Christoph Lattemann

Framework for Governance in Open Source Communities

In recent years, the development of software in open source communities has attracted immense attention from research and practice. The idea of commercial quality, free software, and open source code accelerated the development of well-designed open source software such as Linux, Apache tools, or Perl. Intrinsic motivation, group identification processes, learning, and career concerns are the key drivers for a successful cooperation among the participants. These factors and most mechanisms of control, coordination, and monitoring forms of open source communities can hardly be explained by traditional organizational theories. In particular, the micro and macro structures of open source communities and their mode of operation are hardly compatible with the central assumption of the New Institutional Theory, like opportunistic behavior. The aim of this contribution is to identify factors that sustain the motivation of the community members over the entire life cycle of an open source project. Adequate coordination and controlling mechanisms for the governance in open source communities may be extracted.

High-Frequency-Trading

High-frequency trading (HFT) has recently drawn massive public attention fuelled by the U.S. May 6, 2010 flash crash and the tremendous increases in trading volumes of HFT strategies. Indisputably, HFT is an important factor in markets that are driven by sophisticated technology on all layers of the trading value chain. However, discussions on this topic often lack sufficient and precise information. A remarkable gap between the results of academic research on HFT and its perceived impact on markets in the public, media and regulatory discussions can be observed.The research at hand aims to provide up-to-date background information on HFT. This includes definitions, drivers, strategies, academic research and current regulatory discussions. It analyzes HFT and thus contributes to the ongoing discussions by evaluating certain proposed regulatory measures, trying to offer new perspectives and deliver solution proposals.

Impact of PPPs to broadband diffusion in Europe

Purpose – Broadband access plays a major role for economic growth and for social and cultural development of urban and rural areas. A provision of broadband infrastructure and services in these areas is not attractive for private investments because of a low or even negative expected rate on return. The purpose of this paper is to identify different modes of public private partnership (PPP) funding and organizational models of collaborations among public and private partners to establish broadband infrastructures. Decision makers get insights about innovative financial and structural models to bring broadband into rural areas.Design/methodology/approach – Organizational and financial structures of PPP projects will be analyzed by six PPP case studies from the broadband sector in Sweden, Great Britain, and France. This research adopts a data triangulation approach.Findings – A comparative case study analysis about “broadband‐PPPs” from different countries depicts that the organizational and financial fundi...

Learning Arrangements in Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds provide unique opportunities for innovative distance learning arrangements and are particularly suitable for transferring experiential knowledge. Nowadays, numerous universities are exploring potentials of virtual worlds for distance learning purposes. Virtual worlds offer new possibilities for computer-mediated communication and cooperation because of their immersive character and because interaction techniques such as Voice over IP can be applied. Virtual worlds are expected to become a powerful tool for distance learning when combined with other technologies such as Web 2.0. This paper presents a theory-based framework for the arrangement of distance learning courses with virtual worlds.An analysis of activities of German universities on Second Life depicts that the potentials of virtual worlds for distance learning arrangements are not exploited sufficiently today. Structured implementation of learning arrangements in virtual worlds in combination with other technologies such as Web 2.0 was hardly observable.

Deutsche Unternehmen auf dem Weg zum Web 2.0

ZusammenfassungenWeblogs, Wikis und soziale Netzwerke sind elementare Bestandteile neuer Kommunikations- und Kollaborationssysteme, die sich derzeit im Internet durchsetzen. Der Einsatz von Web 2.0- Anwendungen ist nicht auf die Bereiche Endkunde zu Endkunde (C2C) oder Unternehmen zu Kunde (B2C) beschränkt, sondern kann auch intern im Unternehmen erfolgen und so u. a. verschiedene Bereiche des Wissensmanagements unterstützen. Unklar ist bislang, inwieweit und in welcher Form deutsche Unternehmen diese Möglichkeiten nutzen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung stellt den aktuellen Status quo für den Einsatz von Web 2.0 in deutschen Unternehmen in Form einer Metaanalyse vorhandener Studien dar. So kommen sämtliche Studien z.B. zu der Aussage, dass die Integration von Kunden und Geschäftspartnern in die Wertschöpfungskette — und somit eine umfassende eCollaboration mit den Stakeholdern — die zukünftigen Quellen zur Generierung von Wettbewerbsvorteilen und Innovationspotenzialen darstellt.

Towards a Generic e-Market Design

The design of the microstructure of electronic markets is crucial for their success. Less effort has been made in this area, especially for commodity markets. This paper illustrates five key problems of e-market design and introduces the concept of cascading dynamic market models as a promising solution to cope with most of them. Taking the multi-dimensional character of commodities into consideration, further research in this area is encouraged. Furthermore, the project ‘Electronic-Financial-Brokerage as knowledge intensive services — a generic approach’ dealing with those problems is briefly presented

Shared Mental Models in Creative Virtual Teamwork

This paper presents an experiment on the impact of Shared Mental Models (SMM) on creative virtual teamwork. We tested whether the usage of an online whiteboard influences the building of SMM in the initial phase of virtual teamwork. As SMM are the foundation for successful collaboration in teams, we transferred the construct on measuring the team task and team goal in a creative virtual team process. In the first section of the paper a theoretical discussion on SMM, creativity and virtual teamwork will be presented. Subsequently, our experiment on virtual teamwork via the use of a virtual tool and its impact towards SMM will be introduced and the results will be discussed. We identified that specific creative competencies of virtual tools enhance the level of SMM but still lack in perceived efficiency compared to physically present teamwork. The findings recommend further research on the applicability, effectiveness and capabilities of creative virtual tools.

Mobile Applications for Knowledge Workers and Field Workers

In recent years, the diffusion of mobile applications (mobile apps) has risen significantly. Nowadays, mobile business apps are strongly emerging in business, enhancing productivity and employees’ satisfaction, whilst the usage of customized individual enterprise apps is still an exception. Standardized business apps enable basic functionalities, for example, mobile data storage and exchange (e.g., Dropbox), communication (e.g., Skype), and other routine processes, which support mobile workers. In addition, mobile apps can, for example, increase the flexibility of mobile workers by easing the access to firm’s information from outside the enterprise and by enabling ubiquitous collaboration. Hence, mobile apps can generate competitive advantages and can increase work efficiency on a broad scale. But mobile workers form no coherent group. Our research reveals, based on two case studies, that they can be clustered into two groups: knowledge workers and field workers. Knowledge workers and field workers fulfill different tasks and work in different environments. Hence, they have different requirements for mobile support. In this paper we conclude that standardized mobile business apps cannot meet the different requirements of various groups of mobile workers. Task- and firm-specific (individualized) requirements determine the specification, implementation, and application of mobile apps.

Kundenintegration im Produktentwicklungsprozess in virtuellen Welten

ZusammenfassungenSchon heute nutzen namhafte Unternehmen virtuelle Welten, insbesondere Second Life (SL), als Kommunikationskanal zu Kunden und als Instrument der Kundenintegration. Forschungen im Bereich des Customer Relationship Management zeigen, dass Kundenintegrationskonzepte in der Produktentwicklung strategische Wettbewerbsvorteile generieren können. Jedoch ist noch wenig darüber bekannt, ob und wie die Kunden-integration für die Produktentwicklung im Kontext virtueller Welten angewendet werden kann.Dieser Beitrag stellt Ergebnisse einer Studie dar, in der unternehmenseigene Nachrichten eines Convenience Sample von 130 in Second Life aktiven Unternehmen qualitativ zu geplanten und realisierten Kundenintegrationsprojekten in Second Life analysiert wurden. Hierzu wird ein Rahmenmodell vorgestellt, das die Möglichkeiten zur Nutzung von Second Life als Marketing- und Produktentwicklungsplattform aufzeigt. Realisierte Maßnahmen zur Kundenintegration in virtuellen Welten werden dargestellt. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse zeigen, dass lediglich 17 % der in Second Life untersuchten Unternehmen Kundenintegrationsansätze zu Produktentwicklungszwecken anwenden. Unternehmen integrieren ihre Kunden in den untersuchten Fällen in unterschiedliche Wertschöpfungsprozesse und organisieren häufig Wettbewerbe, um Produktentwicklungstätigkeiten durch Kunden zu initiieren. Die Studienergebnisse lassen darauf schließen, dass die Potenziale virtueller Welten zur Kundenintegration in die Neuproduktentwicklung noch nicht vollständig erkannt sind.

A Business Model for Mobile Ad-Hoc Communities

Portable devices with Bluetooth interfaces, such as mobile phones and PDAs, are enabled for near field communication (