The Impact of Digital Technologies on IT Sourcing Strategies in the German Automotive Industry

For decades, the German automotive industry has benefitted from a process of IT-enabled transformation with the ongoing deployment of state-of-the-art IT. Despite the high relevance of IT for innovation and process efficiency, the industry has outsourced up to 80% of the IT budget to external IT providers as IT has generally not been seen as a core competence. In recent years, the phenomenon of digital transformation has emerged, along with the consequent disruptive impacts associated with digital technology deployment. One area of significance in the corporate environment is the current and potential impact of digital transformation on future IT sourcing strategies. Through an analysis of existing literature and a series of in-depth interviews with industry experts, the chapter examines how and why the German automotive industry is reviewing IT sourcing strategies in response to the anticipated implications of digital transformation. A change in the ratio between outsourcing and insourcing has a significant impact on in-house employment and third-party business operations.

Digital Technology Deployment in Multi-National Enterprises

After the longest period of continuous growth in its history, the automotive industry is experiencing a most dramatic downturn. The challenge for automobile companies is not just to cope with the three converging trends of vehicle electrification, autonomous driving, and shared mobility, but also to make the best judgement on how and where to invest in a declining market. Digital is becoming the de facto way of operating along the value chain. Advanced automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and additive manufacturing will reshape traditional processes. This chapter reports upon the implementation of new digital technologies and related critical success factors in two multi-national industries, with major interests in the automotive sector. It takes an empirical approach, analysing use cases, projects, and input from experts. The findings assess the repercussions for IT strategy and changes in business processes impacted by the use of new technologies and illustrate how people skill requirements have evolved, both within the IT organisation and in other company departments.

Digital Technology Deployment in the German Automotive Industry

Mobility is a central element of the new networked world, and customers expect highly integrated features in their vehicles and want to be able to use services or features at any time in a highly integrated manner. As a result, the entire automotive industry is facing a major change process, both technological as well as in its own core business processes and functions. This chapter examines the impact of this transition on the conduct and sustainability of IT projects in the German automotive industry. Information distilled from in-depth interviews with industry practitioners reveals how project management methods, tools, and culture have to evolve, as value chains in the industry are re-evaluated and re-defined. The chapter puts forward a framework for the interaction of project management methods and digital technologies to achieve sustainable project processes and outcomes. It is hoped this may act as a building block for future research in this field to advance the transitioning of the industry and its inherent IT projects to a more sustainable future.

Policy Insights to Accelerate Cleaner Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Operations

The literature is replete with concerns on the environmental impact of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), but rigorous analysis of its improved environmental performance over the past 20 years remains unresolved, as well as the underlying technological reasons for this improvement. Here, we present an analysis of historical and future greenhouse gas (GHG) performance of SAGD operations in Alberta, Canada, considering for the first-time factors that affected technology deployment. Depending on the case, the results show a reduction of 1.4–24% of SAGD GHG intensity over the past 12 years. Improvements mainly arise from incremental changes adopted based on technical, environmental, socio-economic, and policy drivers. Considering these factors, we propose policy interventions to accelerate further reductions of GHG emissions. However, if similar behaviour from industry continues, anticipated GHG intensity reduction will range between 6.5–40% by 2030, leading to an intensity between 58 and 68 kgCO2e/bbl. It still remains unclear if in situ oil sands bitumen extraction will reach current conventional oil emission intensities. Thus, we suggest that the SAGD industry drastically accelerate its deployment of cleaner oil sands extraction technologies considering the policy insights proposed.

From the Lab to the Last Mile: Deploying Transgenic Approaches Against Mosquitoes

Ingenious exploitation of transgenic approaches to produce malaria resistant or sterile mosquitoes, or hypervirulent mosquito pathogens, has produced many potential solutions to vector borne diseases. However, in spite of technological feasibility, it has not been determined how well these new methods will work, and how they should be tested and regulated. Some self-limiting transgenic fungal pathogens and mosquitoes are almost field ready, and may be easier to regulate than self-sustaining strategies. However, they require repeat sales and so must show business viability; low-cost mass production is just one of a number of technical constraints that are sometimes treated as an afterthought in technology deployment. No transgenic self-sustaining approach to anopheline control has ever been deployed because of unresolved ethical, social and regulatory issues. These overlapping issues include: 1) the transparency challenge, which requires public discourse, particularly in Africa where releases are proposed, to determine what society is willing to risk given the potential benefits; 2) the transboundary challenge, self-sustaining mosquitoes or pathogens are potentially capable of crossing national boundaries and irreversibly altering ecosystems, and 3) the risk assessment challenge. The polarized debate as to whether these technologies will ever be used to save lives is ongoing; they will founder without a political answer as to how do we interpret the precautionary principle, as exemplified in the Cartagena protocol, in the global context of technological changes.

Governance Drivers and Barriers for Business Model Transformation in the Energy Sector

Smart second-generation policies for energy transition governance have been less studied and reviewed in the literature. They are also difficult to compare or measure in terms of their effectiveness with regard to the energy transition, not only because each country’s objectives and underlying drivers for an energy transition are different. Technological innovation and new technology deployment are only the tip of the iceberg. Understanding how to redesign energy governance to allow for business model reconfiguration among incumbents and how to stimulate business model innovation by start-ups and new entrants is key for an effective and sustainable energy transition in the long term. However, beyond this, countries must address the underlying driving forces such as consumption patterns and the financial system. Therefore, business model transformation is not the only solution, but it is an important one and it requires well-designed policies. It also requires the involvement of all stakeholders at all levels of the economic fabric of each region and country. At the same time, we continue to measure progress on energy transitions in a superficial and extremely limited way. Policies must now be smarter, not just more ambitious in terms of appearances, and the measurement of energy transition progress must evolve as well. We discuss the full story of an energy transition to the extent possible in a single chapter. For example, we will review business models in different sub-sectors, policies that either block or promote such changes in each sub-sector chosen, and the elements that are necessary for energy transitions to become successful and sustainable without long-term government intervention and financial support. Finally, we also provide insights from an expert workshop held in 2019 and we outline our upcoming work on an Energy Transition Preparedness Index.

Financial Statement Fraud: Challenges and Technology Deployment in Fraud Detection

Fraudulent financial reporting and other forms of earnings misstatement are catastrophic and pose a considerable threat to capital market stability. This study reviews the literature on existing technology-based methods of detecting financial statement fraud. The aim is to describe the challenges of predicting a rare fraud event and provide an understanding of the various data-mining based techniques for financial statement fraud detection. Given that fraudsters are becoming more adaptable and are constantly devising new ways to outwit the fraud detection system, the study provides directions for future research in detecting the evolutionary fraudulent financial reporting.

Green Industrial Policy in Comparative Perspective

The deployment of renewable energy (RE) is increasing around the world, driven in part by the global climate commitments that have been adopted by almost 200 countries under the Paris Agreement. It is therefore important to understand how countries are adopting national strategies to promote green growth through RE development and, in particular, the role of “green industrial policies.” Industrial policies include a variety of protectionist measures that encourage domestic manufacturing for RE and raise barriers to foreign entry into domestic markets, setting up an inherent tension between low-carbon development and international trade. This chapter reviews the policies and incentives commonly used to support RE deployment as well as the localization of RE manufacturing. It then turns to a review of the green industrial policy strategies of the Chinese wind sector and the Indian solar sector—two examples of using green industrial policy with different outcomes. While green industrial policy helps states justify the low-carbon transition, it also potentially makes that transition costlier and more inefficient. The chapter ends with recommendations for ongoing policy discussions including the need for continued engagement about how to best foster clean energy innovation, rapid technology deployment, and economic development with a shared vision that does not leave emerging and developing countries behind.

5G technology deployment in Latin America: An analysis of public policy and regulation environment

5G has become a reality in Latin America and it is expected to boost the digital revolution with key capabilities, including higher speeds and ultra-low latency, thus enabling innovative solutions and socioeconomic development. But its deployment faces many challenges related to, among other factors, spectrum allocation and infrastructure deployment. In this work we assess the current public policy and regulatory environment in Latin America regarding the adoption and deployment of 5G technology, considering mainly the above-mentioned challenges. From the analysis, it is possible to note that Latin American countries exhibit different levels of commitment and progress in 5G deployment since, for example, the spectrum allocation and assignment for 5G is still underway, and many regulations hamper instead to facilitate the implementation of 5G networks. On the other hand, the analysis confirms the necessity of having public policies and regulations which define flexible, efficient and transparent processes for all aspects related to 5G deployment.