Supporting Customized Design Thinking Using a Metamodel-based Approach

Traditional design methods, based on analytical rationale, often cannot address upcoming challenges e.g., related to the digital business transformation in volatile environments. Analytical rationale assumes a particular result and provides the methods and tools for achieving it. Nowadays, however, the result of a business transformation is often not precisely known nor the ways and means to achieve it. As a result, methods and tools are required that foster creativity while allowing customization to specific requirements or stakeholder needs. This paper proposes customized design thinking processes, realized with a conceptual modelling approach. The approach supports creativity in transformative business design. It shows how numerous design thinking tools can be integrated into a single conceptual modelling approach - supported by a modelling platform. The platform facilitates efficient and flexible design of novel business solutions. The created models moreover serve as a formalized knowledge base that enables knowledge processing and reuse

Understanding VR/AR in marketing & sales for B2B: an explorative study

Abstract. The research explored the impact of immersive reality technologies, particularly VR and AR, in marketing and sales for the B2B sector. Study interests were fuelled by both an industrial hype and vehement investments on these technologies, especially in the last five years. However, the potential of these technologies is still unexplored and widely misunderstood by businesses as the innovations are slowly taking off. Additionally, existing literature showed a need to clearly define various simulated realities in the continuum, including VR and AR, as well as a general misunderstanding of the potential of immersive reality technologies, and a shortage of studies covering holistically different VR/AR applications in marketing, especially for the B2B sector. Therefore, this research aims to bridge the gap between managerial and academic’ understanding by providing a holistic framework explaining the impact of immersive reality technologies in B2B marketing and sales and provide a clear distinction between VR and AR in the Virtuality-reality continuum. This research also aims to assist marketers and managers in embracing these technologies to better meet the needs of future generations. The study adopted a qualitative exploratory approach allowing researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of the topic from an industrial perspective. The study used an abductive thematic analysis approach to analyse empirical results and ten semi-structured interviews with eleven VR/AR providers for primary data collection. Results were structured based on four main themes, namely: VR and AR definitions, customer technology adoption factors, VR/AR impact and applications on B2B marketing, and last, VR/AR impact on sales performance outcomes. This study contributes to the existing literature by proposing a tentative definition for each terminology “VR” and “AR” separately that merges academic perspectives and industry insights. Overall, empirical study suggests that immersive reality technologies can affect both marketing activities and sales performance outcomes for the B2B sector. However, successfully embracing these technologies calls for collaboration to overcome financial, technical and social barriers while also enhancing aspects like the user experience to step out of the still immature VR/AR market. VR and AR together have an impact on marketing for B2B by enhancing customization, non-verbal communication, learning and experiential marketing while also creating memorable experiences that stick in the minds of the consumer. Concerning the customer’s purchasing journey, this study extends existing literature to cover all customer purchasing stages, including the pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase. Results emphasize the pre-purchase phase as the most impacted by immersive reality technologies, followed by post-purchase and purchase stages, respectively. Finally, this study suggests that the use of VR/AR as sales support tools can yield positive efficiency returns through higher task performance and a reduction in sales-related costs, and positive effectiveness returns through greater customer and social engagement, stronger collaborative business relationships and the enhancement of proactive (sales planning) and reactive (adaptive selling) behaviours in the sales process

RELATIONSHIP MARKETING IN INTERNATIONAL FOCAL FIRMS: A STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE ON SUSTAINABILITY

ABSTRACT : In the intricate landscape of 21st-century business, this study addresses the challenges facing companies, particularly international focal firms, in meeting stakeholders' sustainability expectations. Requiring astute strategic decision-making, the focus is on the interplay between sustainability and Relationship Marketing (RM) theory in contemporary business networks. Current literature lacks a thorough exploration of the sustainability-marketing relationship, especially in the internationalization context, highlighting a critical research gap. Identifying this gap, the research underscores the need for a cohesive theoretical framework to comprehend how companies navigate relationships through sustainability. Thus, the study aims to construct a robust RM framework, synthesizing theories and identifying success factors. The Research Question is: “How can sustainability contribute to effective implementation of focal firms’ Relationship Marketing strategies?”. Sub-questions delve into internal operations, stakeholder engagement, and internationalization, forming the foundation for model development through data analysis and literature review. Using a qualitative design, three distinct case studies undergo analysis through semi-structured interviews with marketing and sustainability executives of international focal firms. Contributing to RM and sustainability theory, the study identifies ten forms of relational exchange, emphasizing shared values like sustainability as catalysts for active engagement. In the context of the Resource-Advantage view of competition, it explores the significance of idiosyncratic competence resources. Comparative analysis reveals three key competences: intra-firm sustainability competence, interfirm sustainability competence, and international sustainability competence—forming Sustainability Factors for meaningful global relational exchanges. Concluding, the research not only fills a critical research gap by establishing a foundation for exploring the intricate relationship between sustainability and Relationship Marketing but also provides insights for focal firms’ executives navigating diverse business contexts, while suggesting avenues for further research

Identifying Design Strategies to Mitigate the Risk Introduced into New Product Development by Suppliers

For every organization, an efficient and effective product development process is a key to generate and manage growth opportunities. Often strategic relationships with key suppliers and partners are required as organizations do not have all the competencies that are crucial to the development of a product. This is particularly true for Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) and Joint Development Manufacturer (JDM) supplier relationships, which are characterized by a high degree of supplier involvement in every stage of product development. If the interactions with these key suppliers are not managed properly, there is significant risk that the endeavor will end up with missing budget, schedule and cost goals, particularly for complex systems. Little attention in the literature, however, has been given to the risk introduced by suppliers into the product development process nor mitigating this risk through appropriate design strategies. This thesis addresses the need to develop a risk assessment methodology that would not only identify areas of concern but also identify potential design strategies to mitigate risk. In this work, metrics are derived to quantify the relative importance, degree of change, difficulty of change and degree of coupling for engineering metrics at system and subsystem levels. From these metrics, a framework is developed to quantitatively assess the risk due to supplier interactions. In addition, design strategies identified in the literature are characterized in terms of these same metrics to determine the design strategy which is most suited to mitigate the risk associated with a particular EM. Finally, a case study is presented for the hypothetical development of a 3D printer, to assess initial feasibility and utility of the framework

A Campus Portal Development Methodology to match Stakeholder Activity

Although introduced less than seven years ago, a Campus Portal (CP) can be considered as an emerging technological innovation within higher education institutions. A large number have already adopted the concept and are currently implementing some type of portal to extend the services of their Web site and information systems to support the activities of institutional stakeholders, especially students. There is some literature recommending sets of characteristics and functionality for successful CPs, in particular personalisation and customisation. However there is a lack of evidence on which aspects of core attributes lead to the failure of a portal to satisfy user requirements in regard to their personalisation and customisation functionality. This paper reports the findings of a CP study and discusses the importance of personalisation and customisation as part of the core set of portal functionalities. These should therefore be considered in the process of CP design and development and be included in any proposed CP Development Methodology (CPDM)

Typology of Uncertainties in the Development Process of Product-Service Systems

This paper investigates uncertainty in the development of Product-Service Systems (PSS) – a complex combination of product and services. This research is important because practitioners struggle with managing the high uncertainties arising from the complexity of parallel product and service development in compound clusters of stakeholders. Yet, scholars have not analyzed these challenges extensively. Based on a combination of innovation management and servitization literature a conceptual framework is offered, detailing five uncertainty types relevant for PSS-development: environmental, technical, organizational, resource and relational uncertainty. This research contributes to the servitization literature by broadening the body of knowledge and deriving suitable management practices

Customization of buildings using configuration systems - a study of conditions and opportunities in the Swedish timber house manufacturing industry

The aim of this project has been to study timber house manufacturers and provide guidance to those who aim to increase efficiency through the adaption of product modeling and eventually configuration. The findings in this report are based on a series of case studies within the abovementioned industry, which serves as a basis for the analysis and recommendations given. The Swedish timber house manufacturing industry has a long tradition of producing houses in factories. In recent years, however, the construction industry has received criticisms for issues with quality and productivity, problems that is also valid for the timber house manufacturers. During the upswing in the past decade, IT investments in the industry have not kept the same pace as other investments. For this reason IT environments are currently growing out of date, which is one reason contributing to today’s problems. In many ways the timber house manufacturers resembles traditional on-site construction, especially in how they use IT and product documentation. Given the different conditions in the industries and the fact that timber house manufacturers can assimilate influences from other manufacturing industries, this presents an interesting opportunity to pursue for the industry. The results from the case studies show that companies have a potential to better integrate processes, use IT and manage product documentation. How timber house manufacturers view themselves also affects how they treat questions regarding abovementioned areas, which ultimately also affects how well they will be able to use configuration. Whether they see themselves as a construction company, an engineering firm or a manufacturing industry will have an effect on many aspects of how to run the business. The findings show that the timber house manufacturing companies has a potential in streamlining and standardizing product documentation to facilitate configuration and improving the product specification process. Companies should address three areas as a part of the change: processes, IT and product documentation. When considering these three areas together, companies have an opportunity to increase their competitiveness through more efficient processes and standardized product families. Clearly there are risks associated with introducing new IT systems and changing processes. Companies need to consider the risks and potential benefits with pursuing this path. Risks that should be included in an evaluation are for example; changes in the market, costs and quantifiable benefits from using configuration. The report provides a number of advices to the timber house manufacturers that might be useful to consider for companies that wishes to go forward with product modeling and configuration. For example, it is recommended that companies investigate how to define the roles and responsibilities of the Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer, explore how the IT-strategy best delivers value to the business and consider to introduce a product development process

How to Sustainably Implement a Smart Factory through a Socio-Technical perspective: an evolutionary framework

In recent years Industry 4.0, in particular through Smart Factory, promises a revolution in manufacturing due to the digitization, automation and virtualization of all organization processes. However, the requirements for a sustain- able implementation of Smart Factory go beyond technological and processual issues. The orientation of technology management strategy with the organizational goals, infrastructure, culture, processes and people should be judiciously carried out. Adopting a socio-technical perspective based on six-dimensional model, this study aims at developing a framework that describes the evolutionary path to design a sustainable architecture for implementation of a Smart Factory. We argue that the implementation of Smart Factory is, and should be, an incremental process. In particular, we identify three evolutionary steps for implementation of the Smart Factory, namely Aspiration, Awareness and Maturity. Finally, the framework is tested through an exploratory case study