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As from the beginning of the late 70's an impressive number of innovative electronic payment systems have been developed and tested commercially. However, the resulting variety and complexity of the systems have turned out to be one of the obstacles for the broad acceptance of electronic payment. In this paper we propose a process and service oriented framework, which offers a structural and conceptual orientation in the field of electronic payment. It renders possible an integral view on electronic payment that goes beyond the frame of an individual system. To do this, we have generalized the systems-oriented approaches to a phase-oriented payment model. Using this model, requirements and supporting services for electronic payment can be sorted systematically and described from both the customers' and the merchants' viewpoint. Providing integrated payment processes and services is proving to be a difficult task. With this paper we would like to outline the necessity for a Payment Service Provider to act as a mediator for suppliers and users of electronic payment systems.
A reference model is always developed in order to support a specific purpose. The development environment is setting the broader context. Limitations are not only set by size and experience of the modeler team or by budget and time constraints. The intended usage scenario also defines the fundamental contour of a reference model. During the practical work with reference models, a range of key issues has come up to increase the suitability of reference models for daily use. As the result of many projects, the authors have summarized the key issues and formulated critical success factors for reference modeling projects.
Currently, there is a global problem of an increasing need of energy. There will be less fossil fuel, which will be more expensive in the future. The regenerative energies are getting more and more important. The subject deals with the problem of economical feasibility of geothermal energy systems. Its goal is to analyze nessesary conditions and aspects for realizing geothermal energy systems in comparison to and competition with traditional energy sources. The geothermal energy recovery is economically advantageous if the investment costs, esp. the drilling costs, could be reduced significantly. It only seems possible to open up a big opportunity for realizing geothermal energy systems by using a rock melt drilling technology, to reduce the investment costs significantly.
Currently, there is a global problem of an increasing need of energy. There will be less fossil fuel, which will be more expensive in the future. The regenerative energies are becoming more and more important. The subject deals the problem of economical feasibility of geothermal energy systems. Its goal is to analyze necesary conditions and aspects of realizing geothermal energy systems in comparison to and competition with traditional energy sources. The geothermal energy recovery is economically advantageous if the investment costs, esp. the drilling costs, could be reduced significantly. It only seems possible to open up a big opportunity for realizing geothermal energy systems by using a rock melt drilling technology, to reduce the investment costs significantly.
Mergers and acquisitions take place all over the world and in many industries, typically motivated by corporate politics. While IT management is often not involved in the decision-making, it has to solve a wide range of problems in the post-merger phase. Indeed, merging two or more companies implies not only merging their core businesses, but also creating a new and efficiently integrated IT organisation from the individual ones, since persistence of the current IT organisations usually does not make sense. In addition, corporate management frequently imposes constraints, e.g., cost reductions, on the IT infrastructure. The principal critical success factor when merging IT organisations is the uninterrupted operation of the IT business, because a service gap is neither acceptable for in-house functional departments nor for external customers. Therefore, the IT rebuilding phase has to focus on IT services that facilitate the processes of functional departments, support processes, and processes of customers and suppliers, so that any transformation work is transparent to internal and external customers. In this article we describe a real-world but anonymous case study. Our goals are to highlight the points important for merging IT organisations, and to help decision-makers, particularly in the areas of IT organisation and IT personnel. We focus on the arising organisational and non-technical issues from a management perspective, i.e., the CIO's view, and provide checklists intended to help IT managers to address the most pressing issues. To assist CIOs surviving in the post merger phase, we give check lists for merging IT organisations, check lists for merging IT human resources, check lists for IT budgets and reporting, and assess activities in a merger scenario. IT hardware, software and IT infrastructure as well as running IT projects are not considered in this paper.
IT performance measurement is often associated by chief executive officers with IT cost cutting although IT protects business processes from increasing IT costs. IT cost cutting only endangers the company’s efficiency. This opinion discriminates those who do IT performance measurement in companies as a bean-counter. The present paper describes an integrated reference model for IT performance measurement based on a life cycle model and a performance oriented framework. The presented model was created from a practical point of view. It is designed lank compared with other known concepts and is very appropriate for small and medium enterprises (SME).
In this paper, we present the results of a controlled human experiment where students in a business process modelling course had to model a business process from a case study as part of their coursework. One group could take advantage of the continuous validation feature that is implemented in the bflow modelling tool, i.e. they were provided with alerts about modelling errors. A control group had to create a model for the same case study without using continuous validation. The results of the experiment indicate that the presence of continuous validation indeed has had a positive effect on the number of syntactic errors in business process models.
The short survey „Green IT 2009“ got a very pleasant feedback. The authors received 132 useful answers within only two weeks of survey (15th January until 31st January 2009). The electronic forms were sent to 1.000 companies in Germany and some neighbouring countries. The results show very clearly that the companies are already acting. Green IT has found its way into the companies in different ways and activities. But Green IT is known as a technical topic of IT management or building services engineering. The investments are made mostly in technical activities (energy saving hardware, virtualisation, cooling and more). From a business view the sourcing departments have to change their strategies and processes. The type and amount of IT investment decisions are not concerned by Green IT activities. The main targets of the companies are saving energy and costs followed by advancements in marketing and innovation.
Green IT (Green IS, Green ICT) is a concept of saving energy consumption to reduce IT costs. A current survey shows that only few companies in German speaking countries consider this aspect in their daily business. This is important facing the current situation of attempts of cost saving during the current economic crisis worldwide. This paper introduces into Green IT and presents an IT management and controlling concept. Then the main results of a currently presented survey are used to modify the concept. Finally an agenda for future research is given.
Green IT (Green IS, Green ICT) is a concept of saving energy consumption to reduce IT costs. A current survey shows that only few companies in German speaking countries consider this aspect in their daily business. This is important facing the current situation of attempts of cost saving during the current economic crisis worldwide. This paper introduces into Green IT and presents an IT management and controlling concept. Then the main results of a currently presented survey are used to modify the concept. Finally an agenda for future research is given
Measuring the Understandability of Business Process Models - Are We Asking the Right Questions?
(2011)
Governance and Sustainability in Information Systems. Managing the Transfer and Diffusion of IT
(2011)
This article concerns the design and development of Information- and Communication Technology, in particular computer systems in regard to the demographic transition which will influence user capabilities. It is questionable if current applied computer systems are able to meet the requirements of altered user groups with diversified capabilities. Such an enquiry is necessary based on actual forecasts leading to the assumption that the average age of employees in enterprises will increase significantly within the next 50-60 years, while the percentage of computer aided business tasks, operated by human individuals, rises from year to year. This progress will precipitate specific consequences for enterprises regarding the design and application of computer systems. If computer systems are not adapted to altered user requirements, efficient and productive utilisation could be negatively influenced. These consequences constitute the motivation to extend traditional design methodologies and thereby ensure the application of computer systems that are usable, independent of user capabilities.
This article concerns with the accessibility of Business process modelling tools (BPMo tools) and business process modelling languages (BPMo languages). Therefore the reader will be introduced to business process management and the authors' motivation behind this inquiry. Afterwards, the paper will reflect problems when applying inaccessible BPMo tools. To illustrate these problems the authors distinguish between two different categories of issues and provide practical examples. Finally the article will present three approaches to improve the accessibility of BPMo tools and BPMo languages.
The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, BMA) is supporting 73 projects in Germany using European Union (EU) funds in the amount of € 26 million. By providing the subsidies, the European Commission and the German Federal Government are hoping to implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among German small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The project run by Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University is one of these CSR projects. It is aimed at providing comprehensive information on CSR to the businesses in question and at emphasizing their responsibility along the supply chain.
Providing universal access to social protection and health systems for all members of society, including the poor and vulnerable, is increasingly considered crucial to international development debates. This is the first book to explore from an interdisciplinary and global perspective the reforms of social protection systems introduced in recent years by many governments of low and middle-income countries.
Although most individuals who gamble do so without any adverse consequences, some individuals develop a recurrent, maladaptive pattern of gambling behaviour, often called pathological gambling or gambling disorder, that is associated with financial losses, disruption of family and interpersonal relationships, and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Identifying whether different types of gambling modalities vary in their ability to lead to maladaptive patterns of gambling behaviour is essential to develop public policies that seek to balance access to gambling opportunities with minimizing risk for the potential adverse consequences of gambling behaviour. Until recently, assessing the risk potential of different types of gambling products was nearly impossible. ASTERIG, initially developed in Germany in 2006-2010, is an assessment tool to measure and to evaluate the risk potential of any gambling product based on scores on ten dimensions. In doing so, it also allows a comparison to be drawn between the addictive potential of different gambling products. Furthermore, the tool highlights where the specific risk potential of each specific gambling product lies. This makes it a valuable tool at the legislative, case law, and administrative levels as it allows the risk potential of individual gambling products to be identified and to be compared globally and across 10 different dimensions of risk potential. We note that specific gambling products should always be evaluated rather than product groups (lotteries, slot machines) or providers, as there may be variations among those product groups that impact their risk potential. For example, slot machines may vary on the amount of jackpot, which may influence their risk potential.
In discussions of gambling addiction to specific games, the market size and the proceeds generated by the game are usually disregarded. Inclusion of these parameters results in a relativization of the picture of gambling addiction. A fundamental principle for such an analysis is the separation between absolute numbers and ratios, which is a common procedure in economic contexts.
Within an elementary decision of March 28th, 2006 the German Federal Constitutional Court implemented the following: “According to the status quo of research it is certain, that gambling and bets can result in morbid addictive behaviour. ... However different gambling products exhibit different addictive potentials.” Up to now a specific identification of the addictive potential of a concrete gambling product was nearly impossible. This being said, the Wissenschaftliches Forum Glücksspiel (Gambling Scientific Forum) developed a globally applicable assessment tool to measure and evaluate the risk potential of gambling products.
AsTERiG is developed by the Gambling Scientific Forum in the years 2006-2010. At the completion of this final version as well as in the composition of this survey the following scientists were involved: Prof. Dr. Reiner Clement, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University; Prof. Dr. Jörg Ennuschat, University of Konstanz; Prof. Jörg Häfeli, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts; Prof. Dr. Gerhard Meyer, University of Bremen; Chantal Mörsen, Charité Berlin; Prof. Dr. Dr. Franz W. Peren, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University; Prof. Dr. Wiltrud Terlau, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University.
People are getting older because of the demographic changes and the rate of disabled people is also going up. This article shows the challenge for BPMTool developer due to these circumstances. It illustrates how these changes impact the usage of BPM-Tools based on an Evaluation of an exemplary BPMTool (Cooper & Patterson, 2007) in terms of IT-Usability and IT-Accessibility. This evaluation was conducted in a research laboratory at the university.
In general, mathematics plays a central role in our lives because today mathematics regulates our everyday life with techniques, technologies and procedures, for example coding techniques for credit cards or the drafting of curves and surfaces for construction procedures [5]. Obviously, mathematics continues to be an important element of engineering education and it still represents a major obstacle for the students. Lacking the knowledge of several topics, changing learning behavior and inadequate overall conditions at universities for the repetition of school mathematics were mentioned to be causes for the constantly increasing gap between the initial level of mathematics at university and the prior knowledge of the first semester students [2].
It is a euphemism to say that humans use tools. Humans possess a vast repertoire of tools they use every day. In fact, as language or bipedal locomotion, tool use is a hallmark of humans. Tool use has also been often viewed as an important step during evolution (van Schaik et al., 1999) or even as a marker of the evolution of human intelligence (Wynn, 1985). So a fundamental issue is, what are the cognitive and neural bases of human tool use? The present series of papers in this special topic represents the newest additions to that research topic.
Purpose – The aim of the study is to investigate the implementation of corporate sustainability (CS) in the German real estate sector.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors begin by outlining the framework set by the European Union and the German Federal Government for companies wanting to be classified as sustainable. After this, the relevance of sustainability for German real estate companies is discussed. Their empirical section contains an international comparison. Finally, they present an analysis checking the implementation of CS for the main 135 German real estate companies.
Findings – The present analysis shows that German real estate companies compare well with their international counterparts, in 2012 representing 15 per cent of all real estate firms reporting on the basis of the Global Reporting Initiative. However, of the 135 companies in Germany surveyed, only a small proportion classify themselves as CS and CSR (corporate social responsibility) enterprises. This number could be rapidly increased by better documentation of companies’ commitment to sustainability.
Practical implications – The study’s importance lies in the overview it provides of CS activities in the German real estate industry. In addition, it provides hints on how companies can improve their documentation to classify as CSR enterprises. Although the analysis concentrates on Germany, the results are also relevant for companies in other European countries.
Sustainability is a key issue in current research activities and programs. In this conjunction three major functions of research have been identified: Basic research, knowledge reservoirs, and knowledge transfer. With regard to a transmission to the private sector, knowledge transfer is the most important factor. In this process, universities of applied sciences can play an important part as they typically have a long-standing experience in linking science and business in their teaching and research. Another important agent in the process of knowledge transfer are networks and clusters. Their strength lies integrating the different competencies of its partners and using them to a mutual benefit.
The International Centre for Sustainable Development (IZNE) – with a major focus on responsible business and sustainable food – takes the advantage of being part of a University of Applied Sciences (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, BRSU), and being a member of several regional and international clusters and networks. These co-operations aim to establish and strengthen linkages between science and business, in particular by investigating research needs for business and business relevant research activities. Moreover, IZNE established and expanded regional and international co-operations of its own to get more transparency about regional and international value-added chains in the food sector and the issue of responsible business.
The case for basic human needs in coaching: A neuroscientific perspective - The SCOAP Coach Theory
(2014)
This paper gives an overview of the development of Fair Trade in six European countries: Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. After the description of the food retail industry and its market structures in these countries, the main European Fair Trade organizations are analyzed regarding their role within the Fair Trade system. The following part deals with the development of Fair Trade sales in general and with respect to the products coffee, tea, bananas, fruit juice and sugar. An overview of the main activities of national Fair Trade organizations, e.g. public relation activities, completes the analysis. This study shows the enormous upswing of Fair Trade during the last decade and the reasons for this development. Nevertheless, it comes to the conclusion that Fair Trade is still far away from being an essential part of the food retail industry in Europe.
IT-accessiblity is often treated as an orphan in companies. Even though the proportion of disabled people is substantial and people become older and more susceptible to disabilities. Besides cost factors, companies often do not have a plan how to implement and control IT-accessibility successfully. However, most companies are familiar with IT-maturity frameworks to evaluate and improve their own IT-infrastructure. It would facilitate dealing with IT-accessibility, if IT-maturity frameworks consider IT-accessibility and provide recommendations and solutions for a successful implementation. Therefore, this article conducts a review of an acknowledged IT-maturity framework with regard to its capability to enable implementation of IT-accessibility in an organization. The first part of this article will illustrate the motivation and background for the authors concern with such a topic. Afterwards the authors will introduce the reader to the reviewed IT-maturity framework and provide basic knowledge on IT-accessibility. The main part of the article will deal with the review of the applied IT-maturity framework and outline examples of critical capabilities for successfully implementing IT-accessibility in an organization. The final section will derive implications and close with planned future research activities in this field.
Over the past two decades many governments of low and middle income countries have started to introduce social protection measures or to extend the coverage and improve the functioning of public social protection systems. These reforms are a "global phenomenon" and can be observed in many African, Asian and Latin American countries. This paper focuses on international determinants for policy change within social protection by assessing the state of the art of both policy diffusion and policy transfer studies. Empirical studies of policy transfer and diffusion in the field of social protection are furthermore assessed in light of the theoretical background.
The paper examines the effectiveness of transgovernmental policy networks as a governance structure for policy diffusion. The analysis is based on a survey including 50 social protection policy maker and technical practitioner who are country delegates to transgovernmental policy networks within the policy area of social protection. The paper provides anecdotal empirical evidence that policy networks contribute to policy diffusion by inducing mutual learning processes.
Sustainable development needs sustainable production and sustainable consumption. During the last decades the encouragement of sustainable production has been the focus of research and policy makers under the implicit assumption that the observable increasing ‘green’ values of consumers would also entail a growing sustainable consumption. However, it has been found that the actual purchasing behaviour often deviates from ‘green’ attitudes. This phenomenon is called the attitude-behaviour gap. It is influenced by individual, social and situational factors. The main purchasing barriers for sustainable (organic) food are price, lack of immediate availability, sensory criteria, lack or overload of information as well as the low-involvement feature of food products in conjunction with well-established consumption routines, lack of transparency and trust towards labels and certifications.
The phenomenon of the deviation between purchase attitudes and actual buying behaviour of responsible consumers is called the attitude-behaviour gap. It is influenced by individual, social and situational factors. The main purchasing barriers for sustainable (organic) food are price, lack of immediate availability, sensory criteria, lack or overload of information as well as the low-involvement feature of food products in conjunction with well-established consumption routines, lack of transparency and trust towards labels and certifications. The last three barriers are mainly of a psychological nature. Especially the low-involvement feature of food products due to daily purchase routines and relatively low prices tends to result in fast, automatic and subconscious decisions based on a so-called human mental system 1, derived from Daniel Kahneman’s (Nobel-Prize laureate in Behavioural Economics) model in behavioural psychology. In contrast, the human mental system 2 is especially important for the transformations of individual behaviour towards a more sustainable consumption. Decisions based on the human mental system 2 are slow, logical, rational, conscious and arduous. This so-called dual action model also influences the reliability of responses in consumer surveys. It seems that the consumer behaviour is the most unstable and unpredictable part of the entire supply chain and requires special attention. Concrete measures to influence consumer behaviour towards sustainable consumption are highly complex. Reviews of interdisciplinary research literature on behavioural psychology, behavioural economics and consumer behaviour and an empirical analysis of selected countries worldwide with a view to sustainable food are presented. The example of Denmark serves as a ‘best practice’ case study to illustrate how sustainable food consumption can be encouraged. It demonstrates that common efforts and a shared responsibility of consumers, business, interdisciplinary researchers, mass media and policy are needed. It takes pioneers of change who succeed in assembling a ‘critical mass’ willing to increase its ‘sustainable’ behaviour. Considering the strong psychological barriers of consumers and the continuing low market share of organic food, proactive policy measures would be conducive to foster the personal responsibility of the consumers and offer incentives towards a sustainable production. Also, further self-obligations of companies (Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR) as well as more transparency and simplification of reliable labels and certifications are needed to encourage the process towards a sustainable development.
Reducing energy consumption is one of the most pursued economic and ecologic challenges concerning societies as a whole, individuals and organizations alike. While politics start taking measures for energy turnaround and smart home energy monitors are becoming popular, few studies have touched on sustainability in office environments so far, though they account for almost every second workplace in modern economics. In this paper, we present findings of two parallel studies in an organizational context using behavioral change oriented strategies to raise energy awareness. Next to demonstrating potentials, it shows that energy feedback needs must fit to the local organizational context to succeed and should consider typical work patterns to foster accountability of consumption.
Reducing energy consumption is one of the most pursued economic and ecologic challenges concerning societies as a whole, individuals and organizations alike. While politics start taking measures for energy turnaround and smart home energy monitors are becoming popular, few studies have touched on sustainability in office environments so far, though they account for almost every second workplace in modern economics. In this paper, we present findings of two parallel studies in an organizational context using behavioral change oriented strategies to raise energy awareness. Next to demonstrating potentials, it shows that energy feedback needs must fit to the local organizational context to succeed and should consider typical work patterns to foster accountability of consumption.
Although much effort is made to prevent risks arising from food, food-borne diseases are an ever present-threat to the consumers’ health. The consumption of fresh food that is contaminated with pathogens like fungi, viruses or bacteria can cause food poisoning that leads to severe health damages or even death. The outbreak of Shiga Toxin-producing enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in Germany and neighbouring countries in 2011 has shown this dramatically. Nearly 4.000 people were reported of being affected and more than 50 people died during the so called EHEC-crisis. As a result the consumers’ trust in the safety of fruits and vegetables decreased sharply.
Although much effort is made to prevent risks arising from food, food-borne diseases are an ever-present threat to the consumers’ health. The consumption of fresh food that is contaminated with pathogens like fungi, viruses or bacteria can cause food poisoning that leads to severe health damages or even death. The outbreak of Shiga Toxin-producing enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in Germany and neighbouring countries in 2011 has shown this dramatically. Nearly 4.000 people were reported of being affected and more than 50 people died during the so called EHEC-crisis. As a result the consumers’ trust in the safety of fruits and vegetables decreased sharply.
So far, sustainable HCI has mainly focused on the domestic context, but there is a growing body of work looking at the organizational context. As in the domestic context, these works still rest on psychological theories for behaviour change used for the domestic context. We supplement this view with an organizational theory-informed approach that adopts organizational roles as a key element. We will show how a role-based analysis could be applied to uncover information needs and to give em-ployee’s eco-feedback, which is linked to their tasks at hand. We illustrate the approach on a qualitative case study that was part of a broader, ongoing action research conducted in a German production company.
Over the past two decades many low and middle income countries worldwide have started to extend the coverage and improve the functioning of public social protection systems. The research program on international policy diffusion provides empirical evidence that apart from domestic factors international interdependencies matter as well for national policy change in social protection. However, little is known about the governance structures mediating international policy diffusion in social protection.
Results from the EU-project iStoppFalls : feasibility, effectiveness, approach for fall prevention
(2016)
Falls and their consequences are arguably most important events for transition from independent living to institutional care for older adults. Information and communication technology (ICT)-based support of fall prevention and fall risk assessment under the control of the user has a tremendous potential to, over time, prevent falls and reduce associated harm and costs. Our research uses participative design and a persuasive health approach to allow for seamless integration of an ICT-based fall prevention system into older adults’ everyday life. Based on a 6-month field study with 12 participants, we present qualitative results regarding the system use and provide insights into attitudes and practices of older adults concerning fall prevention and ICT-supported self-management of health. Our study demonstrates how it can lead to positive aspects of embodiment and health literacy through continuous monitoring of personal results, improved technical confidence, and quality of life. Implications are provided for designing similar systems.
Background: Falls are common in older adults and can result in serious injuries. Due to demographic changes, falls and related healthcare costs are likely to increase over the next years. Participation and motivation of older adults in fall prevention measures remain a challenge. The iStoppFalls project developed an information and communication technology (ICT)-based system for older adults to use at home in order to reduce common fall risk factors such as impaired balance and muscle weakness. The system aims at increasing older adults’ motivation to participate in ICT-based fall prevention measures. This article reports on usability, user-experience and user-acceptance aspects affecting the use of the iStoppFalls system by older adults.
Methods: In the course of a 16-week international multicenter study, 153 community-dwelling older adults aged 65+ participated in the iStoppFalls randomized controlled trial, of which half used the system in their home to exercise and assess their risk of falling. During the study, 60 participants completed questionnaires regarding the usability, user experience and user acceptance of the iStoppFalls system. Usability was measured with the System Usability Scale (SUS). For user experience the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) was applied. User acceptance was assessed with the Dynamic Acceptance Model for the Re-evaluation of Technologies (DART). To collect more detailed data on usability, user experience and user acceptance, additional qualitative interviews and observations were conducted with participants.
Results: Participants evaluated the usability of the system with an overall score of 62 (Standard Deviation, SD 15.58) out of 100, which suggests good usability. Most users enjoyed the iStoppFalls games and assessments, as shown by the overall PACES score of 31 (SD 8.03). With a score of 0.87 (SD 0.26), user acceptance results showed that participants accepted the iStoppFalls system for use in their own home. Interview data suggested that certain factors such as motivation, complexity or graphical design were different for gender and age.
Conclusions: The results suggest that the iStoppFalls system has good usability, user experience and user acceptance. It will be important to take these along with factors such as motivation, gender and age into consideration when designing and further developing ICT-based fall prevention systems.
The megatrends towards both a digital and a usership economy have changed entire markets in the past and will continue to do so over the next decades. In this work, we outline what this change means for possible futures of the mobility sector, taking the combination of trends in both economies into account. Using a sys-tematic, scenario-based trend analysis, we draft four general future scenarios and adapt the two most relevant scenarios to the automotive sector. Our findings show that combing the trends from both economies provides new insights that have often been neglected in literature because of an isolated view on digital technology only. However, service concepts such as self-driving car sharing or self-driving taxis have a great impact at various levels including microeconomic (e.g., service and product design, business models) and macroeconomic (e.g., with regard to ecological, economical, and social impacts). We give a brief outline of these issues and show which business mo dels could be successful in the most likely future scenarios, before we frame strategic implications for today’s automobile manufacturers.
Large sections of the German society are able to buy and consume meat on a daily basis due to progress in the agri-food sector. However, the way meat is produced, traded and consumed increasingly has become an issue that is controversially discussed by the media, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), lobbyists, the industry itself and consumers – often with a negative connotation. The meat industry reacts to this. By creating information campaigns and animal welfare initiatives it aims to stress that it is going to take its corporate social responsibilities (CSR) for consumers and animal welfare seriously. But, the industry’s actions are still criticised as being not sufficient to improve animal welfare levels significantly. Much of this criticism can be observed in online news portals, where articles about the issue get published and commented by readers. This makes online portals a valuable source for information that is to be tapped in this study. It aims to better understand the multifaceted discussions concerning animal welfare initiatives in online portals. By applying qualitative content analysis and web mining techniques to a sample of documents taken from three major German news sites it can be shown that online discussions refer to various aspects of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Findings also indicate that the discussions are framed by financial aspects.
A central objective of the German gambling law is to ensure the protection of minors and players (§ 1 Sentence 1 No. 3 GlüStV 2012). Since the year 2014 gambling facilities for commercial games of chance in gambling halls and restaurants have been certified by the German Safety Standards Authority [Technischer Überwachungsverein – TÜV]. Certification by government-accredited testing organizations based on internationally validated, interdisciplinary scientific expertise "Safeguarding the Protection of Minors and Players with Respect to Commercial Gambling in Germany – 2.0" is a quality assurance instrument from a regulatory perspective. It is in the interests of, in particular, excellent quality providers to ensure that they are also perceived as providing this level of quality. Certification leads to market separation. In so doing, the advantages of end-to-end certification should be greater than any disadvantages. Analysing the international environment shows that certifi cation initiatives are necessary and have been put in place in other sectors of the gambling industry.
The primary aim is quality assurance for a responsible handling of commercial games of chance offerings (responsible gambling). The presented testing catalogue for commercial gambling can also provide an impetus in the international context and, as appropriate, a set standard.
Agricultural activities within city boundaries have a long history in both developed and developing countries. In this paper, a broad approach to Urban AgriCulture (UAC) is used, one that includes the production of crops in urban and peri-urban areas and ranges in developed countries from allotment gardens over community gardens to semi-entrepreneurial self-harvest farms and fully commercialized agriculture. With an empirical case study on UAC Initiatives in the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg region this work fills a gap since the lack of comprehensive and comparative studies on urban agriculture (UA) currently makes it difficult for researchers to identify the benefits of UA activities.
Agricultural activities within the city boundaries have a long history in both developed and developing countries. Especially in developing countries these activities contribute to food security and the mitigation of malnutrition (food grown for home consumption). They generate additional income and contribute to recreation, environmental health as well as social interaction. In this paper, a broad approach of Urban AgriCulture is used, which includes the production of crops in urban and peri-urban areas and ranges in developed countries from allotment gardens (Schrebergarten) over community gardens (Urban Gardening) to semi-entrepreneurial self-harvest farms and fully commercialized agriculture (Urban Farming). Citizens seek to make a shift from traditional to new (sustainable) forms of food supply. From this evolves a demand for urban spaces that can be used agriculturally. The way how these citizens’ initiatives can be supported and their contribution to a resilient and sustainable urban food system increasingly attracts attention. This paper presents an empirical case study on Urban AgriCulture initiatives in the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg region (Germany). Urban AgriCulture is still a niche movement with the potential to contribute more significantly to urban development and constitute a pillar of urban quality of life.
Companies often have difficulties determining which criteria to base their investment decisions in different countries on. When considering direct foreign investment several risk indices are available. The PCI (Peren-Clement-Index) in its original form was developed in 1998. Its further refinement improves the PCI in three major ways: First, it offers a dynamic adjustment of criteria and consideration of recent changes in the international environment. Second, it provides business specificities of a company or its industrial sector to be considered in addition to macroeconomic aspects by a two-dimensional presentation, which ensures a customized assessment. Third, the PCI allows for consolidating investment decisions by combining a resource-orientated with a market-oriented view. The PCI allows, unlike other indices, a customized and company-specific strategic planning process. Ultimately companies must take up both perspectives in the context of an international investment decision. The use of risk indices in corporate planning for assessing global investments decision creates a fundamentally new of risk assessment.
Within qualitative interviews we examine attitudes towards driverless cars in order to investigate new mobility services and explore the impact of such services on everyday mobility. We identified three main issues that we would like to discuss in the workshop: (I) Designing beyond a driver-centric approach; (II) Developing mobility services for cars which drive themselves; and (III) Exploring self-driving practices.
The development of fully automated vehicles is becoming more and more present in the social discussion. The image of fully automated cars is determined by automobile manufacturers and placed in the context of individual traffic. In contrast to fully autonomous private cars, fully automated public transport is already operating in some cities and is to be expanded in the future. Autonomous public transport offers great potential for the development and promotion of sustainable mobility concepts. However, the user acceptance is important for the enforcement and widespread use of these technical innovations. An online study on the acceptance of fully automated public transport based on quantitative data of a sample of N = 201 is presented. The results show a high level of familiarity with the topic and a very high level of overall intention to use fully automated public transport in the future.
Political economic analyses of recent social protection reforms in Asian, African or Latin American countries have increased throughout the last few years. Yet, most contributions focus on one social protection mechanism only and do not provide a comparative approach across policy areas. In addition, most studies are empirical studies, with no or very limited theoretical linkages. The paper aims to explain multiple trajectories of social protection reform processes looking at cash transfers and social health protection policies in Kenya. It develops a taxonomy and suggest a conceptual framework to assess and explain reform dynamics across different social protection pillars. In order to allow for a more differentiated typology and enable us to understand different reform dynamics, the article uses the approach on gradual institutional change. While existing approaches to institutional change mostly focus on institutional change prompted by exogenous shocks or environmental shifts, this approach takes account of both, exogenous and endogenous sources of change.
This study contributes to the growing body of research concerning management consultancies by linking two previously disparate fields of study: (1) the examination of the effectiveness of consulting interventions and (2) the examination of the social processes that aim to create and legitimize the insights, knowledge and capabilities of management consultancies. We propose that consulting firms accumulate social authority in the course of pre-intervention discourse processes that is reflected in their reputation and celebrity. With respect to intervention, this social authority affects change recipients’ commitment to and compliance with the requirements of change implementation. We test the proposed relationships by conducting a measured variable path analysis of 117 change initiatives in German companies that were set up and implemented with the assistance of external consultancies. Our findings indicate that a consulting firm’s levels of both celebrity and reputation affect the change recipients’ commitment to proposed change strategies and thus, indirectly affect their behavioral compliance with the explicit requirements of change implementation.
The technological development of the digital computer and new options to collect, store and transfer mass data have changed the world in the last 40 years. Moreover, due to the ongoing progress of computer power, the establishment of the Internet as critical infrastructure and the options of ubiquitous sensor systems will have a dramatic impact on economies and societies in the future. We give a brief overview about the technological basics especially with regard to the exponential growth of big data and current turn towards sensor-based data collection. From this stance, we reconsider the various dimensions of personal data and and market mechanisms that have an impact of data usage and protection.
Universities, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in Africa – Conference Proceedings 2016
(2017)
These proceedings are the outcome of the 5th annual joint conference on “Universities Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in Africa” between the University of Nairobi, Kenya, the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Germany, held on 10-11 November 2016 on Campus Sankt Augustin, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.
In January 2015, German trade and industry announced to support the national animal welfare initiative "Initiative Tierwohl" (ITW) which stands for a more sustainable and animal-friendly meat production. A web content analysis shows that the ITW initiative has been widely picked up and discussed by online media and that user comments are quite heterogeneous. The current study identifies different types of consumers through factor and cluster analysis and is based on an online survey as well as face-to-face interviews. According to our results, the identified consumer groups demonstrate a rather passive comment behaviour on the internet. In fact, the internet was hardly mentioned as an information source for meat production; consumers more frequently referred to brochures, leaflets and personal contacts with sales personnel.
Smart home systems change the way we experience the home. While there are established research fields within HCI for visualizing specific use cases of a smart home, studies targeting user demands on visualizations spanning across multiple use cases are rare. Especially, individual data-related demands pose a challenge for usable visualizations. To investigate potentials of an end-user development (EUD) approach for flexibly supporting such demands, we developed a smart home system featuring both pre-defined visualizations and a visualization creation tool. To evaluate our concept, we installed our prototype in 12 households as part of a Living Lab study. Results are based on three interview studies, a design workshop and system log data. We identified eight overarching interests in home data and show how participants used pre-defined visualizations to get an overview and the creation tool to not only address specific use cases but also to answer questions by creating temporary visualizations.
Traditionally automotive UI focusses on the ergonomic design of controls and the user experience in the car. Bringing networked sensors into the car, connected cars can provide additional information to car drivers and owners, for and beyond the driving task. While there already are technological solutions, such as mobile applications commercially available, research on users’ information demands in such applications is scarce. We conducted four focus groups to uncover what kind of information users might be interested in to see on a second dashboard. Our findings show that besides control screens of todays’ dashboards, people are also interested in connected car services providing context information for a current driving situation and allowing strategic planning of driving safety or supporting car management when not driving. Our use cases inform the design of content for secondary dashboards for and especially beyond the driving context with a user perspective.
An Experimental Field-Study on Active and Passive Work Breaks in a Stressful Work Environment
(2017)
Work breaks are known to have positive effects on employees’ health, performance, and safety. However, prior research has focused mainly on their timing, duration, and frequency but less on break activities. Moreover, most studies examined work breaks in rather repetitive and physical demanding work. Thus, we conducted an experimental field study with a sample of employees’ working in a stressful and cognitive demanding working environment and examined how different types of work breaks (boxing, deep relaxation, and usual breaks) affect participants’ mood, cognitive performance, and neuro-physiological state.