Knowledge Enhanced Financial Advisory Services

Ever-more complex financial products and investment opportunities demand that clients have a solid understanding of financial concepts if they are to make informed decisions. However, this is seldom the case, and the consequences of uninformed decision-making have been widely described in both the scientific literature as well as in public media. Interventions in the form of providing more documentation on products have been ineffective (Chater et al., 2010). The same seems to hold for efforts in schools to foster financial literacy, as it is (1) unclear what knowledge comprises effective decision help in an upcoming advisory encounter, and (2) there might be a very long time distance between the learning and theapplication in a real advisory encounter situation (Fernandes etal., 2014).In this dissertation, I therefore describe a way of client education that can be directly applied in the service encounter itself. The educational concept is based on experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984)as a general framework, and is specifically rooted in open-ended learning environments (Hannafin, 1994)as well as the concept of micro-worlds (Rieber, 1992). Interactive, computer-based simulations are utilized to explain the relevant concepts at the time they are needed for making decisions. Embedded in a design science research framework, this dissertation contributes design rationales for both the technical systems required for this consumer education style as well as for the processes of how these tools can be embedded in the service encounter. In several consecutive build/evaluate cycles, design principles are instantiated and evaluated in realistic laboratory evaluations. Besides the focus on the educational aspects, light has also been shed on the social implications of introducing technology into these settings. This dissertation contributes insights on how technical systems, advisory processes, and the environment of an encounter must be designed in order to fulfill its purpose of transferring relevant knowledge without disturbing the critical social relationship between client and advisor. With our evaluations, we were able to demonstrate that client education with a significant client knowledge increase is possible directly in the encounter itself in a just-in-time and on-demand manner without disturbing the social relationship in any unacceptable way. Besides its contributions to the scientific knowledge base, this dissertation also seeks to aid practitioners in building the systems that will enhance the financial services of tomorrow

Tool Support for Design Science Research—Towards a Software Ecosystem: A Report from a DESRIST 2017 Workshop

The information systems (IS) field contains a rich body of knowledge on approaches, methods, and frameworks that supports researchers in conducting design science research (DSR). It also contains some consensus about the key elements of DSR projects—such as problem identification, design, implementation, evaluation, and abstraction of design knowledge. Still, we lack any commonly accepted tools that address the needs of DSR scholars who seek to structure, manage, and present their projects. Indeed, DSR endeavors, which are often complex and multi-faceted in nature and involve various stakeholders (e.g., researchers, developers, practitioners, and others), require the support that such tools provide. Thus, to investigate the tools that DSR scholars actually need to effectively and efficiently perform their work, we conducted an open workshop with DSR scholars at the 2017 DESRIST conference in Karlsruhe, Germany, to debate 1) the general requirement categories of DSR tool support and 2) the more specific requirements. This paper reports on the results from this workshop. Specifically, we identify nine categories of requirements that fall into the three broad phases (pre-design, design, and post design) and that contribute to a software ecosystem for supporting DSR endeavors

Special Issue Editorial – Accumulation and Evolution of Design Knowledge in Design Science Research: A Journey Through Time and Space

Sir Isaac Newton (1676) famously said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Research is a collaborative, evolutionary endeavor—and it is no different with design science research (DSR), which builds upon existing design knowledge and creates new design knowledge to pass on to future projects. However, despite the vast, growing body of DSR contributions, scant evidence of the accumulation and evolution of design knowledge has been articulated in an organized DSR body of knowledge. Most contributions rather stand on their own feet than on the shoulders of giants, and this continues to limit how far we can see, curtailing the extent of the broader impacts that can be made through DSR. In this editorial, we aim at providing guidance on how to position design knowledge contributions in wider problem and solution spaces. We propose (1) a model conceptualizing design knowledge as a resilient relationship between problem and solution spaces, (2) a model that demonstrates how individual DSR projects consume and produce design knowledge, (3) a map to position a design knowledge contribution in problem and solution spaces, and (4) principles on how to use this map in a DSR project. We show how fellow researchers, readers, editors, and reviewers, as well as the IS community as a whole, can make use of these proposals, and also illustrate future research opportunities

The Beauty of Messiness: A Flexible Tool for Design Principle Projects

Abstracting and formalizing knowledge collected throughout a design science research (DSR) project is important to inform the design of future artifacts. Design principles are one of the prevailing forms to capture design-relevant knowledge and guide both research and practice to build new artifacts. Although today’s DSR projects are often agile and creative, they require a minimum structure to ensure rigor. In this paper, we set out to master the tradeoff between creative messiness and fully standardized design endeavors by presenting a situational tool in the form of a card deck. We report on the building of a design tool and its demonstration via two illustrative examples. Overall, we complement the valuable body of DSR frameworks and introduce a flexible and configurable tool capable of taking into account specific project situations

Synthesizing a Solution Space for Prescriptive Design Knowledge Codification

One of Design Science Research’s (DSR) principal purposes is to generate and codify design knowledge. Codification in DSR is done by providing clear chunks of prescriptive knowledge that guide the design of future solutions, including instructions on how to design (parts of) artifacts. Although various codification mechanisms have emerged over the last years, design principles are among the most prominent mechanisms. Yet, distinguishing between different codification mechanisms is often blurry, hindering designers from making informed decisions regarding appropriate mechanisms for their research aim and leveraging the full potential of the prescriptive knowledge. We seek to bridge the challenge of selecting from the fuzzy array of codification mechanisms by proposing an inductively generated solution space. We provide a taxonomy to organize essential elements of prescriptive knowledge based on an analysis of design-oriented literature in four meta-dimensions (i.e., communication, application, development, and justification). These meta-dimensions make transparent how codified prescriptive design knowledge works. Overall, the taxonomy guides designers in reflecting on and selecting from the set of suitable elements for their statements. Also, providing a synthesis of options for codifying prescriptive design knowledge will simplify the identification and advance the positioning of DSR contributions

Business Models for Sustainable Finance: The Case Study of Social Impact Bonds

Business models for sustainability (BMfS) are relevant topics on research agendas, given their orientation toward sustainability issues. However, traditional versions of these models are often ill-equipped at solving complex social problems. Cross-sector partnerships for sustainability (CSPfS) have been recognized as a new paradigm that mitigates the failure of traditional models. Impact investing, and social impact bonds (SIBs) in particular, represent an interesting field of research in innovative business models for sustainable finance, even though the literature does not consider SIBs within this broader field. We propose an exploratory study based on qualitative methods aimed at conceptualizing SIBs within the framework of BMfS and understanding how SIB collaboration varies across social sectors and geographical areas. Our study identifies three different models of SIBs characterized by the different degrees of collaboration between actors: (i) SIB as a fully collaborative partnership; (ii) SIB as a low-collaborative partnership; and (iii) SIB as a partially collaborative partnership. Our findings are useful to policy makers and practitioners involved in the SIB design, suggesting that a fully collaborative SIB model may stand a better chance of achieving the expected social impacts

Developing Blockchain-enabled Marketplace Interfaces: A Design Science Research Study

Digital transformation\u27s scope evolves from being limited to the organizational level to inter-organizational collaboration in supply chain networks and business ecosystems. Blockchain-enabled marketplaces have the potential to transform business networks by eliminating intermediaries. To investigate the interface design and visualization of blockchain-enabled marketplaces, we employed a design science methodology and synthesized knowledge from literature, practice, and qualitative expert interviews. Our research provides (1) theoretically grounded and prescriptive knowledge expressed in meta-requirements and design principles inspired by effective use theory, and (2) presents concrete design features and an expository prototype instantiation. The prototype is evaluated through focus group workshops and interviews with experts and potential users. Our work contributes to recent calls to investigate the design and visualization of blockchain-enabled marketplaces, advances research on blockchain applications in B2B contexts, and expands the literature on information system design for marketplace-oriented transformations