News
[12.12.2022] Research on Open Social Innovation: Scientific Exchange and Networking
For the third time, Thomas Gegenhuber (JKU Linz & Leuphana University), Johanna Mair (Hertie School Berlin & Stanford), Anne-Laure Fayard (NOVA School of Business and Economics) and Paolo V. Leone (NOVA School of Business and Economics) organized a meeting of the ROSI (Research on Open Social Innovation) research group. In the group, scholars from leading international universities exchange ideas on open social innovation processes, share their latest findings and jointly determine an agenda for future research.
At this meeting in late September, Angela Aristidou (University College London), Olivia Jung (Emory University) and Pedro Oliveira (Nova School of Business and Economics) presented their latest research on Open Social Innovation in Healthcare. This session was moderated by Madeleine Rauch (Copenhagen Business School). Among other topics, the group discussed how patients can better participate in healthcare innovation and the role of AI and platforms.
[24.02.2021] EXPERT OPINION ON THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S REPORT ON DIGITALIZATION EQUALITY: BWL PROFESSOR THOMAS GEGENHUBER IS CO-AUTHOR
In January 2021, Federal Minister Franziska Giffey accepted the expert report "Shaping digitization in a gender-just way" from the Commission of Experts for the Third Report on Gender Equality. Thomas Gegenhuber, Junior Professor of Business Administration with a focus on digital transformation, is a member of the Commission of Experts as an expert on business management issues. His work in the report focused primarily on the topic of "digitization-related startups."
Apps, digital platforms, artificial intelligence, service robotics - many startups use digital technologies to create innovative business models. "Surveys show only about 15.7% of German startups are founded by women. Digital entrepreneurship is building the economy of the future. If we want to make it gender equitable, we urgently need to increase the proportion of women," says Prof. Dr. Thomas Gegenhuber.
What role do gender inequalities play in startups? The report shows which structural barriers cause an unbalanced gender ratio in the digital startup scene. These include poor social security for solo self-employed workers, the influence of gender stereotypes, and a lack of opportunities to reconcile work and family life. start-up capital is also not equally accessible to everyone: men are more likely to receive funding through venture capital, private investors, and even government funding than women. According to international studies, it is women who are the more financially sustainable founders.
At the end of each chapter, the experts make concrete recommendations for action to the German government. One demand aims to improve access to start-up capital: "The proportion of women in the decision-making bodies that decide on venture capital and funding must be increased. The Commission of Experts therefore recommends mandatory parity representation in public funding programs and, as a first step, a voluntary commitment in private programs," explains Prof. Dr. Thomas Gegenhuber.
With regard to changing the male-dominated role image of "entrepreneurship," Prof. Dr. Thomas Gegenhuber also sees universities as having an obligation: "When we invite entrepreneurs as lecturers or organize discussions at the university, we as lecturers must ensure that we invite women as well as men. We also have to pay attention to diversity when it comes to best practices in teaching."
Equality reports present an empirical inventory of the state of equality and make recommendations on how identified imbalances can be remedied. With its report, the Commission of Experts is making an important contribution to the German government's Third Report on Gender Equality. This report deals in particular with the question of what course needs to be set in order to shape developments in the digital economy and society in such a way that women and men have equal opportunities for realization.
[24.06.2020] Hospital 4.0: innovation project receives grant via innovation funding program
Digitization in the healthcare sector is advancing. Based on the vision of digitized production in Industry 4.0, the term Hospital 4.0 has become established. Hospital 4.0 describes the digitization and networking of treatment and care processes in hospitals with the help of cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things and Services as support systems. The development of intelligent medical technology with a coupling of the IT world is therefore of central importance. The product to be developed for reproducible patient positioning in radiotherapy as part of the initiative on Hospital 4.0 is localized in the specialization field of health and social economy and is thus a priority topic of the Lower Saxony Regional Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization (RIS3).
The project is realized as a cooperation project between LAP GmbH Laser Applications and Leuphana University Lüneburg.
More details of the project can be found here.
You can find a previous news report on this here.
[11.06.2020] Federal chancellery supports research project on #WirVsVirus hackathon
Thomas Gegenhuber, Junior Professor of Digital Transformation at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, and Johanna Mair, Professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership at the Hertie School and Fellow at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, are leading a research project that uses an innovative approach to examine the #WirVsVirus hackathon and subsequent 6-month implementation program. The head of the German Chancellor's Office, Prof. Dr. Helge Braun, has pledged the support and cooperation of the Chancellor's Office to the research project.
#WirVsVirus is the call of a consortium of civil society organizations under the auspices of the Federal Chancellery to work together on digital solutions to the social, economic and medical challenges of the Corona crisis in Germany. During a 48-hour hackathon in March, 26,500 people generated nearly 1,500 ideas through teamwork. A panel of judges awarded prizes to the 20 best ideas, and about 130 projects are now part of an implementation program that will help put the ideas into practice.
"Our goal is to work through the hackathon and the implementation program in real time, asking the question of how to organize social innovation at the interface of administration, civil society and business," say Johanna Mair and Thomas Gegenhuber.
"Together with the stakeholders, we want to gain insights into best practices and challenges along the entire process. This will allow us to draw lessons from the project and develop recommendations for policy and practice. In the long term, we want this project to provide a blueprint and scientific contribution to societal progress through technology-enabled participatory social innovation."
Real-time means that initial findings will also be incorporated into the process on an ongoing basis. Further results of the project will be presented at the #oneversary of the hackathon in March 2021. In addition, the research team will publish interim findings in the form of mini-case studies on the ideas and initiatives funded.
Spokesperson of the hackathon consortium, Anna Hupperth of Tech4Germany on the project: "The accompanying research not only allows us to draw lessons from our initiative, but it also supports the momentum for debates on how civil society can be an established part of bottom-up digital innovation processes."
An article by Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber in the Stanford Social Innovation Review on "Countering Coronavirus with Open Social Innovation" can be found here.
[15.01.2020] Professors of the research center awarded for digital teaching
The Faculty of Business has set itself the goal of offering more courses dedicated to the topic of digitization. Prof. Dr. Paul Drews and Prof. Dr. Thomas Gegenhuber were honored by the Faculty of Business for their teaching in 2019. Both courses that received the award focus on digitization.
Prof. Dr. Paul Drews received the teaching award for his English-language course "Digital Innovation Lab: Exploring Transdisciplinary Design," which he offers in the College's complementary studies program. The aim of the course is to familiarize students theoretically and practically with new technologies and design-oriented process methods (including design thinking). Students from different disciplines take up problems from their environment and develop new solutions methodically, taking into account the potential of new technologies. In addition to involving later users in the design process, the theoretical foundation and reflection on the procedure also provide a basis for new experiences and insights. A highlight of the course from the students' point of view is the use of Lego Serious Play in the prototyping phase. In this process, students develop Lego models for possible solutions after an introductory phase. The course received a very good result in the evaluation in the summer semester 2019 and will probably be offered again in the summer semester 2020.
Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber received a teaching award for the teaching research project "How do crowd-based platforms operate?Leveraging organization theory to inquire into platforms' organizing processes" (Master Business & Development). The course concept makes use of the online availability of digital platform organizations: With just a few clicks, students can immerse themselves in the role of the crowd and explore the organization of platforms. The academic foundation for this course is to teach the theoretical underpinnings of platform organization (e.g., role of algorithms and ratings). The theoretical knowledge will be developed by reading academic publications, which will then be summarized in memos, as well as through inputs and discussions in the course. In the next step, students are introduced to the basics of netnography and participant observation. Based on the observations made, students will develop and conduct their own small research project. This course will be offered again in the summer semester 2020.
[23.12.2019] Thomas Gegenhuber receives research award from Cambridge Digital Innovation for research into digital innovation
Platform-driven business models are taking over the world. However, when you look more closely at the evolution of platforms, it gets more complicated. Despite the forward-looking, technology-driven rhetoric of platforms that wins over consumers, platforms face resistance from other critical stakeholders. Uber, for example, has recognized in recent years that regulators remain important and critical to the platform's success. From an institutional perspective, this is not surprising. Legitimacy matters - from all stakeholders.
These and other issues are discussed in an article that takes an institutional perspective to examine digital innovation and transformation. Bob Hinings, Thomas Gegenhuber, and Royston Greenwood received a research award for this article at this year's Research Impact and Contributions to Knowledge (RICK) workshop hosted by Cambridge Digital Innovation (Judge School of Business).
Further work in this area is planned. Together with Michael Barrett, Bob Hinings, and Danielle Logue, Thomas Gegenhuber is editing the anthology Research in the Sociology of Organizations on this very topic (photo, left to right).
[17.10.2019] Cultural Entrepreneurship and digital Innovation: Bachelor thesis makes it into Junior Management Science Journal
"The legitimation of an innovation through cultural entrepreneurship - Explorative case study of a symbiotic interaction between a start-up and its key customers" - this is the title of the excellent bachelor thesis of Leona Schink, a former student of business administration at Leuphana University Lüneburg, which was written in the winter semester 2018/2019 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Gegenhuber, junior professor of business administration, esp. digital transformation and member of the research center for digital transformation. Ms. Schink submitted her thesis to the Junior Management Science Journal (JUMS), which publishes the best final theses in business administration from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. JUMS accepted the paper and it is available online since September 26, 2019 in the 12th issue of the scientific journal (https://jums.academy/l-schink/). With Leona Schink's paper, the current issue will also include a thesis from Leuphana University of Lüneburg for the first time.
The journal is the first German-language platform for outstanding theses in business administration and pursues the goal of identifying and recognizing outstanding student achievements in the entire field of business administration and making them available in open access.
Leona Schink explored how innovative technology start-up Tonio (https://tonio.com/) persuaded and mobilized its key B-to-B customer Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) (http://www.timewarner.com/) to work with its innovative digital technology and, more importantly, how internal dynamics within the key customer influence the legitimization process. The theoretical basis was provided by the literature on "cultural entrepreneurship". The data emerged, among other things, from expert interviews with members of both organizations, which were conducted in London and Vienna. Commenting on her findings, Leona Schink says: "Through a qualitative content analysis of the interviews, I was able to show that bothTonio and internal alliance partners within TBS engaged in symbiotic collaborative activism for the legitimization of digital technology through targeted cultural persuasion."
For example, in persuasion efforts directed at internal stakeholders,TBS used identity mechanisms, such as symbolic actions, narratives, and analogies, that had likewise been used previously by Tonio to attract TBS as a customer. Subsequently,Tonio took over legitimation work from TBS to acquire new customers. By identifying this fusion, the bachelor thesis contributes to the understanding of innovation projects as symbioses functioning across organizational boundaries.
Prof. Dr. Gegenhuber sees added value for research in the results: "I congratulate Ms. Schink on this excellent bachelor thesis. It is particularly important to me to promote the talents of students. To achieve this, it is essential to challenge students. The result: Ms. Schink's bachelor thesis is very good. It also contributes to current debates in the cultural entrepreneurship literature and to the question of how established organizations and startups can work together to contribute to the dissemination of new digital technologies."
[28.05.2019] Societal impacts of digital transformation
The research center also considers the societal implications of digitalization in research and teaching. Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber invited two speakers, Katrin Fritsch form the MOTIF Institute for Digital Culture, and Leonie Beining, from the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung, to share their insights in the master course digitalization. Find below the key information about their talks. For further questions contact the speakers or Prof. Gegenhuber.
Talk Katrin Fritsch (@KatrinFritsch, MOTIF Institute for Digital Culture)
Title: Technology = Politics. Going beyond Hypes and Fears
Abstract. Fake news, bias in artificial intelligence, Google walkouts: it seems that digitalisation increasingly bears many political questions. Some years ago the internet was perceived as an open, diverse and neutral space, but with issues such as privacy or net neutrality technology becomes politics. How did that actually happen? And how can one make sense of those circumstances? In the lecture, Katrin discusses what “technology” is and how it is intertwined with society. By looking into narratives of technology (the internet is a tidal wave; progress is inevitable; technology is neutral;) and into the history of technology (handwriting; bicycles; trains) she advocates for a socio-political perspective that goes beyond current hypes of emerging technologies.
Bio
Katrin is a data and society researcher, writer, speaker and creative consultant based in Berlin. She is the co-founder of MOTIF Institute for Digital Culture, an interdisciplinary research institute and creative agency that operates at the intersection of technology and culture. In her latest research project, Katrin has examined the social imaginaries of machine learning engineers about artificial intelligence. Katrin is also co-founder of the agency Effi Beißt and has consulted netzpolitik.org on strategies to create awareness for digital human rights. She not only analyses the social challenges new technologies bring, but further interrogates how responses in the context of art and culture can generate a new understanding.
Talk Leonie Beining (Stiftung Neue Verantwortung - SNV)
Title: Algorithmic Decision-Making. Prospects, Pitfalls and why we as a Society should care
Abstract. Algorithmic decision-making (ADM) systems are part of our daily lives. But they not only recommend the next song on Spotify or control your newsfeed on Facebook. ADM has spread out in many parts of society, filtering job applicants, delivering diagnoses regarding our health or deciding where the police should patrol. Therefore algorithms affect peoples’ life and society as a whole. By discussing opportunities and risks, Leonie gives an overview of the societal implications of algorithmic decision-making and the current debate on ethics in artificial intelligence.
Bio
Leonie Beining leads the project Algorithmic Decision Making for the Common Good, assessing the societal implications of automated decision-making in fields like healthcare, recruiting or public security. In her current work, she analyzes how algorithmic decision-making can be made comprehensible to the people who are affected by these decisions. Another focus of her work was the role of civil society actors in digitization. Before joining SNV, she worked with the Global Issues Division of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Leonie holds a Master in Politics and Public Administration from the University of Potsdam and a Bachelor from the University of Konstanz.
Complementing articles for these talks:
[21.03.2019] The Research Center invites you to the lecture: The Evolution of a Platform Business Model
Monday, April 8, 6.30 - 7.30 p.m., C HS 3
Speaker: Matthias Niebuhr, Head of Legal at MyHammer Holding AG
The platform MyHammer is Germany's largest craftsmen's portal on the Internet. As the market leader, MyHammer has been supporting craftsmen in their search for jobs for over 10 years and helps consumers find the right company for their home and garden job. Via MyHammer, clients can get in touch directly with qualified craftsmen recommended by customers. The spectrum ranges from complete construction measures to repairs and home renovations to removals. MyHammer pays attention to the observance of the handicraft regulation and examines the data to the qualification of the respective enterprises. For clients the use of the portal is free. MyHammer finances itself over regular contribution payments of the registered craftsmen.
In his presentation, Matthias Niebuhr talks about MyHammer's experiences with the platform business model over the last 10 years. Matthias Niebuhr will provide first-hand answers to the central questions of platform management: How do you build up a platform and lead it to growth? What challenges must be mastered in the process?
[13.03.2019] We want to invite you to the talk by Vern Glaser (University of Alberta) on the 2nd of April at 6.30 pm – 8.00 pm, room C40.530
Pitching insecurity: How an organization uses an algorithm to craft a theory of competitive advantage
This talk at Leuphana University is made possible through funding from our research collaboration with BI Norwegian School Oslo on “Future ways of working in digital economies”. Please RSVP to Annette Schimming schimmin@leuphana.de until the 1st of April at noon.
Vern Glaser is an Assistant Professor in the Strategic Management and Organization Department at the University of Alberta. He studies the question, How do organizations strategically change practices and culture? Most of his research revolves around three inter-related concepts naturally associated with organizational efforts to change practices and/or culture: language, tools and technology, and professional expertise. His research was published in leading journals of our fields such as Organization Science and Academy of Management Journal. For more information on what is Vern is working on, check out his webpage: http://www.vernglaser.com
[18.02.2019] Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber participates in the social discourse on digital platforms
Platform-based organizations are the dominant organizational form of the 21st century. Increasingly, the public is asking what kind of regulatory framework is needed for platforms. "I think it is central that university experts get involved in this social discourse," says Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber.
Accordingly, in an interview on February 9, 2019 with Deutschlandfunk, Prof. Gegenhuber criticized Facebook's market-dominating position, saying, "Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp should not be in one hand." In addition, on February 18, 2019, Prof. Gegenhuber gave a presentation at a working group of the digital association Bitkom on the topic of "Regulatory Framework for Digital Platforms" and on the same day he also presented his views on the topic of "Social Innovation and Digital Platforms" at an expert discussion of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Hans Böckler Foundation.
[04.02.2019] Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber receives award for teaching excellence
Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber receives an award for excellence in teaching from the Faculty of Management and Technology for his module "Digital Transformation" in the Master's program Management & Business Development. "I think it is wonderful that Leuphana University values our role as teachers. I enjoy teaching and am passionate about it - in teaching, we as academics have the opportunity to inspire students and create space for critical thinking. Furthermore, I am convinced that research and teaching are mutually beneficial," says Prof. Gegenhuber.
[30.11.2018] Inaugural Lecture Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber
Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber gave his inaugural lecture at Leuphana University Lüneburg on November 28. After welcoming remarks by University President Sascha Spoun and the Dean of the Faculty of Management and Technology, Peter Niemeyer, Thomas Gegenhuber opened his lecture with the title "Digital Transformation: Opportunity and Challenge for Research, Teaching and Practice". In his talk, Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber described - embedded in his personal career - how platforms are organized and why this form of organization is central to digital transformation. Thomas Gegenhuber emphasized that the business analysis of digital transformation can make a contribution to socio-political issues. In doing so, Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber illustrated the positive interactions in his work between research, teaching and practice. You can access the slides of his lecture here. The photo gallery also offers an insight into the event.
[08.11.2018] Digital Transformation Research Center represented at the VDE Tec Summit 2018
Dr. Nicolas Meier will represent the Digital Transformation Research Center at the VDE Tec Summit 2018 in Berlin. Under the motto "networked. digital. electric - digitalization at your fingertips", more than 1,500 participants from business, research and politics will come together. Participants choose between six core digital topics - Artificial Intelligence, Mixed Reality, Smart Automation, Smart Information, Future of ICT and Cyber Security - and five application areas. These cover the key life and economic sectors of Energy, Industry, Mobility, Health and Living. All topics are considered from a 360-degree view: From new business models based on digital technologies and the latest research findings to current developments in the engineering of new products and the necessary skills and competencies that employees need today and in the future. One focus is on small and medium-sized enterprises.
In the form of an e-poster presentation on the topic of "Human centric low cost automation - laser assistance for smart factories in industrie 4.0", Dr. Nicolas Meier and Ralf Müller-Polyzou will report on the collaboration between LAP GmbH Laser Applikationen and the Digital Transformation Research Center. Further work between LAP GmbH Laser Applikationen and the research center will take place in the context of Mr. Müller-Polyzou's doctorate at the Institute for Product and Process Innovation PPI at Leuphana University. Click here for the event.
[29.10.2018] Researchers of the Digital Transformation Research Center contributing to the Leuphana Opening Week
How to propel the start of new students into the university? The answer of the Leuphana University: Let´s organize a starting week dedicated to a topic, where students can listen to talks of leading thinkers, get the first-hand experience on their first project and forge a community with other students across disciplinary boundaries. The topic of this opening week was "Digital Futures". This year, the university welcomed 1.500 students. Five members of the Digital Transformation Research Center enriched the topic of this year's opening week:
- Prof. Paul Drews, assistant professor of information systems and head of the interdisciplinary Digital Transformation Research Center, shared his insights how established industries, such as the banking industry, can successfully manage the change process in response to digital transformation. In his talk, he emphasized the need of traditional companies to become more agile.
- Prof. Dr. Burkhardt Funk is Professor of Business Informatics and Prof. Dr. Hannah Trittin, assistant professor for business administration, particularly Business Ethics at Leuphana University Lüneburg, dedicated their talk to the issue of Big Data. More specifically, they provided in their session an overview of the opportunities (e.g., using machine-driven pattern matching to improve skin-cancer diagnosis) and potential threats of big data (e.g., misuse of data and uncontrollable AI systems).
- Prof. Dr. Thomas Gegenhuber served as one of the hosts of the opening week. He was also responsible for curating and chairing the evening start-up talks. Furthermore, he was an advisor for the (social) innovation project group.
- Dr. Nicolas Meier was one of the mentors who supported the student support groups in their challenge to work on a future digital vision and writing a document, which critically reflects on the topic.
[21.09.2018] Digital Transformation: Dialogue between science and practitioners
Digital transformation is permeating all areas of society. "Part of our mission as researchers is to regularly share our expertise and engage in dialogue with the public - particularly the rather fast-moving area of digitalization," says Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber. To fulfill this mission, Thomas Gegenhuber gave several talks this year:
At the re:publica conference in Berlin, he presented his work, based on a study funded by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, whether and how crowdwork platforms organize participation for their workers. The report was also featured on netzpolitik.org (as guest authors) and in the Böckler Impuls magazine.
Drawing on his research in the area of open government and open innovation, Thomas Gegenhuber gave a talk at the annual meeting of the IT administration of the Government of Lower Saxony. The core message of this talk was that public administrations need to act proactively in times of digital transformation - otherwise they face a legitimacy crisis. "Digital transformation is a challenge, but also a great opportunity for public administrations," says Thomas Gegenhuber.
At the digital capitalism conference of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung of Lower Saxony, Thomas Gegenhuber reflected on digital transformation and new forms of organizing production (e.g., digital platforms) and innovation (e.g., various open innovation management practices). In his view, openness and flexibility are at the heart of these new forms of organizing, without necessarily sacrificing stability and routines critical to any organizing effort.
[09.05.2018] Talk on digital transformation at University of Cambridge
The widespread application of digital technologies changes how actors organize, such as how to pursue a strategy, to bring about novel innovations or to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. The term 'digital transformation' captures this notion of change - something new seeks to insert itself into the existing social fabric. From an institutional perspective, digital transformation can be understood as the combined effects of several digital innovations bringing about novel actors (and actor constellations), structures, practices, values, and beliefs that change, threaten, replace or complement existing rules of the game within organizations and fields. Together with the leading organization scientists Prof. Bob Hinings and Prof. Royston Greenwood from the University of Alberta, Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber published an article on digital transformation in the journal Information & Organization. Continuing the research on this issue, Prof. Bob Hinings and Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber gave a talk at the University of Cambridge at the Center Cambridge Digital Innovation (Judge Business School) in May 2018.
[20.04.2018] Participation in the digitalization conference of the "Academy of Management"
Management research is increasingly focusing on the topic of digital transformation. For this reason, the Academy of Management organized the conference "Big Data and Managing in a Digital Economy" at the University of Surrey (UK). Leuphana was represented at the conference by Prof. Hannah Trittin and Prof. Gegenhuber.
Prof. Hannah Trittin, together with Prof. Georg Scherer (University of Zurich) moderated a panel discussion entitled "How do Big Data and Internet Firms Change Business-Society Relations". Guests at the discussion were leading management researchers Glen Whelan, Dirk Matten, Michael Etter, Kirsten Martin. Prof. Thomas Gegenhuber presented two papers together with Prof. Robert Bauer (JKU Linz). The first contribution is dedicated to the conceptualization of web-based platforms as a new form of organization ("Archetypes of Platform-Hosted Crowds: Towards a General Conceptual Language"). The second contribution, an empirical study, takes a look at the organizational practices of a crowdsourcing platform ("Managing a Ménage á Trois: How Digital Intermediaries Organize a Market for Creative Ideas").
[12.03.2018] Making sense of data - Leuphana hosts international multi-conference on business informatics 2018
At the beginning of March, the Multiconference on Information Systems 2018 (MKWI 2018) took place at Leuphana University of Lüneburg (homepage).
700 participants discussed current research contributions in business informatics. With the conference motto "Data-driven X: Turning Data into Value", the focus this year was on Big Data and Data Science. Around 200 technical papers were presented in 29 sub-conferences. MKWI 2018 also offered a wide range of opportunities for interaction with around 20 workshops on topics such as Industry 4.0, Design Thinking, Podcasts in Teaching and Blockchain Applications. The new central building of Leuphana University Lüneburg, designed by Daniel Libeskind, once again proved to be an attractive and inspiring venue for scientific events at MKWI 2018.
The topics covered in the sub-conferences address the diverse challenges of digitization in companies and make a contribution to this. The "Business Analytics" sub-conference, which is closely linked to the conference motto, demonstrated how data and text mining methods can be used in companies to explain facts and improve the quality of predictions of future events. The integration and optimal use of heterogeneous data sources are associated with new technological and organizational challenges for information management. The contributions of the sub-conference showed new use cases as well as success factors for the implementation of business analytics methods in companies.
The thematic breadth of business informatics research was made clear by the diversity of topics in the sub-conferences. Another sub-conference was devoted to the still topical subject of "e-commerce". Contributions in this area covered topics such as the sharing economy, online reviews, and pricing models for software-as-a-service. New challenges for business informatics arise with the penetration of IT into private life and at the workplace also at the level of the individual. The sub-conference "Human-centric Information Systems Design" took up these challenges.
The "IT Security" sub-conference dealt with another important area of IT use in the workplace. This sub-conference focused, among other things, on questions of IT security of critical infrastructures. Modern industrial nations rely on complex infrastructures and their information and communications technology. Failure or manipulation of IT systems can have dramatic consequences. Contributions discussed new approaches to risk management in terms of robustness and resilience.In the keynote on "mirror mining," David Kriesel showed how methods from the data science repertoire can be used to transform publicly available data into entertaining, surprising and frightening insights (dkriesel.com). The basis for his analyses are more than 100,000 articles from the news portal "Spiegel Online," which Kriesel has stored since 2014.
With the Young Scientists Meeting and the Student Track, the conference once again offered established formats for promoting young scientists in business informatics. The Student Track gives students the opportunity to present their own work at a scientific conference already at the end of their studies.The proceedings of the MKWI 2018 are available for download as an open access document (leuphana.de).