Governing mobile service innovation in co-evolving value networks

Mobile service innovation requires a broad set of resources and capabilities that are not controlled by one single actor. Equipment manufacturers, operators, content providers and application developers have to work together in so-called value networks in order to develop and offer services to end-users. There is serious debate as to how the collective actions of these interdependent but legally separate actors can be governed. In the past, operators controlled most activities in so-called walled gardens, but these are now being replaced by more open models of collaboration. These developments may be driven by technological, market-related and regulatory forces in the environment, but transitions between the phases of service innovation may also play a role. A co-evolutionary perspective that explains governance dynamics by combining these multi-level factors is lacking, as existing literature mostly takes a static perspective. This study provides insight into how and why the mechanisms used to govern mobile service innovation in value networks change over time. Building on theories on value networks, governance, service innovation and co-evolution, propositions are developed on the use of authority-based, contracts-based and trust-based governance. The propositions are refined and tested in qualitative case studies in the commercial and police domain, followed by a quantitative survey among practitioners and experts. Besides theoretical and domain-related implications, the findings provide a basis for a research program on governing ICT-enabled service innovation in value networks.Infrastructure Systems & ServicesTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Governance of smart living service platforms: State-ofthe-art and the need for collective action

Today’s smart home concepts are no longer limited to home automation, but increasingly involve smart health, energy, security and entertainment services. Such smart living services are typically offered through sector-specific service platforms that are rarely interoperable and not fully standardized. As a result, an overwhelming variety of service platforms for smart living services is currently on the market. The vast majority of these service platforms suffer from disappointing adoption by both consumers and service providers. This paper aims to provide a structured overview of 42 contemporary smart living service platforms for healthcare, energy, security and entertainment services. We find strong differences between the platforms in terms of technology architecture and governance structure. Technologically, some platforms place the intelligence of the technology architecture within a person’s home, while others place it in the telecommunications network or remotely in the cloud. Regarding governance structure, we find that relatively few platforms are completely open for third parties to provide services on and most of them are partly or even completely closed. The main contribution of the paper is to apply concepts from platform theory to analyse the on-going developments in the smart living domain. We argue that the lack of openness and cross-sectorial interoperability of the service platforms, combined with large differences in the technological architecture, explains why smart living services still struggle to make their way to the market. Based on these findings, we argue that collective action for developing common service platforms that cross traditional industries is needed to break the deadlock of smart living service innovation.Infrastructures, Systems and ServicesTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Can privacy concerns for insurance of connected cars be compensated?

Internet-of-things technologies enable service providers such as insurance companies to collect vast amounts of privacy-sensitive data on car drivers. This paper studies whether and how privacy concerns of car owners can be compensated by offering monetary benefits. We study the case of usage based car insurance services for which the insurance fee is adapted to measured mileage and driving behaviour. A conjoint experiment shows that consumers prefer their current insurance products to usage based car insurance. However, when offered a minor financial compensation, they are willing to give up their privacy to car insurers. Consumers find privacy of behaviour and action more valuable than privacy of location and space. The study is a first to compare different forms of privacy in the acceptance of connected car services. Hereby, we contribute to more fine-grained understanding of privacy concerns in the acceptance of digital services, which will become more important in the upcoming Internet-of-things era.Engineering, Systems and ServicesTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Understanding business model innovation: Recommendations for future business model tooling by an action research

In Research and Development (R&D) projects, Business Model Innovation (BMI) is a challenging issue given the high degrees of uncertainty regarding technologies, products and markets. The purpose of this research is to investigate how business model exploration is facilitated with the use of business model tooling and what are the gaps in the current business model repository in supporting business model exploration as part of the BMI process. These gaps can be addressed in the design of future business model tooling. We do so by supporting the business model exploration within a specific complex setting, introducing changes in the business models, and evaluating their effects. For 12 months we actively participated in an R&D project funded by European Union focused on building a digital service that will improve mobility safety. We observed that business model exploration is an indispensable process when the value offering is not clearly defined, or when there are new business opportunities. Based on the observations, our recommendations regarding business model exploration are: (a) to start with an initial business model even if the final offering is not clear, (b) to create alternative business models and explore their potentials, and (c) use tools or practices that can contribute on the decision making regarding BMI.Information and Communication Technolog

Smartphone metingen: Gebruik van logdata om consumentengedrag in kaart te brengen

Smartphones maken nieuwe manieren mogelijk om statistische gegevens te verzamelen, bijvoorbeeld voor het verkrijgen van inzicht in consumentengedrag of verplaatsingen. In het najaar van 2011 is in opdracht van het CBS een pilot uitgevoerd waarbij 128 smartphone bezitters een maand lang zijn gevolgd via een onderzoekapplicatie die zij installeerden op hun mobiele telefoon (zogenaamde selffilling questionnaire). Doel van de pilot was om een beeld te krijgen van wat mogelijk is met dit soort onderzoek en niet zo zeer om representatieve cijfers te publiceren. Dit rapport beschrijft de resultaten van het onderzoek en wijst op aandachtspunten bij de implementatie, bijvoor-beeld bij het CBS. De via de smartphones verkregen logdata geeft onder meer inzicht in de frequentie en tijdsduur van het gebruik van mobiele diensten (“apps”), het bezoeken van websites (surfgedrag), het belgedrag, het dataverbruik van men-sen, internetconnecties en locaties. Dit soort “nieuwe” data kan bijdragen om onderzoek naar bijvoorbeeld de im-pact van mobiele diensten en breder naar de impact van ICT naar een hoger plan te tillen dan nu het geval is met alleen de traditionele wijze van dataverzameling. Tijdens het onderzoek is geëxperimenteerd met een aantal pop-up surveys, dat wil zeggen dat na het gebruik van een applicatie aan de respondent extra vragen zijn gesteld over zijn/haar motieven om de applicatie te gebruiken. Bij dit onderzoek is dat gebeurd na het gebruik van sociale media applicaties. Een belangrijke conclusie is dat juist de combinatie van data op basis van registratie (logdata), pop-up surveys en flankerende enquêtes door onderlinge koppeling zeer rijke databronnen opleveren voor nieuw onderzoek. Niet alleen als het gaat om de impact van mobiele diensten en ICT, maar ook voor onderzoek naar bijvoorbeeld ver-plaatsingsgedrag, tijdsbesteding, sociale samenhang, toerisme en ruimtelijk onderzoek. Dit is mogelijk omdat ook locatie en tijdstip van gebruik worden vastgelegd. Deelnemers zijn over het algemeen zeer positief over hun deelname aan de studie en zouden in de toekomst we-derom mee willen doen. Ook hebben ze hun gedrag naar eigen zeggen nauwelijks aangepast terwijl zij gevolgd werden. Uitdagingen bij het opzetten van dit soort onderzoek zijn vooral het werven van respondenten, het samenstellen van representatieve uitkomsten en het omgaan met zeer grote hoeveelheden data gegenereerd door individuele gebruikssessies. Belangrijk is het vooraf stellen van de juiste onderzoeksvragen (wat wil je onderzoeken?). Hiermee kan namelijk de scope van het onderzoek op een juiste wijze worden afgebakend en kan voorkomen worden dat onnodig veel persoonsgegevens worden verzameld. Bovendien kan de complexiteit worden beperkt. Bij onderzoek naar surfgedrag, bijvoorbeeld naar de ontwikkeling van mobiel betalen, vormen het op een juiste wijze categorise-ren van de geregistreerde URL’s (c.q. webpagina’s) en het hebben van een beeld van welke URL’s van belang zijn voor het onderzoek een aanzienlijke uitdaging. Bij het herhalen van dit onderzoek moet verder aandacht worden besteed aan technische onvolkomenheden van de software, eenvoud van installatie voor de deelnemer aan het onderzoek, het gebruik van pop-upsen de helpdeskon-dersteuning,. Privacy, voorlichting aan respondenten en beveiliging van data blijven belangrijke eisen, al toont deze pilot aan dat dit in de praktijk geen bottlenecks hoeven te zijn.Infrastructures, Systems and ServicesTechnology, Policy and Managemen

Designing an ICT tool platform to support SME business model innovation: Results of a first design cycle

Business model innovation (BMI) is becoming increasingly relevant for enterprises as they are faced with profound changes like digitalization. While business model thinking in academia has advanced, practical tooling that supports business model innovation for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) is still lacking. In this paper, we design, implement and evaluate an online platform with ICT-enabled tooling that supports business model innovation by SMEs. Based on interviews with ten SMEs and SME helpers, we define requirements for the BMI tooling platform. The implemented platform offers downloadable tools, decision support for finding the proper tooling, and interactive features for building communities of SMEs. Evaluation through log data analysis and informal interviews shows that the platform is usable and provides a relevant overview of BMI tooling, although several improvements are still suggested. As next steps, we will (1) create prefilled tools and templates to speed up the process of BMI; (2) create educational videos on how to use the tooling; (3) define paths on how to move from one tool to another; and (4) enhance the community features on the platform. The paper contributes to understanding how academic conceptualizations of BMI can be transferred into practically valuable artefacts for SMEs.Information and Communication Technolog

Ferritin-Based Single-Electron Devices

We report on the fabrication of single-electron devices based on horse-spleen ferritin parti-cles. At low temperatures the current vs. voltage characteristics are stable, enabling the acquisition of reproducible data that establishes the Coulomb blockade as the main transport mechanism through them. Excellent agreement between the experimental data and the Coulomb blockade theory is demonstrated. Single-electron charge transport in ferritin, thus, establishes a route for further characterization of their, e.g., magnetic, properties down to the single-particle level, with prospects for electronic and medical applications.QN/van der Zant La