UniCraft: Exploring the impact of asynchronous multiplayer game elements in gamification

This paper describes the development and evaluation of UniCraft: a gamified mobile app designed to increase the engagement of undergraduate students with the content and delivery of their course. Gamification projects rely on extrinsic motivators to encourage participants to engage, such as compulsory participation or real-world rewards. UniCraft incorporates an asynchronous multiplayer battle game that uses constructive competition to motivate students, without using motivational levers that may reduce intrinsic motivation. The novel battle game employed by UniCraft employs Player vs Environment (Shafer, 2012) and Player Matching (Jennings, 2014) to ensure students work together in similarly ranked small groups as a team against a shared enemy. A study was undertaken which examined students' long-term engagement with UniCraft within the context of a 12-week long undergraduate programming course. The app was initially provided with the battle feature disabled, so that the effect on motivation and engagement could be studied when it was introduced during the intervention. Detailed interaction data recorded by the app was augmented by semi-structured interviews in order to provide a richer perspective on its effect at an individual and group level. The interaction data revealed convincing evidence for the increased motivational power of the battle feature, and this was supported by the interview data. Although no direct negative effects of competition were observed, interviews revealed that cheating was prevalent and this could in turn have unintended negative side-effects on motivation. Full results are presented and case studies are described for three of the participants, giving an insight into the different styles of interaction and motivation experienced by students in this study

Re-alignment of German car producers in times of profound changes

This research analyzes and assesses emerging macro-environmental trends in the automotive industry and their evolutionary effect on the competitive advantage of major premium car manufacturers in Germany. To answer this question, the historical key drivers for the success of the German car makers are explored. Furthermore, the probable core competencies and the resulting competitive advantage of the future are examined in order to propose new business strategies for OEMs. Also, the impact of COVID-19 on the companies within the scope of this thesis represents a research object. In order to anser these questions appropriately, in-depth interviews are conducted with five top-level managers from German OEMs and are subjected to a content-analysis. In addition to that, academic literature and business reports are supplemented to critically reflect both sources of knowledge and to get a holistic view on the topic. Also, in order to clarify current industry and market trends, Porter’s five forces and the PESTEL analysis were applied. Building upon the outcome of these frameworks, a TOWS anlysis and Confrontation matrix are conducted to be able to propose new strategies for the underlying companies. OEMs should strive for a stronger customer focus and a faster subsequent adaptability for changing customer needs which they make possible through a even higher innovative power than they had in the past. This enables OEMs to stay ahead of the stiff competition from Asia and China and help them to win the race of sustainability. To create these core competencies, OEMs are urged to engage cross-industry collaborations to avoid the threat of new entrants, increasing the innovative power and ensure sustained competitive advantage. The strong political, social, legal and environmental pressure to decrease CO2 emissions needs to be adressed quickly through the production of electric cars, further optimization of internal combustion engines and the use of lightweight materials.Esta investigação analisa e avalia as tendências macro-ambientais emergentes na indústria automóvel e o seu efeito evolutivo sobre a vantagem competitiva dos principais fabricantes de automóveis premium na Alemanha. Para responder a esta pergunta, são explorados os factores históricos fundamentais para o sucesso dos fabricantes alemães de automóveis. Além disso, são examinadas as prováveis competências nucleares e a vantagem competitiva resultante do futuro, a fim de propor novas estratégias de negócio para OEMs. Além disso, o impacto da COVID-19 sobre as empresas no âmbito desta tese representa um objecto de investigação. A fim de responder adequadamente a estas questões, são realizadas entrevistas aprofundadas com cinco gestores de topo de OEMs alemães e são submetidos a uma análise de conteúdo. Além disso, a literatura académica e os relatórios empresariais são complementados para reflectir criticamente ambas as fontes de conhecimento e para obter uma visão holística sobre o tema. Também, a fim de clarificar as tendências actuais da indústria e do mercado, foram aplicadas as cinco forças de Porter e a análise PESTEL. Com base no resultado destes quadros, é realizada uma matriz de análise e de confrontação TOWS para se poder propor novas estratégias para as empresas subjacentes. Os OEM devem esforçar-se por uma maior concentração no cliente e uma adaptabilidade subsequente mais rápida para a mudança das necessidades do cliente, que tornam possível através de um poder inovador ainda maior do que no passado. Isto permite aos OEM manterem-se à frente da dura concorrência da Ásia e da China e ajudá-los a vencer a corrida da sustentabilidade. Para criar estas competências centrais, os OEM são instados a envolverem-se em colaborações intersectoriais para evitar a ameaça de novos participantes, aumentando o poder inovador e assegurando uma vantagem competitiva sustentada. A forte pressão política, social, legal e ambiental para diminuir as emissões de CO2 precisa de ser rapidamente abordada através da produção de carros eléctricos, de uma maior optimização dos motores de combustão interna e da utilização de materiais leves

Business Case and Technology Analysis for 5G Low Latency Applications

A large number of new consumer and industrial applications are likely to change the classic operator's business models and provide a wide range of new markets to enter. This article analyses the most relevant 5G use cases that require ultra-low latency, from both technical and business perspectives. Low latency services pose challenging requirements to the network, and to fulfill them operators need to invest in costly changes in their network. In this sense, it is not clear whether such investments are going to be amortized with these new business models. In light of this, specific applications and requirements are described and the potential market benefits for operators are analysed. Conclusions show that operators have clear opportunities to add value and position themselves strongly with the increasing number of services to be provided by 5G.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

The impact of technology on data collection: Case studies in privacy and economics

Technological advancement can often act as a catalyst for scientific paradigm shifts. Today the ability to collect and process large amounts of data about individuals is arguably a paradigm-shift enabling technology in action. One manifestation of this technology within the sciences is the ability to study historically qualitative fields with a more granular quantitative lens than ever before. Despite the potential for this technology, wide-adoption is accompanied by some risks. In this thesis, I will present two case studies. The first, focuses on the impact of machine learning in a cheapest-wins motor insurance market by designing a competition-based data collection mechanism. Pricing models in the insurance industry are changing from statistical methods to machine learning. In this game, close to 2000 participants, acting as insurance companies, trained and submitted pricing models to compete for profit using real motor insurance policies --- with a roughly equal split between legacy and advanced models. With this trend towards machine learning in motion, preliminary analysis of the results suggest that future markets might realise cheaper prices for consumers. Additionally legacy models competing against modern algorithms, may experience a reduction in earning stability --- accelerating machine learning adoption. Overall, the results of this field experiment demonstrate the potential for digital competition-based studies of markets in the future. The second case studies the privacy risks of data collection technologies. Despite a large body of research in re-identification of anonymous data, the question remains: if a dataset was big enough, would records become anonymous by being "lost in the crowd"? Using 3 months of location data, we show that the risk of re-identification decreases slowly with dataset size. This risk is modelled and extrapolated to larger populations with 93% of people being uniquely identifiable using 4 points of auxiliary information among 60M people. These results show how the privacy of individuals is very unlikely to be preserved even in country-scale location datasets and that alternative paradigms of data sharing are still required.Open Acces

Disrupting Finance

This open access Pivot demonstrates how a variety of technologies act as innovation catalysts within the banking and financial services sector. Traditional banks and financial services are under increasing competition from global IT companies such as Google, Apple, Amazon and PayPal whilst facing pressure from investors to reduce costs, increase agility and improve customer retention. Technologies such as blockchain, cloud computing, mobile technologies, big data analytics and social media therefore have perhaps more potential in this industry and area of business than any other. This book defines a fintech ecosystem for the 21st century, providing a state-of-the art review of current literature, suggesting avenues for new research and offering perspectives from business, technology and industry

Tutorial: Big Data Analytics: Concepts, Technologies, and Applications

We have entered the big data era. Organizations are capturing, storing, and analyzing data that has high volume, velocity, and variety and comes from a variety of new sources, including social media, machines, log files, video, text, image, RFID, and GPS. These sources have strained the capabilities of traditional relational database management systems and spawned a host of new technologies, approaches, and platforms. The potential value of big data analytics is great and is clearly established by a growing number of studies. The keys to success with big data analytics include a clear business need, strong committed sponsorship, alignment between the business and IT strategies, a fact-based decision-making culture, a strong data infrastructure, the right analytical tools, and people skilled in the use of analytics. Because of the paradigm shift in the kinds of data being analyzed and how this data is used, big data can be considered to be a new, fourth generation of decision support data management. Though the business value from big data is great, especially for online companies like Google and Facebook, how it is being used is raising significant privacy concerns

3rd International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2020)

Research methods in economics and social sciences are evolving with the increasing availability of Internet and Big Data sources of information.As these sources, methods, and applications become more interdisciplinary, the 3rd International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA) is an excellent forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and advances on how emerging research methods and sources are applied to different fields of social sciences as well as to discuss current and future challenges.Doménech I De Soria, J.; Vicente Cuervo, MR. (2020). 3rd International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2020). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/149510EDITORIA

The fuzzy front end of innovation : hearing the voice of customer on credit cards

The title “Behind the Fuzzy Front End” points to the traditionally messy getting-started period of product development, when the new product idea is still very “fuzzy”. Preceding a more formal product development process, it generally consists of three tasks: strategic planning, concept generation and pre-technical evaluation. The main aim with this thesis is to answer the research problem “What say the Voice Of Customer for a future credit card product in the Norwegian market?”, to potentially be used as input for a concept generation phase for new credit card products. This is done with the use of an explorative research design, conducted through qualitative one-to-one interviews with customers and sales personnel. The empirical study gives a theoretical and practical guide to how Voice Of Customer could be extracted. This particular research results in 194 unique customer needs related to the buyers‟ experience cycle of credit cards. In addition to finding the Voice Of Customer, two accompanying important questions are explored theoretically: (1) How could innovation influence profit growth?, and (2) How could innovative opportunities be found? The theoretical part explores central innovation and strategy related literature. Firstly, the interrelationship between innovation and competitive advantage is discussed in order to see whether, why and potentially how innovation could spur profit growth. The second question uses theories in constructing a “how-to-guide” for reaping potential innovative opportunities. Two key conclusions are derived from the literature study. Firstly, a strong relationship between innovation and competitive advantage does exist, thus profit growth is influenced by innovation. On this basis, innovation should be added as an important parameter for business strategising. Secondly, several types of innovative opportunities could be reached through conscious and systematic focus on the use of innovation as a strategic parameter. By tuning the company‟s innovation strategy and innovative processes, in addition to building a strong innovative business culture, creating a competitive edge is within reach

Dynamic capabilities: the emperor's new clothes?

This study initially aimed to evaluate dynamic capability theory using a longitudinal empirical case of a highly successful FTSE-100 company operating within a volatile market. Using a range of rich qualitative data to open the “black box”, dynamic capabilities theory is extended through a detailed account of the process through which the case firm reconfigures and deploys their so-called zero-order or operational capabilities. Although there is a burgeoning literature, research findings remain diverse, disparate and largely conceptual. The limited examples of empirical work in the extant literature, tend to focus on what dynamic capabilities are with little attention in demonstrating how they actually operate. This study details several stages of significant change within the case firm as it moves from start up to its current MNE status. In-depth interviews with the senior team both past and present capture discussions of those factors underlying the success of this firm. Thematic development revealed examples of resource configurations and routines that matched dynamic capability as defined in literature. However, attempts to use Winter's (2003) hierarchy of capability to organize the data proved inadequate; far from being heterogeneous, the dynamic capability found looks like best practice; and whilst operational capability can be seen to evolve, the dynamic capability identified has not. Turning to the wider strategic management literature one can argue that the dynamic capability found in this firm fits better with a wider set of concepts such as knowledge management, absorptive learning, organizational change, leadership, HR practices, strategic decision making, team building, etc. Using a dynamic capability perspective, the findings might extend the under-developed notions of dynamic managerial capability and entrepreneurial fitness. Dynamic managerial capability, as described in the literature, can be articulated within the case firm. Managerial agency is key to competitive success in this firm and this study shows that the concept of agency is more encompassing than that of dynamic managerial capabilities and Teece’s (2007) vision of sensing, seizing and reconfiguring. There are cognitive aspects to creating the context for leadership action and the roles of sense-making and sense-giving to sustain the organizational culture and create the framework for innovation, learning and change. Yet, it is equally possible to account for competitive advantage within this case without recourse to dynamic capability theory. By linking the data gathered to the concept of "dominant logic" (Prahalad & Bettis, 1986; 1995), it is argued that traits and attitudes of the founders and senior managers of the case firm contribute to the “logic” that drives action. Over time these traits have been expressed as a series of simple rules that, in turn, have been operationalized in an organizational culture providing the context for the development of both routines and ad-hoc action. The thesis then demonstrates analytically how rules and their underlying traits act as a mechanism for the creation, sustenance and adaptation of operational capabilities traceable directly to actions taken in response to or in anticipation of environmental changes as well as actions taken in the context of an organizational culture which reflects these rules and underlying traits. It is through managerial agency that rules are created, the culture sustained and “entrepreneurial fitness” is achieved. As such, the research presented here contributes to the resource-based theory of the firm without recourse to the dynamic capabilities construct