose per 100 g per hour during an observation period of 12 h. Exhaled gas was analysed using multicapillary column ion-mobility spectrometry. Analytes were identified by the BS-MCC/IMS database (version 1209; B & S Analytik, Dortmund, Germany). Glucose infusion led to a significant increase in blood glucose levels (p<0.05 at 4 h and thereafter) and cardiac output (p<0.05 at 4 h and thereafter). During the observation period, 39 peaks were found collectively. There were significant differences between groups in the concentration of ten volatile organic compounds: p<0.001 at 4 h and thereafter for isoprene, cyclohexanone, acetone, p-cymol, 2-hexanone, phenylacetylene, and one unknown compound, and p<0.001 at 8 h and thereafter for 1-pentanol, 1-propanol, and 2-heptanol. Our results indicate that for long-term measurement, fasting and the withholding of glucose could contribute to changes of volatile metabolites in exhaled air.
Management nowadays is confronted by a variety of information originating from either internal or external sources. Thereby, the difficulty to focus on the relevant and company critical keyfigures information increases. In practice, information management is often a major weakness of efficient corporate management. That weakness is caused by the lack of a centralized, categorized and summarized presentation and analysis of strategy and decision-relevant information. Management cockpits, a kind of information center for managers, are an approach to meet the challenges of information management. They are a specific work environment for decision makers to get a quick and simple overview of the company’s economic situation. In the most completely equipped premises, the entire process is supported - from acquiring information, to analysis, decision-making, and communication. Use of management cockpits, a cross-functional, KPI-based and strategyoriented controlling and management process, can be successfully established in companies as well as the work of interdisciplinary management teams, which are supported. In order to provide these possibilities, the management cockpit is equipped with a range of functionalities that allow the structuring, categorization and management-adequate visualization of information along with extensive analysis and simulation options. Management cockpits, as a communication and collaboration platform, are a starting point and valuable process companion on the way to holistic and sustainable performance management.
In this paper it is first identified the trade-off among costs, flexibility and performances of autonomous robotic solutions for material handling processes, where adding value with automation is not as trivial as in production processes: hence the requirement for automated solutions to be simple, lean and efficient becomes even stricter. Then a method for modelling and comparing differential performances and costs of manual and autonomous solutions is developed. As a result of the method, a smart man-machine collaborative interface is designed and its impact evaluated on a specific case of study. Results are then generalized and prove the strong conclusions that in unconstrained environments, where full standardization cannot be achieved, the risk of investing in autonomous solutions can only be mitigated by creating a fast and smart man-machine collaborative interface.
According to a recent survey the great majority of players in logistics are planning to adopt one or more robotic solutions until 2019. Technical solutions for automation of processes in logistics are often available as a market-ready product, but the lack of standardization and skepticism towards long term investments are often the reasons why these solutions are not implemented on a large scale. This paper is set to bridge the gap between the world of technologies and the one of applications in order to help investors, robot producers and system integrators to decide on which branch of logistics to set their focus. The three main branches Courier Express Parcel (CEP), contract logistics and production logistics are briefly defined and distinguished through their characteristic factors and parameters. Then a method based on the analysis of three parameters (operative costs, required performance and flexibility) in the three branches is set to identify the most convenient branch of logistics for investing in new technologies, namely the one in which the risk of investment is lower, the return is higher and faster. The conclusion of the method shows that higher labor costs, strict regulations and higher standardization make the production logistics the most suitable branch for investments in emerging automation solutions.
The EU funded project RobLog recently developed a system able to autonomously unload coffee sacks from a standard container. Being the first of its kind, a further development is needed in order for the system to be competitive against manual labor. Financing this development entails a risk, hence a justified skepticism, which can be overcome by the longsighted view of the existing market potential. This paper presents a method to estimate the market potential of autonomous unloading systems for heavy deformable goods. Starting from the analysis of the coffee trade, first the current coffee traffic is investigated in order to calculate the number of autonomous systems needed to handle the imported sacks; Results are validated and the method is extended for the calculation of the potential of other market segments, where the same unloading technology can be applied.
An ultra-low power capacitance extrema and ratio detector for electrostatic energy harvesters
(2015)
The power supply is one of the major challenges for applications like internet of things IoTs and smart home. The maintenance issue of batteries and the limited power level of energy harvesting is addressed by the integrated micro power supply presented in this paper. Connected to the 120/230 Vrms mains, which is one of the most reliable energy sources and anywhere indoor available, it provides a 3.3V DC output voltage. The micro power supply consists of a fully integrated ACDC and DCDC converter with one external low voltage SMD buffer capacitor. The micro power supply is fabricated in a low cost 0.35 μm 700 V CMOS technology and covers a die size of 7.7 mm2. The use of only one external low voltage SMD capacitor, results in an extremely compact form factor. The ACDC is a direct coupled, full wave rectifier with a subsequent bipolar shunt regulator, which provides an output voltage around 17 V. The DCDC stage is a fully integrated 4:1 SC DCDC converter with an input voltage as high as 17 V and a peak efficiency of 45 %. The power supply achieves an overall output power of 3 mW, resulting in a power density of 390 μW/mm2. This exceeds prior art by a factor of 11.
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 combination with a cycle-count accurate temporal decoupling approach 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 communication events. These methods fail in case of non-deterministic, asynchronous events resulting in a possibly invalid simulation result. In this paper, we propose an extension of this method 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 and/or rollback effort caused by temporal decoupling is minimized by calculating optimal time quanta dynamically in a SystemC model using a linear prediction scheme. For an example smart-sensor system model, we show that quasi- periodic events that trigger activities in temporally decoupled processes are handled accurately after the predictor has settled.
Perivascular cells are multilineage cells located around the vessel wall and important for wall stabilization. In this study, we evaluated a stem cell media and a perivascular cell-specific media for the culture of primary perivascular cells regarding their cell morphology, doubling time, stem cell properties, and expression of cell type-specific markers. When the two cell culture media were compared to each other, perivascular cells cultured in the stem cell medium had a more elongated morphology and a faster doubling rate and cells cultured in the pericyte medium had a more typical morphology, with several filopodia, and a slower doubling rate. To evaluate stem cell properties, perivascular cells, CD146 cells, and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were differentiated into the adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic lineages. It was seen that perivascular cells, as well as CD146 cells and MSCs, cultured in stem cell medium showed greater differentiation than cells cultured in pericyte-specific medium. The expression of pericyte-specific markers CD146, neural/glial antigen 2 (NG2), platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β (PDGFR-β), myosin, and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) could be found in both pericyte cultures, as well as to varying amounts in CD146 cells, MSCs, and endothelial cells. The here presented work shows that perivascular cells can adapt to their in vitro environment and cell culture conditions influence cell functionality, such as doubling rate or differentiation behavior. Pericyte-specific markers were shown to be expressed also from cells other than perivascular cells. We can further conclude that CD146⁺ perivascular cells are inhomogeneous cell population probably containing stem cell subpopulations, which are located perivascular around capillaries.
Critical size bone defects and non-union fractions are still challenging to treat. Cell-loaded bone substitutes have shown improved bone ingrowth and bone formation. However, a lack of methods for homogenously colonizing scaffolds limits the maximum volume of bone grafts. Additionally, therapy robustness is impaired by heterogeneous cell populations after graft generation. Our aim was to establish a technology for generating grafts with a size of 10.5 mm in diameter and 25 mm of height, and thus for grafts suited for treatment of critical size bone defects. Therefore, a novel tailor-made bioreactor system was developed, allowing standardized flow conditions in a porous poly(L-lactide co-caprolactone) material. Scaffolds were seeded with primary human mesenchymal stem cells derived from four different donors. In contrast to static experimental conditions, homogenous cell distributions were accomplished under dynamic culture. Additionally, culture in the bioreactor system allowed the induction of osteogenic lineage commitment after one week of culture without addition of soluble factors. This was demonstrated by quantitative analysis of calcification and gene expression markers related to osteogenic lineage. In conclusion, the novel bioreactor technology allows efficient and standardized conditions for generating bone substitutes that are suitable for the treatment of critical size defects in humans.
Bone homeostasis is maintained by osteoblasts (bone formation) and osteoclasts (bone resorption). While there have been numerous studies investigating mesenchymal stem cells and their potential to differentiate into osteoblasts as well as their interaction with different bone substitute materials, there is only limited knowledge concerning in vitro generated osteoclasts. Due to the increasing development of degradable bone-grafting materials and the need of sophisticated in vitro test methods, it is essential to gain deeper insight into the process of osteoclastogenesis and the resorption functionality of human osteoclasts. Therefore, we focused on the comparison of osteoclastogenesis and resorption activity on tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) and bovine extracellular bone matrices (BMs). Cortical bone slices were used as two-dimensional (2D) substrates, whereas a thermally treated cancellous bone matrix was used for three-dimensional (3D) experiments. We isolated primary human monocytes and induced osteoclastogenesis by medium supplementation. Subsequently, the expression of the vitronectin receptor (αVβ3) and cathepsin K as well as the characteristic actin formation on TCPS and the two BMs were examined. The cell area of human osteoclasts was analyzed on TCPS and on BMs, whereas significantly larger osteoclasts could be detected on BMs. Additionally, we compared the diameter of the sealing zones with the measured diameter of the resorption pits on the BMs and revealed similar diameters of the sealing zones and the resorption pits. We conclude that using TCPS as culture substrate does not affect the expression of osteoclast-specific markers. The analysis of resorption activity can successfully be conducted on cortical as well as on cancellous bone matrices. For new in vitro test systems concerning bone resorption, we suggest the establishment of a 2D assay for high throughput screening of new degradable bone substitute materials with osteoclasts.
In the current study the in vitro outcome of a degradable magnesium alloy (AZ91D) and standard titanium modified by nanostructured-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) coatings concerning cell adhesion and osteogenic differentiation was investigated by direct cell culture. The n-HA modification was prepared via radio-frequency magnetron sputtering deposition and proven by field emission scanning electron microscopy and X-ray powder diffraction patterns revealing a homogenous surface coating. Human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSCs) adhesion was examined after one and 14 days displaying an enhanced initial cell adhesion on the n-HA modified samples. The osteogenic lineage commitment of the cells was determined by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) quantification. On day one n-HA coated AZ91D exhibited a comparable ALP expression to standard tissue culture polystyrene samples. However, after 14 days solely little DNA and ALP amounts were measurable on n-HA coated AZ91D due to the lack of adherent cells. Titanium displayed excellent cell adhesion properties and ALP was detectable after 14 days. An increased pH of the culture was measured for AZ91D as well as for n-HA coated AZ91D. We conclude that n-HA modification improves initial cell attachment on AZ91D within the first 24 h. However, the effect does not ersist for 14 days in in vitro conditions.
Thin radio-frequency magnetron sputter deposited nano-hydroxyapatite (HA) films were prepared on the surface of a Fe-tricalcium phosphate (Fe-TCP) bioceramic composite, which was obtained using a conventional powder injection moulding technique. The obtained nano-hydroxyapatite coated Fe-TCP biocomposites (nano HA-Fe-TCP) were studied with respect to their chemical and phase composition, surface morphology, water contact angle, surface free energy and hysteresis. The deposition process resulted in a homogeneous, single-phase HA coating. The ability of the surface to support adhesion and the proliferation of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) was studied using biological short-term tests in vitro. The surface of the uncoated Fe-TCP bioceramic composite showed an initial cell attachment after 24 h of seeding, but adhesion, proliferation and growth did not persist during 14 days of culture.However, the HA-Fe-TCP surfaces allowed cell adhesion, and proliferation during 14 days. The deposition of the nano-HA films on the Fe-TCP surface resulted in higher surface energy, improved hydrophilicity and biocompatibility compared with the surface of the uncoated Fe-TCP. Furthermore, it is suggested that an increase in the polar component of the surface energy was responsible for the enhanced cell adhesion and proliferation in the case of the nano-HA Fe-TCP biocomposites.
Success in human resource management (HRM) depends on the question of whether applied practices of HRM meet specific contingency factors and are appropriately configured. Using this argument, the present article examines HRM in professional service firms (PSFs) in pursuit of three objectives. First, we introduce a conceptual framework that illustrates how the constitutive characteristics of PSFs, as contingency factors, influence HRM practices and research. Second, based on this framework, we summarize key findings of research on HRM in PSFs and open up potential avenues for further research. Third, we reflect on the argument that HRM in PSFs can contribute to an understanding of HRM practices in other organizational settings, leading to the question of the mutual transferability of HRM practices. Aside from these three primary objectives, we also introduce the contents of the special issue.
Reflectometry is known since long as an interferometric method which can be used to characterize surfaces and thin films regarding their structure and,to a certain degree,composition as well.Properties like layer structures,layer thickness,density,and interface roughness can be determined by fitting the obtained reflectivity data with an appropriate model using a recursive fitting routine. However,one major drawback of the reflectometric method is its restriction to planar surfaces.In this article we demonstrate an approach to apply X-ray and neutron reflectometry to curved surfaces by means of the example of bent bare and coated glass slides.We prove the possibility to observe all features like Fresnel decay,Kiessig fringes,Bragg peaks and off-specular scattering and are able to interpret the data using common fitting software and to derive quantitative results about roughness,layer thickness and internal structure. The proposed method has become practical due to the availability of high quality 2D-detectors. It opens up the option to explore many kinds and shapes of samples,which,due to their geometry,have not been in the focus of reflectometry techniques until now.
Block-copolyesters of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) were synthesized via reactive extrusion. The influence of processing parameters on the material properties on a molecular scale like degree of trans-esterification, block length, and degree of randomness were investigated. The varied process factors were extrusion temperature and rotational speed. The effects of process parameter variation were investigated by 1H-NMR-spectroscopy. The experimental results show a clear dependence of the molecular properties on the processing conditions. By using statistical experimental design (DoE), it was possible to prepare defined copolyesters from PET and PEN without addition of further chemicals. With a degree of randomness between 0.05 and 0.5, the presence of an actual copolyester was confirmed when appropriate extrusion conditions were applied. The reactive extrusion process was confirmed to be suitable to produce defined block-copolyesters in a predictable and reproducible way. It was possible to produce designed sequence lengths, which could be adjusted within a range of 11–136 repeating units in the case of PET and, in the case of PEN, of 2.5–26. The produced materials can be used as barrier materials or barrier coatings to protect substrates against molecular oxygen and water vapour, e.g., in organic photovoltaic applications or food packaging. The described method is a one-pot alternative method to the previously described chemical recycling pathway.
Stress is recognized as a factor of predominant disease and in the future the costs for treatment will increase. The presented approach tries to detect stress in a very basic and easy to implement way, so that the cost for the device and effort to wear it remain low. The user should benefit from the fact that the system offers an easy interface reporting the status of his body in real time. In parallel, the system provides interfaces to pass the obtained data forward for further processing and (professional) analyses, in case the user agrees. The system is designed to be used in every day’s activities and it is not restricted to laboratory use or environments. The implementation of the enhanced prototype shows that the detection of stress and the reporting can be managed using correlation plots and automatic pattern recognition even on a very light weighted microcontroller platform.
An ongoing challenge in our days is to lower the impact on the quality of life caused by dysfunctionality through individual support. With the background of an aging society and continuous increases in costs for care, a holistic solution is needed. This solution must integrate individual needs and preferences, locally available possibilities, regional conditions, professional and informal caregivers and provide the flexibility to implement future requirements. The proposed model is a result of a common initiative to overcome the major obstacles and to center a solution on individual needs caused by dysfunctionality.
By integrating its previously separate insurance, banking and investment products around customer life events (e.g., buying a car, getting married or buying a house), USAA is able to deliver a superior customer experience. To achieve the integration, USAA had to re-architect its business by redesigning structures, roles, incentives, processes and IT systems. The USAA case provides four principles for architecting a business to provide superior customer experience, which will become increasingly important in the digital economy.
Context: Companies increasingly strive to adapt to market and ecosystem changes in real time. Gauging and understanding team performance in such changing environments present a major challenge.
Objective: This paper aims to understand how software developers experience the continuous adaptation of performance in a modern, highly volatile environment using Lean and Agile software development methodology. This understanding can be used as a basis for guiding formation and maintenance of high-performing teams, to inform performance improvement initiatives, and to improve working conditions for software developers.
Method: A qualitative multiple-case study using thematic interviews was conducted with 16 experienced practitioners in five organisations.
Results: We generated a grounded theory, Performance Alignment Work, showing how software developers experience performance. We found 33 major categories of performance factors and relationships between the factors. A cross-case comparison revealed similarities and differences between different kinds and different sizes of organisations.
Conclusions: Based on our study, software teams are engaged in a constant cycle of interpreting their own performance and negotiating its alignment with other stakeholders. While differences across organisational sizes exist, a common set of performance experiences is present despite differences in context variables. Enhancing performance experiences requires integration of soft factors, such as communication, team spirit, team identity, and values, into the overall development process. Our findings suggest a view of software development and software team performance that centres around behavioural and social sciences.
This paper provides new evidence on the formation and anchoring of inflation expectations. I conduct a game experiment and analyze the adjustment as well as the impact of credible targets on expectations. In addition, I evaluate the idiosyncratic determinants on the formation of expectations. The analysis reveals six results: First, I find evidence that long-term inflation expectations are firmly anchored to a credible target. Second, a temporary deviation due to unexpected monetary policy might trigger a decline in credibility, and third a de-anchoring of expectations due to uncertainty. Fourth, I find that people change their expectations little if a credible target exists. Fifth, expectations exhibit a large degree of time-variance only in environments without a target. Sixth, the dynamic adjustment to an ‘incomplete’ equilibrium, which is theoretically unstable, is nevertheless rapid and persistent in case of credible targets. All in all, I demonstrate a unique game setup with contributions to both experimental and monetary economics.
A major lesson of the recent financial crisis is that money market freezes have major macroeconomic implications. This paper develops a tractable model in which we analyze the microeconomic and macroeconomic implications of a systemic banking crisis. In particular, we consider how the systemic crisis affects the optimal allocation of funding for businesses. We show that a central bank should reduce the interest rate to manage a systemic shock and hence smooth the macroeconomic consequences. Moreover, the analysis offers insight on the rational of bank behavior and the role of markets in a systemic crisis. We find that the failure to adopt the optimal policy can lead to economic fragility.
Creating an image transfer through event marketing : principles, requirements and consequences
(2015)
Event marketing is primarily implemented to emotionalize the target group. So, the most important objective of marketing events is to improve the image of a brand or a company. In this paper an image transfer model for event marketing is introduced. As a basis, the principles of event marketing are presented. After that, the state of the art in attitude and image research is discussed. Based on current research, an image transfer model for event marketing is developed and the conditions required for an image transfer to take place from an event to a brand or a company are explained. Depending on which conditions are met, there are different consequences with regard to the image transfer from the event to the brand or company that are structured and characterized in detail.
Modern power DMOS transistors greatly benefit from the continuous advances of the technology, which yield devices with very low area-specific RDS,on figures of merit and therefore allow for significantly reduced active areas. However, in many applications, where the devices must dissipate high amounts of energy and thus are subjected to significant self-heating, the active area is not dictated by RDS,on requirements, but by the energy constraints. In this paper, a simple method of improving the energy capability and reliability of power DMOS transistors operating in pulsed conditions is proposed and experimentally verified. The method consists in redistributing the power density from the hotter to the cooler device regions, hence achieving a more homogeneous temperature distribution and a reduced peak temperature. To demonstrate the principle, a simple gate offset circuit is used to redistribute the current density to the cooler DMOS parts. No technology changes are needed for the implementation, only minor changes to the driver circuit are necessary, with a minimal impact on the additional required active area. Improvements in the energy capability from 9.2% up to 39% have been measured. Furthermore, measurements have shown that the method remains effective also if the operating conditions change significantly. The simplicity and the effectiveness of the implementation makes the proposed method suitable to be used in a wide range of applications.
Impact of brand and country image on the perception of sustainability in the fashion business
(2015)
The fashion and textile industry is presently confronted to participate in the sustainability movement and society demands corporate social responsibility. Today, it is crucial for fashion companies to be able to measure, monitor and improve environmental and social performance, due to the fact that there is a heightened awareness of sustainable practices by stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to investigate fashion consumers on their sustainable perception of a fashion company. More specifically, the objective of this study is to highlight the fashion consumer`s awareness in regards to the sustainable practices of a fashion company by considering the brand and country image factors. An experimental research design was utilized for the study and the researcher surveyed 120 fashion students. The basis of the surveys within the experiment is the present sustainable practice of the fashion brand H&M. This research aims to understand, if and how fashion consumers are influenced by a fashion brand image or its souring practices, when it comes to evaluate the sustainable performance of a fashion company. Results show that participants have significantly different perceptions when considering the fashion brand image of H&M on the one hand and the sourcing countries of H&M on the other. The result of this research provides useful information about the actual state of affairs in sustainable knowledge of the consumer and the related power of a brand's image and its sourcing strategies.
The paper illustrates the status quo of a research project for the development of a control system enabling CHP units for a demand-oriented electricity production by an intelligent management of the heat storage tank. Thereby the focus of the project is twofold. One is the compensation of the fluctuating power production by the renewable energies solar and wind. Secondly, a reduction of the load on the power grid is intended by a better match of local electricity demand and production. In detail, the general control strategy is outlined, the method utilized for forecasting heat and electricity demand is illustrated as well as a correlation method for the temperature distribution in the heat storage tank based on a Sigmoid function is proposed. Moreover, the simulation model for verification and optimization of the control system and the two field test sites for implementing and testing the system are introduced.
For area reasons, NMOS transistors are preferred over PMOS for the pull-up path in gate drivers. Bootstrapping has to ensure sufficient NMOS gate overdrive. Especially in high-current gate drivers with large transistors, the bootstrap capacitor is too large for integration. This paper proposes three options of fully integrated bootstrap circuits. The key idea is that the main bootstrap capacitor is supported by a second bootstrap capacitor, which is charged to a higher voltage and ensures high charge allocation when the driver turns on. A capacitor sizing guideline and the overall driver implementation including a suitable charge pump for permanent driver activation is provided. A linear regulator is used for bootstrap supply and it also compensates the voltage drop of the bootstrap diode. Measurements from a testchip in 180 nm high-voltage BiCMOS confirm the benefit of high-voltage charge storing. The fully integrated bootstrap circuit with two stacked 75.8 pF and 18.9 pF capacitors results in an expected voltage dip of lower than 1 V. Both bootstrap capacitors require 70% less area compared to a conventional bootstrap circuit. Besides drivers, the proposed bootstrap can also be directly applied to power stages to achieve fully integrated switched mode power supplies or class-D output stages.
Purpose: This paper aims to conceptualize and empirically test the determinants of service interaction quality (SIQ) as attitude, behavior and expertise of a service provider (SP). Further, the individual and simultaneous effects of SIQ and its dimensions on important marketing outcomes are tested. Design/methodology/approach – The narrative review of extant research helps formulate a conceptual model of SIQ, which is investigated using the univariate and multivariate meta-analysis.
Findings: There are interdependencies between drivers of SIQ that underlines the need to conceptualize service interaction as a dyadic phenomenon; use contemporary multilevel models, dyadic models, non-linear structural equation modeling and process studies; and study new and diverse services contexts. Meta-analysis illustrates the relative importance of the three drivers of SIQ and, in turn, their impact on consumer satisfaction and loyalty.
Research limitations/implications – The meta-analysis is based on existing research, which, unfortunately, has not examined critical services or exigency situations where SIQ is of paramount importance. Future research will be tasked with diversifying to several important domains where SIQ is a critical aspect of perceived service quality.
Practical implications: This study emphasizes that, although the expertise of an SP is important, firms would be surprised to learn that the attitude and behavior of their employees are equally important antecedents. In fact, there is a delicate balance that needs to be found; otherwise, attitudinal factors can have an overall counterproductive effect on consumer satisfaction.
Originality/value: This paper provides an empirical synthesis of SIQ and opens up interesting areas for further research.
New or adapted digital business models have huge impacts on Enterprise Architectures (EA) and require them to become more agile, flexible, and adaptable. All these changes are happening frequently and are currently not well documented. An EA consists of a lot of elements with manifold relationships between them. Thus changing the business model may have multiple impacts on other architectural elements. The EA engineering process deals with the development, change and optimization of architectural elements and their dependencies. Thus an EA provides a holistic view for both business and IT from the perspective of many stakeholders, which are involved in EA decision-making processes. Different stakeholders have specific concerns and are collaborating today in often unclear decision-making processes. In our research we are investigating information from collaborative decision-making processes to support stakeholders in taking current decisions. In addition we provide all information necessary to understand how and why decisions were taken. We are collecting the decision-related information automatically to minimize manual time intensive work as much as possible. The core contribution of our research extends a decisional metamodel, which links basic decisions with architectural elements and extends them with an associated decisional case context. Our aim is to support a new integral method for multi perspective and collaborative decision-making processes. We illustrate this by a practice-relevant decision-making scenario for Enterprise Architecture Engineering.
In modern times markets are very dynamic. This situation requires agile enterprises to have the ability to react fast on market influences. Thereby an enterprise’ IT is especially affected, because new or changed business models have to be realized. However, enterprise architectures (EA) are complex structures consisting of many artifacts and relationships between them. Thus analyzing an EA becomes to a complex task for stakeholders. In addition, many stakeholders are involved in decision-making processes, because Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) targets providing a holistic view of the enterprise. In this article we use concepts of Adaptive Case Management (ACM) to design a decision-making case consisting of a combination of different analysis techniques to support stakeholders in decision-making. We exemplify the case with a scenario of a fictive enterprise.
Customer services in the digital transformation: social media versus hotline channel performance
(2015)
Due to the digital transformation online service strategies have gained prominence in practice as well as in the theory of service management. This study examines the efficacy of different types of service channels in customer complaint handling. The theoretical framework, developed using complaint handling and social media literature, is tested against data collected from two different channels (hotline and social media) of a German telecommunication service provider. We contribute to the understanding of firm’s multichannel distribution strategy in two ways: a) by conceptualizing and evaluating complaint handling quality across traditional and social media channels, and b) by testing the impact of complaint handling quality on key performance outcomes like customer loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and cross purchase intentions.
The Internet of Things (IoT) fundamentally influences today’s digital strategies with disruptive business operating models and fast changing markets. New business information systems are integrating emerging Internet of Things infrastructures and components. With the huge diversity of Internet of Things technologies and products organizations have to leverage and extend previous enterprise architecture efforts to enable business value by integrating the Internet of Things into their evolving Enterprise Architecture Management environments. Both architecture engineering and management of current enterprise architectures is complex and has to integrate beside the Internet of Things synergistic disciplines like EAM - Enterprise Architecture and Management with disciplines like: services & cloud computing, semantic-based decision support through ontologies and knowledge-based systems, big data management, as well as mobility and collaboration networks. To provide adequate decision support for complex business/IT environments, it is necessary to identify affected changes of Internet of Things environments and their related fast adapting architecture. We have to make transparent the impact of these changes over the integral landscape of affected EAM-capabilities, like directly and transitively impacted IoT-objects, business categories, processes, applications, services, platforms and infrastructures. The paper describes a new metamodel-based approach for integrating partial Internet of Things objects, which are semi-automatically federated into a holistic Enterprise Architecture Management environment.
Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is a holistic approach to tackle the complex Business and IT architecture. The transformation of an organization’s EA towards a strategy-oriented system is a continuous task. Many stakeholders have to elaborate on various parts of the EA to reach the best decisions to shape the EA towards an optimized support of the organizations’ capabilities. Since the real world is too complex, analyzing techniques are needed to detect optimization potentials and to get all information needed about an issue. In practice visualizations are commonly used to analyze EAs. However these visualizations are mostly static and do not provide analyses. In this article we combine analyzing techniques from literature and interactive visualizations to support stakeholders in EA decision-making.
The stimulation of user engagement has received significant attention in extant research. However, the theory of antecedents for user engagement with an initial electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) communication is relatively less developed. In an investigation of 576 unique user postings across independent Facebook (FB) communities for two German firms, we contribute to the extant knowledge on user engagement in two different ways. First, we explicate senders’ prior usage experience and the extent of their acquaintance with other community members as the two key drivers of user engagement across a product and a service community. Second, we reveal that these main effects differ according to the type of community. In service communities, experience has a stronger impact on user engagement; whereas, in product communities, acquaintance is more important.
In recent years, the rise of the digital transformation received significant importance in Business-to-Business (B2B) research. Social media applications provide executives with a raft of new options. Consequently, interfaces to social media platforms have also been integrated into B2B salesforce applications, although very little is as yet known about their usage and general impact on B2B sales performance. This paper evaluates 1) the conceptualization of social media usage in a dyadic B2B relationship; 2) the effects of a more differentiated usage construct on customer satisfaction; 3) antecedents of social media usage on multiple levels; and 4) the effectiveness of social media usage for different types of customers. The framework presented here is tested cross-industry against data collected from dyadic buyer seller relationships in the IT service industry. The results elucidate the preconditions and the impact of social media usage strategies in B2B sales relations.
Location-based services in buildings represent a great advantage for people to search places, products or people. In our paper we examine the feasibility of Bluetooth iBeacons for indoor localization. In the first part we define and evaluate the iBeacon technology through different experiments. In the second part our solution application is described. Our system is able to estimate the position of the user’s smartphone based on RSSI measurements. Therefore we used the built-in smartphone sensor and a building map with required sender information. Trilateration is used as positioning technique in contrast to fingerprinting to minimize beforehand effort. Results are promising but cannot reach the same accuracy level as sensor-fusion or fingerprinting approaches.
Enterprise Architecture (EA) management is an activity that seeks to foster the alignment of business and IT, and pursues various goals further operationalizing this alignment. Key to effective EA management is a framework that defines the roles, activities, and viewpoints used for EA management in accordance to the concerns that the stakeholders aim to address. Consensus holds that such frameworks are organization-specific and hence they are designed in governance activities for EA management. As of today, top-down approaches for governance are used to derive organization-specific frameworks. These usually lack systematic mechanisms for improving the framework based on the feedback of the responsible stakeholders. We outline a bottom-up approach for EA management governance that systematically observes the behavior of the actors to learn user concerns and recommend appropriate viewpoints. With this approach, we complement traditional top-down governance activities.
Decision-making in the field of Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a complex task. Many organizations establish a set of complex processes and hierarchical structures to enable strategy-driven development of their EA. This leads to slow and inefficient decision-making entailing bad time-to-market and discontented stakeholders. Collaborative EA delineates a lightweight approach to enable EA decisions but often neglects strategic alignment. In this paper, we present an approach to integrate the concept of collaborative EA and goal-driven decision-making through collaborative modeling of goal-oriented information demands based on ArchiMate’s motivation extension to reach a goal-oriented EA decision support in a collaborative EA environment.
The digital transformation of our society changes the way we live, work, learn, communicate, and collaborate. This disruptive change interacts with all information processes and systems that are important business enablers for the digital transformation since years. The Internet of Things, social collaboration systems for adaptive case management, mobility systems and services for Big Data in cloud services environments are emerging to support intelligent user-centered and social community systems. They will shape future trends of business innovation and the next wave of information and communication technology. Biological metaphors of living and adaptable ecosystems provide the logical foundation for self-optimizing and resilient run-time environments for intelligent business services and related distributed information systems with service-oriented enterprise architectures. The present research investigates mechanisms for flexible adaptation and evolution of digital enterprise architectures in the context of integrated synergistic disciplines like distributed service-oriented architectures and information systems, EAM - Enterprise Architecture and Management, metamodeling, semantic echnologies, web services, cloud computing and Big Data technology. Our aim is to support flexibility and agile transformations for both business domains and related enterprise systems through adaptation and evolution of digital enterprise architectures. The present research paper investigates digital transformations of business and IT and integrates fundamental mappings between adaptable digital enterprise architectures and service-oriented information systems.
Business processes are important knowledge resources of a company. The knowledge contained in business processes impart procedures used to create products and services. However, modelling and application of business processes are affected by problems connected to knowledge transfer. This paper presents and implements a layered model to improve the knowledge transfer. Thus modelling and understanding of business process models is supported. An evaluation of the approach is presented and results and other areas of application are discussed.
The character of knowledge-intense processes is that participants decide the next process activities on base of the present information and their expert knowledge. The decisions of these knowledge workers are in general non-deterministic. It is not possible to model these processes in advance and to automate them using a process engine of a BPM system. Hence, in this context a process instance is called a case, because there is no predefined model that could be instantiated. Domain-specific or general case management systems are used to support the knowledge workers. These systems provide all case information and enable users to define the next activities, but they have no or only limited activity recommendation capabilities. In the following paper, we present a general concept for a self-learning system based on process mining that suggests the next best activity on quantitative and qualitative data for a given case. As a proof of concept, it was applied to the area of insurance claims settlement.
In a world with rapidly changing customer requirements and the increased role of technology, companies need more flexible systems to adapt their processes and react dynamically to changes. Adaptive Case Management (ACM) comes into consideration by providing a concept to adapt to changing business conditions. Within our research project we did a first foundational evaluation of the potential of ACM in supporting unpredictable sales processes. Based on a set of criteria we tested the concept of ACM with the open source tool Cognoscenti. The evaluation gave us the possibility to experience the concept of ACM. Hence we were able to provide a statement about the potential of ACM within the context of an unpredictable sales process, setting the path to further research and discussion of ACM in the area of sales processes.
A sequence of transactions represents a complex and multi dimensional type of data. Feature construction can be used to reduce the data´s dimensionality to find behavioural patterns within such sequences. The patterns can be expressed using the blue prints of the constructed relevant features. These blue prints can then be used for real time classification on other sequences.
An operating room is a stressful work environment. Nevertheless, all involved persons have to work safely as there is no space for mistakes. To ensure a high level of concentration and seamless interaction, all involved persons have to know their own tasks and the tasks of their colleagues. The entire team must work synchronously at all times. To optimize the overall workflow, a task manager supporting the team was developed. In parallel, a common conceptual design of a business process visualization was developed, which makes all relevant information accessible in real-time during a surgery. In this context an overview of all processes in the operating room was created and different concepts for the graphical representation of these user-dependent processes were developed. This paper describes the concept of the task manager as well as the general concept in the field of surgery.
The proposed approach applies current unsupervised clustering approaches in a different dynamic manner. Instead of taking all the data as input and finding clusters among them, the given approach clusters Holter ECG data (longterm electrocardiography data from a holter monitor) on a given interval which enables a dynamic clustering approach (DCA). Therefore advanced clustering techniques based on the well known Dynamic TimeWarping algorithm are used. Having clusters e.g. on a daily basis, clusters can be compared by defining cluster shape properties. Doing this gives a measure for variation in unsupervised cluster shapes and may reveal unknown changes in healthiness. Embedding this approach into wearable devices offers advantages over the current techniques. On the one hand users get feedback if their ECG data characteristic changes unforeseeable over time which makes early detection possible. On the other hand cluster properties like biggest or smallest cluster may help a doctor in making diagnoses or observing several patients. Further, on found clusters known processing techniques like stress detection or arrhythmia classification may be applied.