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The thesis develops and evaluates a hypothetical model of the factors that influence user acceptance of weblog technology. Previous acceptance studies are reviewed, and the various models employed are discussed. The eventual model is based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) by Davis et al. It conceptualizes and operationalizes a quantitative survey conducted by means of an online questionnaire, strictly from a user perspective. Finally, it is tested and validated by applying methods of data analysis.
While the existing literature on cooperative R&D projects between firms and public research institutes (PRI) has made valuable contributions by examining various factors and their influence on different outcome measures, there has been no investigation of cooperative R&D project success between firms and PRI from a product competitive advantage perspective. However, insights into the development of a meaningful and superior product (i.e., product competitive advantage) are particularly important in the context of cooperative R&D projects between PRI and (mainly small and medium-sized) firms in the biotechnology industry in response to increasing competition to raise capital funds necessary for survival.
The objectives of this thesis are: (1) to elaborate the theoretical foundations which explain the achievement of a product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI, (2) to identify and empirically evaluate the determining factors for achieving a product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI, and (3) to show how cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI should be designed and executed to support the achievement of a product competitive advantage.
To accomplish these objectives, a model of determinants of product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI is developed by drawing from the theoretical foundations of resource-based theory and information-processing theory. The model is evaluated using data from 517 questionnaires on cooperative R&D projects between at least one biotechnology firm and one PRI. The data are analyzed using variance-based structural equation modeling (i.e., PLS-SEM) in order to conduct hypotheses testing. The evaluation of the empirical data includes an additional mediation analysis and the comparison of effects in subsamples.
The results demonstrate the importance of available resources and skills, as well as the proficient execution of marketing-related and technical activities for the achievement of a product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI. By identifying project-related and process-related factors affecting product competitive advantage and empirically testing their relationships, the research findings should be valuable for both researchers and practitioners. After discussing contributions and implications for research and practice, the present thesis concludes with limitations and avenues for future research.
Despite the inception of new technologies at a breakneck pace, many analytics projects fail mainly due to the use of incompatible development methodologies. As big data analytics projects are different from software development projects, the methodologies used in software development projects could not be applied in the same fashion to analytics projects. The traditional agile project management approaches to the projects do not consider the complexities involved in the analytics. In this thesis, the challenges involved in generalizing the application of agile methodologies will be evaluated, and some suitable agile frameworks which are more compatible with the analytics project will be explored and recommended. The standard practices and approaches which are currently applied in the industry for analytics projects will be discussed concerning enablers and success factors for agile adaption. In the end, after the comprehensive discussion and analysis of the problem and complexities, a framework will be recommended that copes best with the discussed challenges and complexities and is generally well suited for the most data-intensive analytics projects.
Social entrepreneurship is a form of entrepreneurship that marries a social mission to a competitive value proposition. Notably, social entrepreneurship fosters a more equitable society by addressing social issues and trying to achieve an ongoing sustainable impact through a social mission rather than purely profit maximization. The topic of social entrepreneurship has appealed considerably to many different streams of research. The focus on understanding how and why entrepreneurs think and act is a significant justification for future research. Nevertheless, the theoretical examination of this phenomenon is in its infancy. Social entrepreneurship research is still largely phenomenon-driven. Specifically, Social Entrepreneurial Intention is in an early stage and lacks quantitative research. Therefore, this thesis proposes to address this need. The thesis’ objectives are twofold: (1) develop a formation model for Social Entrepreneurial Intentions in general and (2) test the model by conducting an empirical study. Based on these objectives, the two research questions guiding the thesis are (1) what factors influence the intention of a person to become a social entrepreneur and (2) what relationships exist among these factors.
In order to answer these two research questions, this thesis uses purposeful research design, which is a combination of literature review and empirical study. The literature review is based on a comprehensive range of books, articles, and research papers published in leading academic journals and conference proceedings in different disciplines such as entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, management, social psychology, and social economics. The empirical study is conducted via a survey of 600 last-year students from four universities in three regions in Vietnam: Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh. The data are analyzed with SPSS-AMOS version 24, using screening data, scale development, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmation factor analysis. The thesis ascertains that Entrepreneurship Experience/Extra-curricular Activity, Role Model, Social Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, and Social Entrepreneurial Outcome Expectation directly and positively affect the intention of the Vietnamese students to be social entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship Education also influences the Social Entrepreneurial Intention, but not directly, otherwise indirectly via Social Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Social Entrepreneurial Outcome Expectation. Similarly, Perceived Support has no direct relationship to Social Entrepreneurial Intention; however, it shows an indirect link via the mediator ‘Social Entrepreneurial Outcome Expectation’. Furthermore, the dissertation brings new insights to the social entrepreneurship literature and provides important implications for practice. Limitations and future directions are also provided in the thesis.
Abstract
This bachelor thesis delivers a comprehensive overview of the topic Internet of Things (IoT). With the help of a first literature review, important characteristics, architectures, and properties have been identified. The main aim of this bachelor thesis is to determine whether the use of IoT in the transport of food, considering the compliance with the cold chain, can provide advantages for companies to reduce food waste. For this purpose, a second literature review has been carried out with food transport systems without the use, as well as with the use of IoT. Based on the literature review, it is possible at the end to determine a theoretical ‘ideal’ system for food transport in refrigerated trucks. The respective used technologies are also mentioned. The findings of several authors have shown that often significant improvements can be achieved in surveillance, transport in general, or traceability of food, and ultimately food waste can be reduced. However, benefits can also be gained using new non-IoT-based technologies. Thus, the main knowledge of this bachelor thesis is that a theoretical ‘ideal’ transport system contains a sensible combination of technologies with and without IoT. This system includes the use of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for real-time food monitoring, as well as an alarm function when the temperature exceeds a maximum. Real-time monitoring with GPS coupled with a monitoring center to prevent traffic jams is another task. Smart and energy-efficient packaging, and finally the use of the new supercooling-technology, make the system significantly more efficient in reducing food waste. These highlights, that when choosing a transport system, which is as efficient and profitable as possible for food with refrigerated transport, companies need not just rely on the use of IoT. On this basis, it is advisable to combine the systems and technologies used so far with IoT in order to avoid as much food waste as possible.
Railway safety is a topic which gains the public attention only if major railway accidents happen. This is because railway is considered as a safe mode of travel by the public. However, to ensure the safety of the railway system railway companies as well as universities conduct a broad spectrum of research. An overview of this research has not yet been provided in the scholarly literature. Therefore, this thesis follows two objectives. First an overview and ranking of railway safety research universities should be provided. Second, based on these universities, it should be identified which are the most relevant and influential research topics. The ranking is based on the research method “literature review” which forms the methodical basis for this thesis. To evaluate the universities based on a measurable and objective criterion, the number of citations of the researchers from each university is gathered. As a result, the University of Leuven for the civil engineering, Milan Politechnico for mechanical enginering and the University of Loughborough for electrical engineering are identified as the leading university in their field of railway safety research. The top universities for each discipline are distributed all over Europe, North America and Asia. However, a clear focus on the US and British universities is observed. For identification of the most relevant and influential topics the keywords from the publications which are considered in the ranking procedure are analyzed. Focus areas among these keywords are revealed by calculating the count of each keyword. High-speed trains as well as maintenance are recognized as the highly relevant topics in both civil and mechanical engineering. Furthermore, the topic of railway dynamics for mechanical engineering and noise and vibration for civil engineering are identified as the leading topics in the respective discipline. Achieving both research goals required exploratory approaches. Therefore, this thesis leaves open space for future research to deepen the individual topics which are approached in each section. A validation of the results through experts interviews as well as a deepening of the analysis through increasing the number of analyzed universities as well as applying statistical methods is recommended.
Social networking platforms as creativity fostering systems: research model and exploratory study
(2008)
Social networking platforms are enabling users to create their own content, share this content with anyone they invite and organize connections with existing or new online contacts. Within these electronic environments users voluntarily add comments on virtual boards, distribute their search results or add information about their expertise areas to their social networking profiles and thereby share it with acquaintances, friends and increasingly even with colleagues in the corporate world. As a result, it is most likely that the underlying knowledge sharing processes result in many new and creative ideas. The objective of our research therefore is to understand if and how social social networking platforms can enforce creativity. In addition, we look at how these processes could be embedded within the organizational structures that influence innovative knowledge sharing behavior. The basis for our research is a framework which focuses on the relations between intrinsic motivation, creativity and social networking platforms. First results of our empirical investigation of a social software platform called "StudiVZ.net" proved that our two propositions are valid.
Information systems research has started to use crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turks (MTurk) for scientific research, recently. In particular, MTurk provides a scalable, cheap work-force that can also be used as a pool of potential respondents for online survey research. In light of the increasing use of crowdsourcing platforms for survey research, the authors aim to contribute to the understanding of its appropriate usage. Therefore, they assess if samples drawn from MTurk deviate from those drawn via conventional online surveys (COS) in terms of answers in relation to relevant e-commerce variables and test the data in a nomological network for assessing differences in effects.
The authors compare responses from 138 MTurk workers with those of 150 German shoppers recruited via COS. The findings indicate, inter alia, that MTurk workers tend to exhibit more positive word-of mouth, perceived risk, customer orientation and commitment to the focal company. The authors discuss the study- results, point to limitations, and provide avenues for further research.
Social media has changed how customers, businesses, employees, and job seekers form their reputation perceptions of a company, that is, how they form their evaluative judgements about a company’s products, services and behaviors towards constituencies. In pre-social media times, companies had control over what they communicated to their stakeholders, for example, by using corporate websites to convey a predefined image. With social media, multiple opinions, experiences, and company perceptions reach the wider public via multiple channels such as Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites that enable user-generated content. Although companies usually try to nurture an online reputation by running their own Facebook and Twitter profiles, a large amount of online content related to a company is produced by social media users and thus is beyond companies’ control. This habilitation thesis is devoted to studying consumer and employee responses to employee behavior in social media. Across eight different articles, with multiple studies each, this thesis aims to draw a full picture of how employee behavior in social media affects customers, other employees, job seekers, and the employing company as a whole.
Der Zweck dieser Arbeit ist es, sich auf die kritischen Forschungsherausforderungen und -themen zu konzentrieren, die UI/UX-Designprinzipien umgeben, mit einem Schwerpunkt auf kulturübergreifenden Konzepten aus der Perspektive von E-Learning-Plattformen. Zu diesem Zweck betrachten wir zunächst die kulturellen Dimensionen auf der Grundlage des Hofstede-Rahmens mit dem Ziel, wichtige kulturelle Werte zu identifizieren. Als zweites Ziel der Forschung erleichtert eine Reihe von Kriterien, die so genannte Usability-Heuristik von Nielsen, die Erkennung von Usability Problemen bei der Gestaltung von Benutzeroberflächen (UI). Die Usability-Heuristiken umfassen zehn Variablen, die die Interaktion zwischen dem Benutzer und einem Produkt oder System beeinflussen. Wenn wir uns näher mit
diesen Themen befassen, werden wir in der Lage sein, eine Matrix mit Beziehungen zwischen der heuristischen Bewertung von Nielsen und dem kulturellen Rahmen von Geert Hofstede aufzudecken. Abschließend erörtern wir das mögliche Potenzial kultureller Werte zur Beeinflussung von Benutzeroberflächen für E-Learning-Plattformen. In der Tat gibt es einige Funktionen in E-Learning-Plattformen, die aufgrund der Kultur weniger diskutiert werden, obwohl sie sehr praktisch in die Plattformen integriert werden können.
Digital transformation is a prevailing trend in the world, especially in dynamic Asia. Vietnam has recorded remarkable changes in the economy as domestic enterprises have made new strides in the digital transformation process. MB Bank, one of the prestigious financial groups in Vietnam, also takes advantage of digital transformation to have the opportunity to break through to become a large-scale technology enterprise with many factors such as improving customer experience, increasing customer base and increasing customer satisfaction. enhance competitiveness, build trust and loyalty for customers. However, in the process of converting MB, there are also many challenges that require banks to have appropriate policies to handle. It can be said that MB Bank is a typical case study of digital transformation in the banking sector in Vietnam.
Challenges of Implementing Innovation Strategies at Large Organizations: A case of Lotte Group
(2023)
For many decades, one of the most important focuses of research has been on determining whether or not there is a correlation between the size of an organization and its level of innovation. Unlike small companies, large companies often have well-established structure that are hard to change and change managements seems to be much more difficult especially related to innovation. Nevertheless, there are many examples to prove the opposites. Some large organization like Apple, Amazon... always show great innovation efforts and keep changing in a much positive way. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to discuss of how large organization can be able to implement innovation when having much drawbacks compare to SMEs. Through the use of a qualitative research approach, researcher was able to explore essential information on the innovation strategies that large companies are using in order to innovate and how they could overcome existing challenges by studying the working process of Lotte Group – one of the biggest companies in Korea.
FinTech is deemed to be an underexplored phenomenon even in academic and real environments. Among (1) “Sustainable FinTech” – the application of information technology as innovation in established financial services providers’ business operation; and (2) “Disruptive FinTech” – the provision of financial products and services by non-incumbents which in most cases are information technology entrepreneurs, the former receives more attention. In order to contribute to Disruptive FinTech category, the thesis strive to examine Entrepreneurial Strategy framework applied for technology players taking part in Vietnam financial market.
Willingness to pay and willingness to accept on a two-sided platform - The use case of DoBeeDo
(2019)
It is widely known that especially for technology-based start-ups, entrepreneurs need to set up the boundaries of the business and define the product/service to offer in order to minimize the risk of failure. The goal of this thesis is to not only emphasize the importance of the business model development and evaluation but also show an example customer validation process for an emerging start-up named DoBeeDo, which is a mobile app operating on a two-sided market. During the process of customer validation a survey has been conducted to evaluate the interest of the target groups as well as the fit of their expectations using the Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept measures. The paper includes an analysis and evaluation of the gathered results and assesses whether the execution of the Customer Development Model can be continued.
Thesis is devoted to the topic of challenges and solutions for human resources management (HRM) in international organizations. The aim is to investigate methodological approaches to assessment of HRM challenges and solutions, and to apply them on practice, to develop ways of improvement of HRM of a particular enterprise. The practical research question investigated is “Is the Ongoing Professional Development – Strategic HRM (OPD-SHRM) model a better solution for HRM system of PrJSC “Philip Morris Ukraine”?”
To achieve the aim of this work and to answer the research question, we have studied theoretical approaches to explaining and assessing HRM in section 1, analyzed HRM system of an international enterprise in section 2, and then synthesized theory and practice to find intersection points in section 3.
Research findings indicate that the main challenge of HRM is to balance between individual and organizational interests. Implementation of OPD-SHRM is one of the solutions. Switching focus from satisfaction towards success will bring both tangible and intangible benefits for individuals and organization. In case of PrJSC “Philip Morris Ukraine”, the maximum forecasted increase is 330% in net profit, 350% in labor productivity, and 26% in Employee Development and Engagement Index.
Coordination and awareness mechanisms are important in systems for Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and traditional groupware systems. It has been a key focus of research into collaborative groupware and its capability to enable people to efficiently collaborate and coordinate work. Until now, no classification of the mechanisms has been undertaken to identify commonalities and differences in coordination and awareness mechanisms and to show their significance in collaborative environments. In addition, there is a little investigation of coordination and awareness mechanisms in new forms of groupware such as socially enabled Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS). Indeed, both in science and in practices, ECS incorporating social software have become increasingly important. Based on the combination of traditional groupware and social software, ECS also include coordination and awareness mechanisms that may simplify collaboration, but these have not yet been investigated.
Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to identify coordination and awareness mechanisms in the academic literature to provide a general overview of those mechanisms examples. Additionally, this thesis aims to classify the mechanism examples. Based on a deep literature analysis, concepts described in literature are chosen and applied with the intension to analyse the mechanisms and to reach a classification. Based on the classification of the identified mechanisms their commonalities and differences are examined and described to gain a better understanding of them. For illustration purpose, examples of coordination and awareness mechanisms and their application are portrayed. The mechanisms examples refer to the classification groups derived. The selection of the mechanisms for the visualization is based on significant differences in their functionality. Subsequently, the selected mechanisms, more based on traditional groupware, are checked to a limited extend whether they can be found in socially enabled ECS. The collaborative platform of IBM Connections serves as a practical example of ECS incorporating social software. IBM Connections is used at the University of Koblenz to run the platform "UniConnect". On the platform it is investigated which of the identified mechanisms examples of the literature are applied in IBM Connections and which additional mechanisms are created by users. This work is the first step in the study of coordination and awareness mechanisms in socially-enabled ECS. In addition, it is expected to detect new mechanisms which are used while the social factor to collaborative work is new.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine and collect coordination and awareness mechanisms examples in literature to analyse them. Additionally, the purpose is to provide a first overview of mechanisms and to classify them by investigating their commonalities. Beside this thesis should give incentive for further investigations to investigate coordination and awareness mechanisms in socially integrated ECS.
In order to enhance the company’s appeal for potential employees and improve the satisfaction of already salaried workers, it is necessary to offer a variety of work-life balance measures. But as their implementation causes time and financial costs, a prioritization of measures is needed. To express a recommendation for companies, this study is led by the questions if there are work-life balance measures which have more impact on employee satisfaction than others, how big the relative impact of work-life balance measures on job satisfaction in comparison to other work and private life variables is, if there is a relation between the effectiveness of measures and their use and if there is a difference between the measures which are most important from the employees’ perspective and the companies’ offers.
These questions are formulated in eight research hypotheses which are examined in a quantitative research design with online survey data from 289 employees of fifteen different German companies. The formation of a hierarchy of the effectiveness of measures towards job satisfaction as well as the investigation of the relative impact in comparison to other variables is performed using a multiple regression analysis, whilst the differences between employees’ expectations and the availability of offers are examined with t-tests.
Support in childcare, support in voluntary activities and teambuilding events have a significantly higher impact on job satisfaction than other work-life balance measures, and their potential use is higher than the actual use which leads to the conclusion that there is yet potential for companies to improve their employees’ satisfaction by implementing these measures. In addition, flexible work hours, flexible work locations and free time and overtime accounts are the most important measures from the employees’ point of view and already widely offered by the surveyed companies. In general, the overall use of the available measures and the quantity of offered measures are more important with regard to job satisfaction than the specific kind of measure. In addition, work-life balance measures are more important towards job satisfaction for younger people.
The objective of this contribution is to conceptually analyze the potentials of entrepreneurial design thinking as being a rather new method for entrepreneurship education. Based on a literature review of different design thinking concepts we carve out a generic design thinking model upon we conceptually build a new model that considers entrepreneurial thinking as a valuable characteristic.
The results of our work show that the characteristics of entrepreneurial design thinking can enhance entrepreneurship education by supporting respective action fields of entrepreneurial learning. In addition we reveal that entrepreneurial design thinking offers beneficial guidelines for the design of entrepreneurship education programs.
Despite widespread plans of big companies like Amazon and Google to develop unmanned delivery drones, scholarly research in this field is scarce, especially in the information systems field. From technical and legal perspectives, drone delivery in last-mile scenarios is in a quite mature state. However, estimates of user acceptance are varying between high skepticism and exaggerated optimism. This research follows a mixed method approach consisting both qualitative and quantitative research, to identify and test determinants of consumer delivery drone service adoption. The qualitative part rests on ten interviews among average consumers, who use delivery services on a regular basis. Insights gained from the qualitative part were used to develop an online survey and to assess the influence of associated risks on adoption intentions. The quantitative results show that especially financial and physical risks impede drone delivery service adoption. Delivery companies who are currently thinking about providing a delivery drone service may find these results useful when evaluating usage behaviors in the future market for delivery drones.
With the increasing importance and urgency of climate change, companies are challenged to contribute to sustainable development, especially by younger generations. However, existing corporate contributions have been criticized as insufficient, which could be particularly caused by a lack of employee engagement in corporate sustainability. In this context, gamification has been proposed and increasingly investigated in recent years as a promising, innovative tool to motivate sustainable employee behaviors in the workplace. However, there are few studies and applicable gamification solutions that address more than one specific sustainability issue and thus take a holistic perspective on sustainable behaviors in the workplace. Moreover, previous research lacks a comprehensive understanding of how different gamification elements elicit specific psychological effects, how these manifest in behavioral changes, and how these, in turn, cumulatively result in measurable corporate outcomes. The path from gamification as ”input” to corporate sustainability as ”output” thus remains unexplored.
This dissertation fills this gap by conceptualizing, designing, and evaluating a holistic gamified intervention that supports employees in various sustainable behaviors in their daily activities. The project uses a design science research approach that closely involves employees in the incremental development of the solution. As part of the iterative design process, this dissertation presents six studies to extend the theoretical understanding of gamification for sustainable employee behaviors. First, a comprehensive review of existing research on gamification for sustainable employee behavior is provided, analyzing gamification designs and results of previous studies and outlining an agenda for further research (Study 1). Theoretical foundations of research on gamification, serious games, and game-based learning (Study 2) and empirical design principles for gamification and persuasive systems (Study 3) are then systematically reviewed as a basis for the successful design of gamified applications. Subsequently, empirical studies explore employees’ motivations for sustainable behavior and illuminate their expectations for design features (Study 4), and identify contextual challenges and design dilemmas when implementing gamification in an organizational context (Study 5). Finally, a quantitative field study (Study 6) explores how different gamification designs influence sustainable employee behavior and corporate sustainability in organizations. Based on the findings, this dissertation presents a comprehensive framework of gamification for sustainable employee behavior that incorporates design, individual behavior, and organizational perspectives. Finally, building on these insights, it provides practical recommendations for designing gamification to encourage sustainable employee behavior at work.