Personalizing the learning process with Wihi

Societies are changing rapidly because of automation and digitalization, but local and global business environments are also becoming more volatile. Changing societies also place requirements on education: the number of atypical learners is growing all the time, and lifelong careers have been changed to lifelong learning. Traditional education approaches do not support part-time learners or lifelong learning; personalizing the learning process for every student separately is too laborious. In this paper, we study a flexible, personalized learning approach and an information system (Wihi) to support it. Wihi is a thesis management tool for students to plan and schedule their theses and for the thesis supervisor to centrally monitor the progress of different theses. In addition, it allows curriculum management to follow the whole thesis situation. Although Wihi was developed for a specific need, the personalized learning assumptions behind it are also applicable in other education cases.

A tool to model and simulate dynamic business models

Software tools hold great promise to support the modeling, analyzing, and innovation of business models. Current tools only focus on the design of business models and do not incorporate the complexity of existing interdependencies between business model components. These tools merely allow simulating inherent dynamics within the models or different strategic decision scenarios. In this research, we use design science research to develop a prototype that is capable of modeling and simulating dynamic business models. We use system dynamics as a simulation approach and containers to allow deployment as web applications. This paper represents the first of three design cycles, realizing six out of 59 requirements that are collected from the literature on software tools for business models. We contribute toward the design of novel artifacts for business model innovation as well as their evaluation. Future research can use these results to build tools that consider and address the complexity of business models. Lastly, we present several options for extending the proposed tool in the future.

It’s cool! analysis of factors that influence smart thermostat adoption intention

Smart thermostats represent an innovative smart home technology and a growing commercial opportunity, yet little is known about the salient factors that affect the adoption of such devices. To address this gap in research, we conduct a three-stage study that progresses through belief elicitation, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factory analysis within a nomological network. We leverage the mixed methods approach to explore the factorial structure of salient perceived benefits and concerns associated with smart thermostats, and we examine the effects of the emergent factors on the adoption intention. We discover that a novel factor, which we term techno-coolness, is the key predictor of the smart thermostat adoption intention. Techno-coolness encompasses the perceptions that a smart thermostat can make a home look modern and futuristic, be fun to use, and make the user feel technologically advanced. We also find that compatibility concerns as well as privacy concerns are significant impediments to the smart thermostat adoption intention.

Crowsourcing through Twitter for inovation

This research investigates the role and use of Twitter in business markets and benefits of using open social media channels to crowd source information to support innovation and build relationship in the context of business-to-business (B2B) marketing. This study is based on a combination of methodologies, 52 face-to-face interviews across five countries are compared with a sample of their Tweets using Structural Topic Modelling (STM) which enabled triangulation between stated use of Twitter and respondent’s actual Tweets. The research confirmed that individuals used Twitter as a source of information, ideas and innovation within their industry. Twitter enables the building of relevant business relationships through the exchange of new, expert and high quality information within like-minded communities in real time, between companies and their suppliers, customers and also their peers. This research highlights the business relationship building capacity of Twitter as it enables customer and peer conversations that eventually support the development of product and service innovations.

Digital strategic initiatives: conceptualization and illustration

This essay responds to calls for discerning so-called IT “x” and digital “x” phenomena. Research in this area promises to make an important contribution since the emergence of digital “x” labels runs the risk of diluting the core of IS literature. Our paper advances a preliminary definition of key constructs: digital strategic initiatives and digital resources, differentiating the latter from traditional conceptualizations of IT or IS resources. It also delineates two different approaches to the execution of digital strategic initiatives: a) orchestration of digital resources and b) creation of novel digital resources. We demonstrate the first one with a case illustration of home grocery delivery and the second with the case of a dark kitchen provider in the restaurant industry.

Disruptive Innovations in Electronic Transportation Management Systems

This paper provides an overview of selected disruptive innovations (Blockchain, Internet of Things and Big Data) in electronic transportation management systems in general, and their possible impact in maritime transport. The theoretical background is provided, including transportation, electronic transportation management systems and selected disruptive technologies. The impact, major challenges and success factors in implementing disruptive innovations in maritime transport are pointed out and elaborated. Finally, authors provide the discussion and the future perspective of selected disruptive innovations, with an emphasis on maritime transport.

Agile leadership - a comparison of agile leadership styles

Leadership has been the focus of research in the social sciences since the early 1930s. However, no generally valid theory exists to date. In recent years, theories relating to agile leadership have also increasingly emerged. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the current state of research on agile leadership. For this purpose, a systematic literature analysis is conducted. The different terms used in the context of agile leadership are restricted by means of selection criteria. Furthermore, characteristics of agile leadership will be analyzed and consolidated. This results in a catalogue of criteria with which the selected leadership styles. The evaluation shows that there are overlaps in the styles, which also can be identified in the research.

Regtech opportunities in the platform-based business sector

The notion of RegTech has emerged in recent years, but its application appears to have been mostly limited to the use of technology to assist with organisations' compliance with regulatory requirements. A model is presented that encompasses RegTech's full scope, embracing its capacity to address the needs not only of regulatees, but also of regulators and the intended beneficiaries of regulatory regimes. The model is then applied to the recently-popularised platform-based business model, whose mature form is evidenced by Uber and Airbnb. A range of opportunities is identified for practitioners and researchers to contribute to the application of information technologies in the regulatory space.

Conceptualizing the agile work organization: a systematic literature review, framework and research agenda

The ongoing discussion of the Agile Work Organization (AO) in research and practice permeates a multitude of research areas. However, no clear conceptualization of the AO has been provided. In this paper, we conduct a Systematic Literature Review to investigate what constitutes and defines the AO. The SLR reveals three dimensions in the research field of the AO: Strategic, Functional and Operative Agility. These dimensions define the AO through different unique capabilities by influencing and enhancing the overall goal of the AO in adaptation and flexibility. Building up on the insights from the review, we develop proposition which describe the interrelationship between the dimensions and towards the AO. Furthermore, implications for academia and practice as well as a research agenda are provided in order to trigger and guide further discussions and research surrounding the AO.

Exploring governance in a decentralized energy trading eco-system

Increasingly, large tech firms dominate eco-systems. From a societal perspective this is not always beneficial since these companies behave as value extractors; they charge an unreasonable high fee for their services and they can do so because they are monopolists. A possible solution to this substantial power concentration can be decentralized ecosystems, e.g., enabled by blockchain technology, in which decision power is distributed fairly. However, this comes also with the requirement that such eco-systems need a decentralized governance model. This paper explores if such a governance model can be represented by conceptual models, in particular, e3value. We answer this question by designing a decentralized eco-system in the field of electricity supply, which enables peer to peer energy trading, and checking if important governance decisions, motivated by a systematic literature review, can be represented.