Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (194)
- Conference Proceeding/Conference Report (125)
- Part of a Book (70)
- Lecture/Speech (54)
- Book (52)
- Bachelor Thesis (12)
- Doctoral Thesis (4)
- Master's Thesis (4)
- Working Paper (2)
- Editorship Editorial Board (1)
Language
- English (298)
- German (219)
- Multiple languages (1)
- Spanish (1)
Keywords
- Psychology (32)
- Coaching (15)
- Healthcare (11)
- Cloud Computing (10)
- Personalentwicklung (9)
- Personalmanagement (9)
- Physics (9)
- Digitalisierung (8)
- Gesundheitsökonomie (8)
- Psychologie (8)
We present a new approach for classifying MPEG-2 video sequences as dasiacartoonpsila, dasiacommercialpsila, dasiamusicpsila, dasianewspsila or dasiasportpsila by analyzing specific, high-level audio-visual features of consecutive frames in real-time. This is part of the well-known video-genre-classification problem, where popular TV-broadcast genres are studied. Such applications have also been discussed in the context of MPEG-7 [1]. In our method the extracted features are logically combined using a set of classifiers to produce a reliable recognition. The results demonstrate a high identification rate based on a large representative collection of 100 video sequences (20 sequences per genre) gathered from free digital TV-broadcasting in Europe.
In this paper we describe in detail the recent publications related to video-genre-classification and present our improved new approaches for classifying video sequences in real-time as 'cartoon', 'commercial', 'music', 'news' or 'sport' by analyzing the content with new high-level audio-visual descriptors and classification methods. Such applications have also been discussed in the context of MPEG-7. The results demonstrate identification rates of more than 90% based on a large representative collection of 100 videos gathered from free digital TV and Internet.
Wo genau liegt der technische Unterschied zwischen Fernsehern mit HD-ready und Full-HD? Welche Übertragungswege und Empfangsmöglichkeiten gibt es, und welche Zusatzgeräte brauchen die Verbraucher, um die verbesserte Bildqualität ihrer hochauflösenden TV-Geräte voll nutzen zu können? Und ist es wichtig, ob sich das Fernsehbild „progressiv“ oder „interlaced“ aufbaut? Antworten auf diese und weitere Fragen gibt die neue Publikation „HD-TV – Technologische Einblicke in das hochauflösende Fernsehen der Zukunft“.
Dr. Ronald Glasberg (Technische Universität Berlin) hat im Auftrag des BITKOM einen Leitfaden zu grundlegenden, technologischen Einblicken in das hochauflösende Fernsehen der Zukunft erstellt. Die Publikation weist die optionalen Übertragungswege via Terrestrik, Kabel, Satellit, Mobilfunk oder Internet auf. Vor allem die digitalen Übertragungswege ermöglichen dem Konsumenten viele Annehmlichkeiten wie zeitversetztes Fernsehen, Video-on-Demand, das Auffinden von Schlüsselbegriffen im laufenden Programm sowie zukünftig mehr Interaktivität.
It is often claimed that work opportunities decline with age, that hiring chances of older persons are poor. We investigate this by collecting questionnaire responses from personnel managers of German manufacturing firms, eliciting a hypothetical hiring decision based on three fictitious candidates. We rely on an age-neutral job and a small age-gap of 14 years between the youngest and the oldest candidate. The quasi-experimental design of the questionnaire allows us to control for possible productivity differences and other economic explanations for declining hiring chances. The data show a 60 percentage point difference in hiring probabilities between the youngest and oldest candidate.
Using a questionnaire and a sample of students and personnel managers we establish the existence of age discrimination in the hiring process in Germany and Norway. As expected, age discrimination is more prominent in Germany where the hiring probability of equally qualified applicants is reduced by about 22 percentage points due to an age differential of 14 years as opposed to only 12 percentage points in Norway. Within both countries the tendency to discriminate does not differ between students and personnel managers and does not depend on the age of the decision maker.
Teams with strong faultlines often do not achieve their full potential because their functioning is impaired. We argue that strong diversity beliefs held by team leaders mitigate the negative impact of socio-demographic and experience-based faultlines on team functioning. In a heterogeneous multisource field sample of 217 employees nested in 44 teams and their leaders, we tested our assumptions. Results of a path-analytic model showed that socio-demographic faultlines were negatively related to perceived cohesion and positively related to perceived loafing. The impact of sociodemographic faultlines on team functioning was less detrimental when leaders held strong diversity beliefs. Against our expectations, we found no support for an impact of experience-based faultlines on perceived cohesion or a moderating role of leaders’ diversity beliefs in this context. Potential explanations for these results and implications for organizations and team leaders are discussed.
The skill shortage is becoming an ever-increasing challenge for IT departments. Allocation of resources in the best possible way is even more important. The challenge is to improve the enterprise not only on the side of the organizational and process level, but to develop new strategies and approaches in human resource management. Only a symbiosis of the disciplines economics, psychology and information technology will enable relevant and indispensable employees and promote loyalty to the company. A frequent change of the work place, for a well-trained professional, is so long associated with normality until they find the best environment for fulfilling their needs and expectations. These expectations are no longer just on a financial level. This paper will analyse the previous work on these topics and demonstrate first conclusions regarding a way forward.
This essay develops an entrepreneur-oriented theory of risk-taking and innovation that is used to examine the different leadership styles of family business owners. This theory is based on the works of Schumpeter, who mainly focussed on the potential of supply in the competition for innovation, and the works of Hayek, who emphasized the importance of demand in this competition. By combining these two theories, a comprehensive understanding of economic innovation processes is presented. In the subsequent empirical section of the essay, these theoretical ideals of supply-oriented and demand-oriented innovators will be examined for what they look like in practice. Data from India and Japan is analysed in this explorative empirical research to examine the influence of cultural, social and legal norms on entrepreneurial risk-taking and innovation behaviour. The perspectives on “foreign cultures” expand our understanding of management in a way that encourages innovation- friendly entrepreneurship.
Das Studium der Rechtswissenschaften ist als eigenständiger Bestandteil in den meisten deutschen Studiengängen der Wirtschaftswissenschaft fest verankert. Der Aufsatz hat zum Ziel, die Inhalte und Lehrmethoden kritisch zu prüfen, die mehrheitlich in den juristischen Pflichtveranstaltungen im Wirtschaftsstudium verwendet werden. Sowohl Inhalte als auch Methoden der Lehre werden in der Regel aus der Ausbildung der Volljurist/innen übernommen. Ob aber Verfahren der Lehre, die für die Ausbildung von Jurist/innen entwickelt worden sind, uneingeschränkt auch für Wirtschaftswissenschaftler/innen geeignet sind, wurde im deutschsprachigen Raum bisher kaum diskutiert. Im Weiteren wird gezeigt, zu welchen Problemen die unreflektierte Übernahme von Lehrinhalten und Lehrmethoden ohne zielgruppengerechte Anpassung führt. Auf dieser Basis wird ein Vorschlag für die praxisorientierte Lehre rechtswissenschaftlicher Inhalte entwickelt. Es gilt, die in den Rechtswissenschaften bewährten Konzepte der Lehre den Bedürfnissen der Wirtschaftswissenschaftler/innen anzupassen und weiterzuentwickeln. Danach werden der rechtliche Lebenszyklus eines Unternehmens und Management-Fallstudien zu rechtlichen Problemen als didaktische Modelle vorgestellt und praktische Fragen der Lehre diskutiert. Ziel ist es, die Studierenden für die rechtlichen Probleme zu sensibilisieren, die in der betrieblichen Praxis von Bedeutung sind, und ihnen Kompetenzen zu vermitteln, mit deren Hilfe sie die in ihrem späteren beruflichen Alltag auftretenden Probleme erfolgreich bewältigen können.
The aim of this study is to carry out an economic analysis of the consequences that arose following the decriminalization of the issuance of bad checks in Turkey. In our statistical analysis we examined the legal situation of bouncing checks in three periods: before 2009 when the issuance of bad checks was subject to imprisonment, between 2009-2012 when a partial decriminalization took place and between 2012-2014 when the issuance of bouncing checks was fully decriminalized and penalties were reduced to only administrative fines. We test the hypotheses that partial or full decriminalization led to a rise in the number of bad checks in Turkey. We find that there is no statistical evidence for an association between the first, modest step of the decriminalization process (Law No. 5941) and the frequency with which checks bounced in Turkey. However, full decriminalization of bouncing checks (Law No. 6273) led to an increase in the frequency of bad checks. We also find that the establishment of a Risk Center by the Bank Association of Turkey helped to identify customers not worthy of credit and was successful in decreasing the frequency of bad checks. We conclude that in the case of Turkish check law imprisonment was more effective in deterring writers of bad checks than the administrative and civil sanctions that are now in place. Nonetheless, private credit screening efforts also promoted the targeted policy goal of limiting the number of bad checks in Turkey.
Sensory Marketing
(2014)
Nonprofit-Marketing
(2014)
Reputationsmarketing
(2014)
Gamification
(2014)
Keine Angabe
No details
Organisations, Individuals as Employees, Individuals as Consumers and the Relationships Between Them
(2014)
Organisations of all shapes and sizes face a significant number of challenges that they must meet if they are to thrive in today’s globally hypercompetitive environment. Our aim is to help them deal with some of the most critical. An organisation is a collection of individuals working together in a structured way to achieve certain goals, and this understanding is central to our research interests. We aim to provide insights on current and emergent issues related to the three interconnected themes we focus on:
● the relationship between the individual as an employee and the organisation
● the relationship between the individual as a consumer and the organisation
● the relationship between the individual and the digitalised world.
The recommendations that flow from our research all have in common that they are corporately socially responsible. Our framework is based on CSR, sustainability and an ethical approach.
Reputationsmanagement
(2015)
Anabel Ternès und Christopher Runge zeigen am Beispiel Medical Care, dass es sich auszahlt, in eine hohe Reputation zu investieren. Unternehmen mit einem guten Ansehen können höhere Preise verlangen, Kunden gewinnen und binden, die besten Mitarbeiter für sich gewinnen und insbesondere in Krisenzeiten von ihrer Reputation als immateriellem Wert als Wettbewerbsvorteil zehren. Voraussetzung hierfür ist ein systematisches, professionell begleitetes Reputationsmanagement, das gewährleistet, in Zukunft zu agieren statt nur zu reagieren. Gutes Reputationsmanagement erfordert einzelne, aufeinander abgestimmte Schritte, die sich gegenseitig perfekt ergänzen – zum Aufbau, zum Erhalt und zur Verbesserung einer positiven Unternehmensreputation.
Die Digitalisierung, Globalisierung und der demographische Wandel verstärken bestehende Diskrepanzen zwischen dem Vertrieb und anderen Unternehmensbereichen. Eine marktgerechte und wertorientierte Ausrichtung des Vertriebs kann hier unterstützen. Zielführend ist allerdings ein konsequentes Schnittstellenmanagement, das die enormen Informationsmengen und -geschwindigkeiten beherrscht.
Anabel Ternès, Ian Towers und Marc Jerusel gehen der Frage nach, welche neuen Konsummuster sich aufbauend auf den Begriffen Individualisierung und Nachhaltigkeit herausbilden könnten. Denn der Trend nach nachhaltigen und individualisierten Produkten ist bereits seit mehreren Jahren spürbar, gilt jedoch weiterhin als Trend für den Privatkonsum der kommenden Jahre. Im Bereich Individualisierung erläutern die AutorInnen dafür zum Beispiel das Produktionsprinzip der Mass Customization. Nachhaltig Denkende versuchen dagegen, bewusste Konsumentscheidungen zu treffen.
Metamorphose für Verkäufer
(2015)
Für einen nachhaltigen Erfolg im Vertrieb sind neue Qualitäten notwendig: weniger Rhetorik — mehr Empathie, weniger Produktpräsentation — mehr Entwicklung von individuellen Lösungen, weniger Verkäufer — mehr Berater. Denn der Kunde von heute ist anspruchsvoller als früher, er ist gut informiert und nimmt sein Recht auf umfassenden Service wahr.
Anabel Ternès, Ian Towers und Marc Jerusel widmen sich der Frage, welche Konsummuster den Privatkonsum im Deutschland der kommenden zehn Jahren verändern werden. Dabei wird auf bereits absehbare Konsumtrends wie zum Beispiel E- und M-Commerce sowie Connected Retail Bezug genommen. Im Vordergrund stehen die Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf den stationären Handel und die Konsumenten. Die AutorInnen stellen u.a. dar, dass eine der zentralen Herausforderungen darin liegen wird, sich der Digitalisierung proaktiv zu stellen, um das Konsumerlebnis der Verbraucher zu verbessern. Doch auch die Grenzen des Onlinehandels werden aufgezeigt.
Interactions among people have substantially changed since the emergence of social networks, the expansion of the Internet and the proliferation of connected mobile devices, and so have the possibilities of collaborative learning, with the inclusion of new e-learning platforms. From this point, assessing human knowledge in these virtual environments is not a trivial task. This work presents a novel cloud-computing-based service which relies on advanced artificial intelligence mechanisms to infer knowledge and interest from users considering the aggregated data presented from/to these users in different social networks. This way it is possible to assess with a certain degree of confidence the user knowledge level in different topics as well as recommend additional specific education related to his/her former studies in order to get a better/desired job.
Begleitet das Fach „Betriebliches Umweltmanagement“ in Baden-Württemberg. Das Profil Wirtschaft wird durch Fragestellungen der Ökologie ergänzt und der Leitgedanke des nachhaltigen Wirtschaftens von Unternehmen in die ökonomischen Entscheidungen miteinbezogen. Die theoretischen Grundlagen des betrieblichen Umweltmanagements, sowie die Anwendung volks- und betriebswirtschaftlicher Verfahren auf betriebliche Umweltprobleme werden anhand von praktischen Beispielen erklärt. Ziel des Faches, wäre die Entwicklung einer Umwelthandlungskompetenz der Schüler.
The reporting of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in hotels plays a crucial role in the assessment of their sustainability activities. Research shows, that if the CSR commitment of hotels is interpreted by guests as a real public interest, CSR has a positive impact on brand evaluation as well as on guest satisfaction. However, the sustainability efforts of hotels are often perceived as pure self-interest and the charge of greenwashing is in the air. Thus, standards in CSR reporting are urgently required. In hospitality so far, neither guidelines for CSR reporting nor third party monitoring organizations exist so far. This paper presents a six-step framework encouraging bilateral sustainability communication in the hotel industry. The common method to proclaim sustainability via reports or websites is typically one-directional from the hotel to the guest (typically referred to as signalling approach). In the long run, this is not enough. Thus, the other direction (typically referred to as screening approach), should particularly be considered as well. Screening is achieved through the use of user generated content (UGC) and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) via evaluation platforms, which nowadays enjoy wide acceptance by guests.
In the presented framework, CSR reporting and CSR rating are outsourced to the guest and the corresponding crowd. This procedure includes several advantages for hotels. First, the efforts and costs of CSR reporting are reduced. Second, the general public is used as a third-party control mechanism for the CSR reporting (typically referred to as monitoring approach). Finally, following this monitoring aspect, the perceived credibility of the CSR reporting in turn will be higher.
Since the credibility and reputation of eWOM largely depend on the number of existing reviews, it is important to generate sustainability-oriented eWOM and to utilize guests for CSR reporting issues. Therefore, based on the well-known phases of service marketing, a five-step-approach is integrated in the framework.
This paper aims to present a solution that enables organizations to monitor and analyse the performance of their business processes by means of Big Data technology. Business process improvement can drastically influence in the profit of corporations and helps them to remain viable. However, the use of traditional Business Intelligence systems is not sufficient to meet today's business needs. They normally are business domain-specific and have not been sufficiently process-aware to support the needs of process improvement-type activities, especially on large and complex supply chains, where it entails integrating, monitoring and analysing a vast amount of dispersed event logs, with no structure, and produced on a variety of heterogeneous environments. This paper tackles this variability by devising different Big Data based approaches that aim to gain visibility into process performance.
Personalplanung
(2015)
Taking a social relations approach to team diversity, we propose that faultlines—hypothetical dividing lines that split a team into relatively homogeneous subgroups—impact the team members’ propensity to exhibit social loafing behaviour. We further propose that this individual-level reaction to the faultline structure of the team can differ among team members, depending on the size of their subgroup and on their individual social competence. We tested the assumptions with a sample of real teams working on an intellective task during which social loafing behaviour was video-coded. In partial support of the hypotheses, generalized mixed models revealed that social loafing behaviour was most common for team members who were part of a team with strong faultlines, who belonged to the larger subgroup in their team, and who exhibited low levels of social competence. The results therefore highlight the benefits of taking a multilevel approach to the effects of faultlines.
Put-down humor always has a target, and the intent of the speaker is to make fun of someone or something. Due to its inherently social nature, put-down humor could strongly affect socio-emotional group processes and outcomes like cohesion. We hypothesized that put-down humor would increase cohesion when it was targeted at outgroup members and was followed by laughter. Two laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the underlying processes of the put-down humor – cohesion relation. Study 1 showed that put-down humor of outgroup members (as compared to no humor) did not increase participants’ attraction to the group. But it increased perceived cohesion among other group members and the perception that other group members felt safer and were more similar to each other. Even when procedures were altered in Study 2 to reduce participants’ evaluation apprehension and their potential anxiety about not themselves being humorous, we found the same pattern of results. We discuss which conditions might be necessary for put-down humor to increase one’s personal attraction to a group.
In German hospitals there is a need for optimized crisis- and risk management. About one third of all hospital-acquired patient damages are due to medication errors. The aim of our interdisciplinary project “Risk Management in Hospitals” is to analyze the behavior of the various key players in the fields of medical care, human resources, supply and IT-systems in the context of various simulated risk scenarios as well as to develop adequate risk management tools. In this abstract, the first Results on medication errors are presented.
The concept of contract management focuses on the contract and its optimal implementation. Thus, it tends to encounter limits when attempting to achieve objectives lying beyond the contract. In contrast, the concept of contractual management presented here is based on the possible contributions of the contract to the management of the enterprise, business unit, and transaction. It considers the processes relevant in this field which are bundled by risk management, transaction management, and knowledge management. Insofar as it integrates these activities and aligns them towards the contract, it increases the potential impact of the contract. From the governance perspective, contractual management leads to higher efficiency; from a legal perspective, it provides for a better compliance with the requirements for good corporate management and with contractual obligations as well as it increases the quality of the contract.
Der demografische Wandel, die Veränderungen in der Bevölkerungsstruktur eines Landes, zeigen sich besonders deutlich im Gesundheitswesen, sowohl auf der Seite der Pflegebedürftigen als auch auf der Seite der Pflegenden. Der Fokus hier liegt auf den Auswirkungen im Pflegebereich und den Strategien der Bunderegierung, diesen gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen zu begegnen.
Germany, relying on a pay-as-you-go pension system has increased regular retirement age to 67 due to its ageing population caused by decreasing birth rates and increasing life expectancy. Using data from the nationally representative ‘Survey on continuing in employment in pensionable age’, we investigate the relevance of training motivation for work ability and the desire to work past retirement age and whether differences between social groups reflect inequalities in training participation. Results show significant positive correlations between continuing training motivation and work ability and desire to work past retirement age. Differentiated for selected respondent groups the level of qualification has a significant influence. This effect was stronger than any differences with regard to gender or employment participation. Results imply external conditions only partly explain older workers’ work ability or desire to work past retirement age. Compared to inequalities in training participation, motivation for continuing training is high across analysed subgroups.
Decreasing birth rates and increasing life expectancy have led to the ageing of the German population during the past decades. As the German retirement pay system is a pay-as-you-go system, legal retirement age is increased step by step to 67 years. Long before individuals actually retire, environmental factors but also personal factors influence the path of the retirement process. Work ability can be maintained through continuing education. Understanding and possibly even increasing older employees’ motivation to participate in continuing education is vital to achieving the European Union’s aim of individuals’ “lifelong learning” to cope with challenges of technological and organisational change. This empirical study analyses the influence of work context factors on motivation to participate in continuing education. Data source is the “Survey on continuing in employment after reaching pensionable age”, commissioned in 2008 by the Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung (Federal Institute for Population Research). Results show weak but significant influences of some work context factors. Recommendations for actions and further research directions are given.
There exists only scarce knowledge regarding what negative effects can occur to business coaches as a result of their work. Negative effects, defined as all harmful or unwanted results for coaches directly caused by coaching that occur parallel to or following coaching, are theoretically inferred in this study. Additionally, negative effects are quantitatively explored and validated.
Negative effects of coaching for coaches were identified via structured expert interviews. Based on the results of the interviews a new questionnaire was developed. Coaches were then surveyed online using this questionnaire. A sample of supervisors was also surveyed and compared to the coaches regarding important work-related variables.
104 German coaches were quantitively surveyed using a new questionnaire regarding the frequency and intensity of negative effects in their most recent coaching and in their career. To validate the new questionnaire and the results, relevant cognitions towards their work (psychological empowerment) and the affective well-being of the coaches were also measured.
In more than 90 per cent of all recent coaching at least one negative effect was present. On average 5.9 negative effects occurred per coaching. During their careers 99 per cent of the coaches were confronted at least once with a negative effect. Negative effects are associated with the psychological empowerment and affective well-being of coaches, which speaks for the validity of the new questionnaire and subsequent results.
Negative effects for coaches as a result of their work occur very often and in a heterogeneous way but these effects are of rather low intensity. The validity of these effects could be shown.
Dass Coaching „Nebenwirkungen“ haben kann, dürfte im Grunde bekannt sein (siehe Coaching-Magazin 3/2014). Doch welche negativen Effekte Coaching grundsätzlich haben kann und wo deren Ursachen zu finden sind, ist eine Frage, der sich die Forschung langsam annimmt. Erste Antworten hierauf liefert hier ein Forschungsprojekt der SRH Hochschule Berlin. Besonders interessant ist dabei, dass nicht nur Klienten, sondern auch Coaches selbst von negativen Effekten des Coachings betroffen sein können. Ein Ergebnis vorab: Schwerwiegende negative Effekte treten nur selten auf.
The complexity of providing medical care in a high-tech environment with a highly specialized, limited labour force makes hospitals more crisis-prone than other industries. An effective defence against crises is only possible if the organizational resilience and the capacity to handle crises become part of the hospitals’ organizational culture. To become more resilient to crises, a raised awareness — especially in the area of human resource (HR) — is necessary. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the process robustness against crises through the identification and evaluation of relevant HR crises and their causations in hospitals.
Qualitative and quantitative methods were combined to identify and evaluate crises in hospitals in the HR sector. A structured workshop with experts was conducted to identify HR crises and their descriptions, as well as causes and consequences for patients and hospitals. To evaluate the findings, an online survey was carried out to rate the occurrence (past, future) and dangerousness of each crisis.
Six HR crises were identified in this study: staff shortages, acute loss of personnel following a pandemic, damage to reputation, insufficient communication during restructuring, bullying, and misuse of drugs. The highest occurrence probability in the future was seen in staff shortages, followed by acute loss of personnel following a pandemic. Staff shortages, damage to reputation, and acute loss of personnel following a pandemic were seen as the most dangerous crises.
The study concludes that coping with HR crises in hospitals is existential for hospitals and requires increased awareness. The six HR crises identified occurred regularly in German hospitals in the past, and their occurrence probability for the future was rated as high.
The present paper introduces a hybrid technique to measure the expertise of users by analyzing their profiles and activities in social networks. Currently, both job seekers and talent hunters are looking for new and innovative techniques to filter jobs and candidates where candidates are trying to improve and make their profiles more attractive. In this sense, the Skillrank approach is based on the conjunction of existing and well-known information and expertise retrieval techniques that perfectly fit the existing web and social media environment to deliver an intelligent component to integrate the user context in the analysis of skills confidence. A major outcome of this approach is that it actually takes advantage of existing data and information available on the web to perform both a ranked list of experts in a field and a confidence value for every professional skill. Thus, expertise and experts can be detected, verified, and ranked using a suited trust metric. An experiment to validate the Skillrank technique based on precision and recall metrics is also presented using two different datasets: (1) ad hoc created using real data from a professional social network and (2) real data extracted from the LinkedIn API.
Interactions among people have substantially changed since the emergence of social networks, the expansion of the Internet and the proliferation of connected mobile devices, and so have the possibilities of collaborative learning, with the inclusion of new e-learning platforms. From this point, assessing human knowledge in these virtual environments is not a trivial task. This work presents a novel cloud-computing-based service which relies on advanced artificial intelligence mechanisms to infer knowledge and interest from users considering the aggregated data presented from/to these users in different social networks. This way it is possible to assess with a certain degree of confidence the user knowledge level in different topics as well as recommend additional specific education related to his/her former studies in order to get a better/desired job.
In this article we argue that smart items and cloud computing can be powerful enablers of servitization as business trend. This is exemplified by an application scenario in healthcare that was developed in the context of the OpSIT-Project in Germany. We present a three-level architecture for a smart healthcare infrastructure. The approach is based on a service-oriented architecture and extends established architectural approaches developed previously at our group. More specifically, it integrates a role model, a layered cloud computing architecture, as well as a fog-computing-informed paradigm in order to provide a viable architecture for healthcare and elderly-care applications. The integration of established paradigms is beneficial with respect to providing adequate quality of service and governance (e.g., data privacy and compliance). It has been verified by expert interviews with healthcare specialists and IT professionals. To further demonstrate the validity of this architectural model, we provide an example use-case as a template for any kind of smart sensor-based healthcare infrastructure.
Mobile technologies and more precisely apps have disrupted technology scenario. Bring your own application (BYOA) is a new trend that has emerged after the “bring your own device” (BYOD) vogue. However, and in spite of its intrinsic benefits, the trend presents also several caveats and Enterprise app stores are seen as a way to tackle these risks. In this paper, authors present ModEAS, a system designed to serve as a modular and scalable architecture when developing a middle scale or personal Enterprise app store.
Information overload is becoming bigger as internet grows. This entails several problems such as difficulty in finding information and redundancy of knowledge. In this paper, a solution of these problems is presented as a global representation of knowledge based on human perception, and modelled by means of ontologies. In this study we present the approach with several advantages as well as some drawbacks related to state of the art technologies.
Abstract: ASP (Application Server Provider) marketplaces
provide a fundamental alternative to the classical business model
of software licensing. At this point, it is still unclear why and
when customers prefer the ASP model over more traditional
approaches. To make ASP more attractive, more knowledge
about possible pricing and product strategies is needed. In this
paper we describe different business models for ASP
marketplaces. We first compare the cost structures of the
classical licensing model with the new server-based approach.
Then we illustrate how price and product differentiation may
improve overall market efficiency. In particular, we show that
by selling different software versions for different prices, ASP
marketplaces may obtain near-optimal revenues with products
that are relatively inexpensive, disaggregated, and customizable.
Consumers can thus choose between a wide variety of product
lines to fit their differing budgets and requirements.
The web service model provides fundamental advantages compared to the classical software usage model. But transactions in the web service market have by far not reached the expected level. A reason for the tendency of market failure is the verifiable information asymmetry and uncertainty in the web service market. Besides deficiencies on the supply side, regarding configuration, display and communication of web service bundles, the limited web service knowledge of potential buyers are constitutional causes to the modest development and enforcement of the web service model. By the help of strategies derived from information economics the present study elaborates measures to take in order to prevent the market for web based services from failing. The conclusions of an online-based questioning experiment offer strategic recommendations to reduce buyer’s uncertainty in outsourcing decision. Results of the experiment point out the significant positive impact to reduce information asymmetry and transaction uncertainty in the web service market by integrating information substitutes in the web service bundle in order to transform experience and credence qualities into search qualities. It can be verified that web service customers have a higher willingness to pay when information substitutes are
integrated into the web service bundle.
Use of cloud computing in healthcare is a promising trend, particularly in utilization of smart items. Access, affordability and quality to proper healthcare is a great challenge in world society. With the utilization of smart sensors, there are possibilities to improve the quality of healthcare services whenever needed. Hence, such smart items services lead to economic advantages for the whole healthcare system. Keeping in mind these opportunities as well as challenges such as security or legal issues, it is important to bring healthcare and IT together. As a result, healthcare business processes need to be modeled in order to provide IT solutions tailored for practice-oriented applications. In this paper, we present a three-level architecture for a smart healthcare infrastructure. Our approach is based on recent literature work and results from conducted expert interviews with healthcare specialists and IT professionals. To demonstrate the applicability of this architecture model, we provide an example use-case as a template for any kind of smart sensor-based healthcare infrastructure.
Objectives/rationale: Healthcare systems all over the world are facing difficult challenges that have a direct impact and influence the delivery of healthcare services. As a response healthcare institutions are relying in the implementation of Information and communication technologies (ICTs) to overcome difficulties and satisfy patients’ demands in a cost-effective way adopting new technologies capable to innovate, extend, and redefine the way healthcare has been delivered for decades. New technological innovations such as Internet of things (IoT), Smart item technology, and cloud computing can improve the traditional e-healthcare system and extend service provision beyond the hospital facilities by using wireless sensor networks (WSN) and radio frequency identification devices (RFID), providing a new type of services advertised as “smart.” This type of services, enable doctors to treat patients remotely and allows people to do their normal daily routines, occupations, and activities while receiving appropriate, timely, and high-quality ubiquitous healthcare services.
Methods: An exploratory study is performed to review the route towards smart healthcare services, emphasizing the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and smart item technology as enhancers for smart healthcare services provision.
Results/findings: A new technological infrastructure promises to transform medical practice and disease prevention by empowering healthcare institutions with smart items for remote patient monitoring eliminating time-wasting procedures, reducing health costs, improving quality of service and patients satisfaction.
Implications/conclusions: Traditional e-healthcare system is transitioning into an interconnected smart-healthcare system potentiated by new technological advances capable to extend healthcare service provision and offer smart healthcare services.
We discussed the realisation of corporate social responsibility and responsible living in general with employers and employees in different companies and organisations. We found out, that most of the participants think, that they know too little about the corporate social responsibility activities of their company, evaluate the atmosphere as not really good and don’t see their own responsibility. Also they mentioned, that the employees mostly talk with each other about emotions and stories, less about facts and information. In the discussion all agreed, that it would be much more effective, if information about social responsibility is delivered by stories—by storytelling.
We prove this by a questionnaire, where we give the participants the same information about employees social and corporate social activities in a short news with numbers and also in the form of storytelling. We ask them, which text they would tell their friends, neighbours or colleagues and which text would attract them at most to motivate themselves for acting more responsible. We also ask the employees how they think this could be realised.
With the result we can show, how you can sensitize and activate people for bringing more attention, awareness and activity to a more responsible living inside and outside companies.
A high number of airlines has been switching its business concept from fixed prices for economy or business class to a system of bundles, where customers can choose among a different set of services and book flights to different prices, depending on their individual preferences. This paper aims at finding out which services are those consumers regard as most important and what therefore makes an airline a sustainable choice in terms of service. For that purpose a survey has been conducted for approx. one week, where participants have answered a set of questions online and offline. In the second chapter, the authors will explain certain ground assumptions of online consumers, stressing the importance of user-friendly websites as well as the cost of the most popular extra services offered by regular airlines and also low-cost carriers. Keeping this in mind, the survey’s results will be presented in chapter four. 105 participants gave
their opinion on what makes an airline’s service sustainable to them, the result being a mixture of good cabin crew soft skills, a minimum degree of comfort and efficiency throughout the whole time of purchasing a flight, being on board and leaving the aircraft. A user-friendly booking procedure as well as being able of leaving the airplane fast and receiving its luggage
without further waiting has - according to the survey - won over seats in the front row, high-quality menus and entertainment programs. Even the sustainability aspect having been regarded as a factor of high-quality services, is not a major criterion for travelers. What in most cases makes an airline sustainable for passengers is friendly personnel. The bundle systems are preferred, since the cabin crew aspect has not vanished completely in the airline sector, even among low budget airlines. To receive transparency and flexibility when booking a flight, saving money but knowing that a certain quality will almost always be delivered through soft skills on board could be the reason why passengers feel more comfortable with the new business concepts.
Die Umsetzung von IT-Service-Support-Prozessen auf der Basis des Referenzmodells IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) geschieht in vielen Unternehmen derzeit mit hoher Priorität. Obwohl zur Unterstützung der Support-Prozesse eine Vielzahl von Softwarelösungen zur Verfügung stehen, basieren diese heute nicht auf Service-orientierten-Architekturen. Die Vorteile einer Service-orientierten-Architektur werden daher im Rahmen des IT-Service-Supports nicht genutzt. Der Beitrag zeigt am Beispiel eines zentralen ITIL-Support-Prozesses, dem Incident-Management, wie dieser technisch auf der Basis von Web-Services umgesetzt werden kann. Die Grundlage bilden sechs Fallstudien, in denen die Gestaltung ITIL-basierter Support-Prozesse untersucht wurde. Aufbauend auf den Fallstudien wird ein generischer Incident-Management-Prozess definiert und mit Hilfe von Web-Services umgesetzt. Dabei kommen sowohl atomare als auch aggregierte Web-Services zum Einsatz. Für ein konkretes Service-Anliegen wird der Prozessablauf grafisch beschrieben. Die Umsetzung erfolgt exemplarisch unter Zuhilfenahme der Web Services Description Language (WSDL).
Due to an enhanced customer focus in the planning, development and delivery of IT services, service-oriented IT management has become increasingly important. This paper investigates to what effect service-oriented IT management has already been put into place in European companies. Benefit and cost categories of integrating service-oriented principles into IT management processes are analyzed. Additionally success factors for implementing serviceoriented IT management are investigated. For this purpose, six case studies were conducted. The situation of IT management before and after implementation was analyzed and comments are made on the corresponding transformation projects. Based on the case studies, this paper shows three typical benefit categories of service-oriented IT management. Eight cost categories for implementing and operating service-oriented IT management processes are discussed and six success factors of pertinent re-organization projects are identified. Findings can serve as guidelines for other IT organizations and can be used as enabler for getting informed decisions regarding the initiation of service-oriented IT management. Finally, the article highlights four current trends for service-oriented IT management and further research is outlined.
Web Services appear promising to facilitate interoperability and enable Dynamic Value Webs - the on-demand aggregation of services even across enterprise boundaries. However, past experiences have shown interoperability limitations in practice mainly due to information asymmetries on the Web Services markets. This Paper describes a service-oriented architecture for building Dynamic Value Webs in mobile environments using adaptive Location-Based Services. Our concept addresses the following three predominant difficulties: (1) service adaptivity to changing conditions in mobile environments, (2) interoperability including higher levels of semantics, and (3) assuring trustworthiness to all affected parties.
The application of wireless technologies in urban areas is at the beginning of a transformation. While municipalities worldwide have invested in deploying wireless access infrastructures, the services which build up on these and add value for individuals and organizations are still at their early stage. Especially for European municipalities there is still a looming potential. This paper explores the current status of municipal wireless adoption in Europe based on the analysis of 25 initiatives in European metropolitan areas and derives a setup approach for wireless city initiatives which focuses on the definition and evaluation of innovative services. The approach includes overall design requirements, a generic stakeholder analysis as well as clusters for innovative wireless services and is illustrated by a case example of an ongoing wireless city project in Germany.
Online Service Quality of Web-based E-Mail-Services: an Empirical Study for The German Market
(2009)
E-mail services represent an essential part of the IT landscape of enterprises. Besides in-house hosting, every company can make use of offers from specialized Application Service Providers (ASPs). Former research has shown a lack of transparency in the market for web-based services. This paper summarizes the results of a study on professional web-based e-mail services catering to the German-speaking market. This research mainly addresses following questions: What are the similarities and differences between the various services in the market? To which extent do the offered services meet a corporation's requirements? What kind of methodology can be used to analyze and to compare web-based services? And, with that in mind, do web-based e-mail-services represent a serious alternative to in-house hosting of e-mail-services? To answer these questions we compared information of selected service providers on the basis of a multi-scenario utility analysis.
The inherent quality of business processes increasingly plays a significant role in the economic success of an organization. More and more business processes are supported through IT processes. In this contribution, we present a new approach which allows the continuous quality improvement of IT processes by the interconnection of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) reference model and process mining. On the basis of the reference model, to-be processes are set and key indicators are determined. As-is processes and their key indicators derived by process mining are subsequently compared to the to-be processes. This new approach enables the design and control of ITIL based customer support processes which will be trialed in a practice case of a customer relationship management (CRM) system. The procedural models, as well as its results, are introduced in this publication.
In order to deliver services of high quality in a cost-effective manner, processes and their support through information technology (IT) play an increasingly significant role. We present an approach, which allows optimizing the service delivery through continual process improvement. This approach combines the 7-step improvement process recommended by ITIL with process mining. On the basis of suggestions derived from process mining, performance indicators of different services are determined and subsequently compared as part of an internal benchmark. The approach, which will be trialed in practice, enables the optimization of service delivery certainly, but it is also concerned with the most effective utilization of limited resources in terms of people and tools.
Netzbasierte Dienste, im englischen Sprachraum als Web-based Services oder Hosted Services bekannt, gewinnen zunehmend an Popularität. Zahlreiche Softwareanbieter präsentieren sich am Markt als Application Service Provider (ASP), d.h. als Anbieter netzbasierter Anwendungsdienste. Hierbei kann das ASP-Modell den einzigen Vertriebskanal darstellen (reiner ASP) oder aber als Ergänzung neben das klassische Lizenzmodell treten. Während junge Firmen (wie z. B. Salesforce.com) ihr Glück als reiner ASP versuchen, wählen etablierte Anbieter im Regelfall die zuletzt genannte Option SAP mit seinem ASP-Produkt mySAP.com ist hierfür eines der bekannteren Beispiele.
Pricing web services
(2007)
This paper focuses on the challenges associated with composing and pricing web services. We present the results of an online experiment, where subjects were confronted with a variety of choices and decisions relating to web service markets and service composition. Our analysis shows that people expect the price of a composite web service to be lower than the sum of the prices of the elementary services, that is, users are not willing to pay for aggregation by a third party. To obtain a viable business model for composite web services, non-standard pricing mechanisms, such as auctions and negotiations, possibly supported by electronic agents, have to be taken into consideration. Usage-based pricing schemes, combined with an option to switch to a flat subscription, seem most appropriate to penetrate the developing market for web services.
Das SaaS-Geschäftsmodell stellt IT-Abteilungen vor neue Herausforderungen und Möglichkeiten. IT-Abteilungen sind gefordert SaaS-Angebote in bestehende IT-Landschaften zu integrieren. Zudem können IT-Abteilungen selbst SaaS-Angebot bereitstellen und sich damit einen neuen Markt unternehmensintern und unternehmensübergreifend erschließen. GobiT und ITIL können für die Steuerung des SaaS-Lieferanten- und Kundenbeziehungsmanagement und für die SaaS-Produktion sinnvoll eingesetzt werden.