Proof of concept – Enterprise Crowdfunding

In this short paper it will be discussed how crowdfunding concepts can be successfully used to support internal financing projects towards Enterprise Crowdfunding. A central platform to be developed will guarantee transparency in order to ease and facilitate synergy-effects between company divisions and departments. Besides transparency crowdfunding – especially through its federalistic financing concepts – can contribute to the evaluation of new planned projects. Furthermore, fair according to the input involved is not more problematic. The probability to not get funding for those projects which deserve support it is significantly reduced

Examining the Antecedents of Creative Collaboration with an AI Teammate

With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), individuals are increasingly teaming up with AI-based systems to enhance their creative collaborative performance. When working with AI-based systems, several aspects of team dynamics need to be considered, which raises the question how humans’ approach and perceive their new teammates. In an experimental setting, we investigate the influence of social presence in a group ideation process with an AI-based teammate and examine its effects on the motivation to contribute. Our results show a multi-mediation model in which social presence indirectly influences whether human team members are motivated to contribute to a team with AI-based teammates, which is mediated by willingness to depend and team-oriented commitment

Systematic and Continuous Business Model Development: Design of a Repeatable Process Using the Collaboration Engineering Approach

Due to permanent changes, companies constantly need to contend with new challenges. Developing and improving business models can help to adapt to constantly changing environmental conditions and to achieve competitiveness. Because most innovative developments are not the result of a single inventor, we used Collaboration Engineering to elaborate a systematic process design for business model development. To ensure an effective process design, we turned to existing knowledge by including theoretical and practical requirements of business model development. Additionally, in order to guarantee the high quality of the process, we evaluated the systematic process on the basis of a multilevel and iterative evaluation. Our evaluation clearly indicates results equivalent to expert-based business model development. Accordingly, the process design enables a continuous and recurring business model development without the ongoing support of professional facilitators

Designing Automated Facilitation for Design Thinking: A Chatbot for Supporting Teams in the Empathy Map Method

The Empathy Map Method (EMM) in the Design Thinking approach is a powerful tool for user centered design but relies on the methodological skills and experience of rare facilitation experts to guide the team. In a collaboration engineering effort, we aim to make this expertise available to teams without constant access to a professional facilitator by packaging facilitation knowledge into structured process support and state-of-the art technology. Based on requirements from scientific and practitioners’ literature, we introduce the concept of a conversational agent in the form of a chatbot to take over the role of the facilitator of the EMM. We present an initial wizard of oz evaluation to derive insights and implications for improvements and the software implementation towards the ambitious goal of automated, non-human facilitation of EMM

Towards a Technique for Modeling New Forms of Collaborative Work Practices – The Facilitation Process Model 2.0

Collaboration Engineering (CE) is an approach for the design and deployment of repeatable collaborative work practices that can be executed by practitioners themselves without the ongoing support of external collaboration professionals. A key design activity in CE concerns modeling current and future collaborative work practices. CE researchers and practitioners have used the Facilitation Process Model (FPM) technique. However, this modeling technique suffers from a number of shortcomings to model contemporary collaborative work practices. We use a design science approach to identify the main challenges with the original FPM technique, derive requirements and design a revised modeling technique that is based on the current technique enriched by BPMN 2.0 elements. This paper contributes to the CE literature by offering a revised FPM technique that assists CE-designers to capture new forms of collaborative work practices

Implementing an Intelligent Collaborative Agent as Teammate in Collaborative Writing: toward a Synergy of Humans and AI

This paper aims at implementing a hybrid form of group work through the incorporation of an intelligent collaborative agent into a Collaborative Writing process. With that it contributes to the overall research gap establishing acceptance of AI towards complementary hybrid work. To approach this aim, we follow a Design Science Research process. We identify requirements for the agent to be considered a teammate based on expert interviews in the light of Social Response Theory and the concept of the Uncanny Valley. Next, we derive design principles for the implementation of an agent as teammate from the collected requirements. For the evaluation of the design principles and the human teammates’ perception of the agent, we instantiate a Collaborative Writing process via a web-application incorporating the agent. The evaluation reveals the partly successful implementation of the developed design principles. Additionally, the results show the potential of hybrid collaboration teams accepting non-human teammates

From Tools to Teammates: Conceptualizing Humans’ Perception of Machines as Teammates with a Systematic Literature Review

The accelerating capabilities of systems brought about by advances in Artificial Intelligence challenge the traditional notion of systems as tools. Systems’ increasingly agentic and collaborative character offers the potential for a new user-system interaction paradigm: Teaming replaces unidirectional system use. Yet, extant literature addresses the prerequisites for this new interaction paradigm inconsistently, often not even considering the foundations established in human teaming literature. To address this, this study utilizes a systematic literature review to conceptualize the drivers of the perception of systems as teammates instead of tools. Hereby, it integrates insights from the dispersed and interdisciplinary field of human-machine teaming with established human teaming principles. The creation of a team setting and a social entity, as well as specific configurations of the machine teammate’s collaborative behaviors, are identified as main drivers of the formation of impactful human-machine teams

Defining Archetypes of E-Collaboration for Product Development in The Automotive Industry

The automotive industry represents one of the most relevant industrial sectors of the global economy. In response to a plethora of challenges, e-collaboration for product development has become a nexus of competitive advantage in the automotive world. Since new dynamics in organizational forms on the one hand and advancements in engineering information systems on the other hand have led to increased complexity, a classification model to organize and structure the manifold manifestations seems analytically useful. Hence, the paper at hand (1) proposes, (2) describes, and (3) validates archetypes of e-collaboration for product development in the automotive industry. Anchored in (1) a structured literature review and (2) rich empirical evidence from a multiple-case study in the automotive ecosystem, we organize our research study along a well-established, two-stage research method on archetypes adopting a socio-technical systems perspective. Key findings include the archetypes (1) mechanical development-dominant, (2) software development-dominant, (3) systems engineering-oriented, and (4) non-development-focused e-collaborations for product development as basic patterns. Thereby, “importance of mechanical development” and “importance of software development” act as essential classification dimensions. Keeping the inherent limitations of the qualitative research tradition in mind, this paper offers theoretical, methodological, managerial, and cross-disciplinary contributions

FASTER, CHEAPER, BETTER? ANALYZING HOW LOW CODE DEVELOPMENT PLATFORMS DRIVE BOTTOM-UP INNOVATION

Recent years have seen a growing adoption of Low Code Development Platforms (LCDPs) in organizations. The increasing affinity for technology development across all user groups, consumerization of development, and advancing digitalization are opening up a new target group for the low code movement. This change in software development allows bottom-up user innovators within a company to leverage their domain knowledge and quickly deploy much-needed digital services. However, a clear understanding of this paradigm of software development in organizations and the influence on end-user acceptance is still missing. In this paper, we present the results of an interview study conducted with 18 LCDP experts and discuss the implications of our findings, highlighting the role of LCDPs and context in bottom-up innovation as well as user-centricity. Our research contributes to the literature on LCDPs and offers valuable insights for organizations looking to leverage their workforce\u27s innovative potential

Designing and Evaluating a Collaborative Writing Process with Gamification Elements: Toward a Framework for Gamifying Collaboration Processes

In this study, we examine the influence that gamification elements have on collaboration processes in terms of whether they increase intention to continue to use the system based on meaningful engagement and hedonic motivation as well as outcome quality. Therefore, we review gamification models and principles for information systems and consolidate them in a preliminary framework. We then evaluate how one can supplement the collaboration process for collaborative story writing with gamification elements based on the framework. Additionally, we consider specific gamification elements to successfully accomplish the process. To do so, we conducted action design research in a common iterative structure. First, we observed and reflected on the analog collaborative writing process. Next, we derived design principles and remodeled and implemented the process via a Web application instantiation to evaluate them. In the evaluation, we identified the developed design principles’ ability to reach higher hedonic motivation and meaningful engagement, which led to an enhanced intention to continue to use the system. Additionally, we found the potential to manage the shift toward digital collaboration processes that motivate people to participate and produce promising outcomes that do not vary much from outcomes in an analog setting