Andreas Mladenow

Towards Cloud-Centric Service Environments

Cloud computing has evolved and is expected to grow further into an enormously booming market segment especially for start-ups and SMEs as they can benefit from the concept of “Anything as a Service” (XaaS) without the need to invest significant financial resources in IT capabilities. Through the usage-based models, seemingly infinite resources based on rapid elasticity, multi-user systems, and the ability to access the network anytime and anywhere, organizations can achieve increased cost-effectiveness and efficiency in their business operations. This paper discusses, with a particular emphasis on start-ups and SMEs in the B2B and B2C markets, how e-business value creation drivers such as novelty, efficiency, complementarities and lock-in can leverage and enhance business value in practice. Using the example of the textile and apparel industry, this paper pinpoints how cloud computing can foster an environment in which new opportunities can blossom and added values are created for both businesses and consumers through modern marketing and networking technologies using an inclusive social and technological environment.

Aggregated survey of sustainable business models for agile mobile service delivery platforms

Mobile technology has undergone a drastical evolution within the past few years. Cell phones with small monochrome displays-designed solely for phone calls and text messaging-have turned into miniaturized computers with dual-core processors. Combined with 3G standards such as UMTS, mobile devices nowadays offer almost the same freedom in exploring the Internet as desktop PCs do. Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android, and the availability of mobile broadband Internet have changed the mobile landscape, and-as a consequence-the way in which mobile services are delivered to their users. Thus, we focus in this paper on the theory and implementation of four distinct platform models for mobile service delivery. Furthermore, we perform a classification of platform agility features-business and technology oriented-along with a comparative analysis of their effectiveness.

Strategic management of disruptive technologies: a practical framework in the context of voice services and of computing towards the cloud

In many industries, large amounts of resources are allocated for continuous technology development. However, these investments may prove inefficient if a disruptive technology arises that provides new and more attractive customer propositions. While this phenomenon has been the subject of numerous papers, there is still a lack of managerial tools that properly address the challenge of responding to this threat. This paper provides an in-depth review of recent developments in the field and, furthermore outlines a tool that supports managers in identifying forthcoming disruptive technologies and providing them with tailored strategic options. The application of this approach is illustrated by means of two case studies: the mass-market voice services and computing organised as a public utility.

“Crowd logistics”: the contribution of social crowds in logistics activities

Purpose The paper aims to provide the necessary basis for a novel interdisciplinary research field. Various types and implementations of crowdsourcing have emerged in the market; many of them are related to logistics. While we can identify plenty of crowd logistics applications using information technology capabilities and information sharing in practice, theories behind this phenomenon have received only limited attention. This paper accounts for filling this research gap by analyzing the crowd’s contributions in logistics of goods and information. Design/methodology/approach This paper is part of an ongoing research endeavor in the field of location-based crowdsourcing. It represents conceptual work that builds on a literature review enriched with an in-depth analysis of real-world examples in the field of crowd logistics. Using a scoring method, we provide an example how a company may evaluate the alternatives of crowd logistics. The main approach is an analysis of variants of how the social crowd may be integrated in logistics processes. The work is conceptual in its core. Thereby, we use real-world examples of crowdsourcing applications to underpin the evaluated variants of crowd logistics. Findings The paper presents relevant theoretical background on crowd logistics. The authors differentiate between variants of crowd logistics with their flow of materials, goods and information. Thereby they zoom in the type, significance and process flow of the crowd’s contributions. They discuss potential advantages and challenges of logistics with the performing crowd and deeply discuss opportunities and challenges from a business and from an individual’s perspective. Finally, they highlight a route map for future research directions in this novel interdisciplinary research field. Research limitations/implications As this work is conceptual in its core, generalizations may be drawn only with great care. Still, we are in a position to propose a route map for further research in this area in this paper. Also the integration of an analysis of a scale of real-world applications allows us to highlight our research’s practical relevance and implications. Originality/value The main contribution of this paper is an in-depth analysis and consolidation of innovative crowd logistics applications to provide an overview on recent implementations. The authors propose a categorization scheme and contribute with a route map for further research in the field of crowd logistics.

Collaborative Shopping with the Crowd

The ubiquity of information and communication technologies (ICT) stimulate collaborative shopping and bring together customers with similar interests around the world to perform cooperative and collective online shopping. As a result, various models of collaborative online group buying are emerging. This paper analyses the phases of interaction during the shopping processes and provides a systematic categorization of the online group buying based on the top-down/bottom-up crowd-shopping models. In addition, this paper discusses recent developments and challenges of group buying in order to contribute to future research directions within the field of collaborative online group buying.

Avatar-based Innovation Processes - Are Virtual Worlds a breeding ground for Innovations?

The full potential of Virtual Worlds is still far away from being reached. Whereas innovations are key factors for economic success, the increase of complexity in innovation processes, due to an internationalization of collaborations as well as to an increase in interaction between manufacturers and consumers, represents a major challenge for many companies. In this context Avatar-based Innovation Processes represent promising innovation drivers, as they provide a globally connected working environment for user-centred innovation processes. The use of Avatars and Virtual Worlds allows for an unprecedented form of web based collaboration during the entire innovation process. The paper provides an overview of recent developments in Virtual Worlds. Using three selected case studies, the paper analyses how companies may use virtual environments and Avatars during various steps of the innovation process.

Online Ad-fraud in Search Engine Advertising Campaigns

Search Engine Advertising has grown strongly in recent years and amounted to about USD 60 billion in 2014. Based on real-world data of online campaigns of 28 companies, we analyse the incident of a hacked campaign-account. We describe the occurred damage, i.e. (1) follow-up consequences of unauthorized access to the account of the advertiser, and (2) limited availability of short-term online campaigns. This contribution aims at raising awareness for the threat of hacking incidents during online marketing campaigns, and provides suggestions as well as recommendations for damage prevention, damage detection and damage limitation.

Fostering Collaboration by Location-Based Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a recently developed method that relies on various alternatives of collaboration to solve problems efficiently. Crowdsourcing is a recent development to solve a variety of problems efficiently, and which implies various alternatives of collaboration. However, as novel technologies are able to exploit location-sensing capabilities of mobile devices, location-based crowdsourcing (LBCS) developed as a new concept. This paper suggests a typology for LBCS as a means for fostering collaboration with the crowd through three types of LBCS: confirmation-based, digital good-based, and physical-based. Each type is underpinned with exemplary applications. Furthermore, opportunities and challenges are analysed; and future trends in LBCS are discussed.

Collaboration and Locality in Crowdsourcing

As novel forms of crowdsourcing emerge on the market, we emphasize that the important aspect of location-dependency is more complex than assumed and, thus, suggest a typology along two dimensions of locality: the first dimension refers to whether or not the crowdsourcees interact while being collocated or dispersed, the second dimension refers to the locality of the crowdsourcees in relation to the crowdsourcers locality (local vs. remote crowd). The resulting four types of crowdsourcing are underpinned by real-world examples. Potential advantages and challenges of the four types are discussed, particularly with respect to motivation and value. The suggested categorization shall provide the necessary basis for future research, as a systematic approach is essential to enable, yield and foster sustainability in a novel interdisciplinary research field like location-based crowdsourcing.

Collaboration and crowdsourcing in emergency management

Purpose Emergency managers face coordinative challenges that require a high degree of mobility, flexibility and the ability to interpret heterogeneous, location-dependent information of various sources and quality. Recent information and communication technology-driven developments like crowdsourcing or social networks have opened up new organizational possibilities for emergency managers. To make quick but solid decisions, and improve the coordination of activities performed by crowdsourcees during disaster response, the authors suggest the use of collaborative features from crowdsourcing and inherent availability of resources from social network effects. In this paper, the idea of considering collaboration and crowdsourcing as drivers for flexibility in the design of business processes in the context of emergency management is prepared, the meaning of location-dependent tasks for volunteers is investigated, and the added value of social network effects is substantiated. Design/methodology/approach This paper is part of an ongoing research project in the field of crowdsourcing. It represents conceptual work that builds on relevant literature. Findings In terms of emergency management, the paper sheds light on what emergency managers may consider when coordinating activities performed by volunteers and how they may benefit from social network effects. Furthermore, it is shown how they can exploit information using collaboration-based and tournament-like crowdsourcing, how they can benefit from invoking additional resources using weak ties from social networks, and how visualization of information may support decision-making. Practical implications Exemplary applications to exploit crowdsourcing and social network effects to support improvisation and to respond flexibly in disaster response are given. Originality/value This paper suggests novel collaborative approaches to support emergency managers in their decision-making. Based on social network analysis, the value of weak ties is elaborated, and based on a taxonomy from crowdsourcing, distinct collaborative alternatives are developed and proposed for application in emergency management.