Chair of Mobile Business & Multilateral Security

Technology-driven Business Model Innovation and the Role of Digital Platforms

 

Basic Information
Type of Lecture: Seminar
Course: Bachelor
Hours/Week: 2
Credit Points: 3
Language: English
Term: Winter 2018/2019
Lecturers:
Email:  

 

 

Content of the Course

Description:       

Title in QIS/LSF: Technology-driven Business Model Innovation and the Role of Digital Platforms

I do think that a significant portion of the population of developed countries, and eventually all countries, will have AR experiences every day, almost like eating three meals a day. It will become that much a part of you"(Tim Cook, CEO Apple).

This quote is a first sign that Augmented Reality (AR) has the potential to become the "next big thing" in our digital world. Current trends like Pokémon Go - the fastest adopted app of all time - show the actual potential AR has. At the moment, we stand at the beginning of the development which makes it important and highly interesting to investigate the topic from a scientific point of view. This seminar tries to deepen our understand of economic, regulatory, behavioral, technical and privacy related issues related to AR.

Next to new technological innovations like AR, the rise of the platform as a business and organizational model profoundly shapes industries such as e.g. media, retail or transportation. Platforms depart from a traditionally linear approach to the value chain where firm resources are accumulated and funneled from the one end so as to ensure a final product with specific features of predetermined use to its consumer at the other. Much rather, platform business models aim at enabling value-creating interactions between producers and consumers outside of the firm. By facilitating and coordinating these interactions, value creation is externalized and the key function of the platform is to intermediate between groups of disparate interests. This market intermediary function is barely a novelty, but it has two decisive specificities in the case of current platform business models, namely scalability and efficiency.

Students will work on the different research topics and learn and apply theoretical as well as empirical research methodologies like systematic literature reviews or quantitative user studies. Students will be working individually or in groups.

Topics

  • Differentiate the concepts "Sharing Economy" and "Platform Economy" in form of a literature review
  • According to which aspects could currently established platform-oriented business models be feasibly categorized?
  • Survey and classify monetization strategies of established platform business models
  • Present the main challenges to converting an extant pipeline business to a platform (with help of the Business Model Canvas)
  • Present the main challenges to establishing a new platform business (with help of the Business Model Canvas)

  • What role does privacy play for the use of Augmented Reality (AR) technologies?

  • Exploring the relationship between consumer innovativeness and the use of mobile augmented reality technologies – the case of Pokémon Go 

A list of all topics (preliminary) can be found in this PDF (as of September 19, 2018).

Grading

The seminar is evaluated based on the written examination at the beginning of the term (10%), written seminar paper (70%), and the seminar presentation (20%). A successful completion of the seminar requires successful completion (pass) of all of its building blocks (exam, paper, and presentation). 

 
 
Literature:

Suggested literature for the bachelor seminar includes the following articles:

1) Methodology

          • vom Brocke, J., Simons, A., Riemer, K., Niehaves, B., Plattfaut, R., & Cleven, A. (2015). Standing on the shoulders of giants: Challenges and recommendations of literature search in Information Systems research. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 37(1), Article 9, 205-224.
          • vom Brocke, J., Simons, A., Niehaves, B., Riemer, K., Plattfaut, R., & Cleven, A. (2009). Reconstructing the Giant: On the Importance of Rigour in Documenting the Literature Search Process. In ECIS 2009 Proceedings (pp. 2206–2217).
          • Recker, J. (2012). Scientific Research in Information Systems: A Beginner’s Guide. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30048-6

2) Topics

          • Harborth, D. (2017). Augmented Reality in Information Systems Research: A Systematic Literature Review. In Twenty-third Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS) (pp. 1–10). Boston.
          • Harborth, D., & Pape, S. (2017). Exploring the Hype: Investigating Technology Acceptance Factors of Pokémon Go. In 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR) (pp. 155–168). http://doi.org/10.1109/ISMAR.2017.32
          • Smith, H. J., Dinev, T., & Xu, H. (2011). Theory and Review Information Privacy Research: An Interdisciplinary Review. MIS Quarterly, 35(4), 989–1015.

Agenda:

The following dates are mandatory for all participants:

          1. 05.11.2018: 14:00 to 17:00 in room RuW 2.202
            Written examination about the literature provided for this seminar
          2. 07.11.2018: 09:00 to 18:00 in room RuW 2.202
            Kick-Off meeting with presentation and distribution of the seminar topics

          3. 21.01.2019 - 25.01.2019: 10:00 to 18:00 in room RuW 2.202
            Presentation of the seminar papers
 
Exam:

Information:

Organizational details for the exam:

          • Available amount of time: 90 minutes
          • Allowed resources during the exam: dictionary English - Mother tongue

The exam will consist of the questions from the references given below:

          • Zhu, F., & Furr, N. (2016). Products to platforms: Making the leap. Harvard business review, 94(4), 72-78.
          • Rochet, J. C., & Tirole, J. (2003). Platform competition in two‐sided markets. Journal of the european economic association, 1(4), 990-1029.
          • Van Alstyne, M. W., Parker, G. G., & Choudary, S. P. (2016). Pipelines, platforms, and the new rules of strategy. Harvard business review, 94(4), 54-62.
          • Azuma, R., Baillot, Y., Behringer, R., Feiner, S., Julier, S., & MacIntyre, B. (2001). Recent advances in augmented reality. NAVAL RESEARCH LAB WASHINGTON DC.