An empirical investigation of wood product information valued by young consumers

Recent media reports regarding wood products question the trustworthiness of wood origin declaration, the sustainability of production methods and the product quality. In light of this question, it becomes important to ensure consumer trust in wood and wood-based products. Current research indicates that providing product information enhances product trust and purchase intentions, while young consumers in particular seek detailed product information. However, it is necessary to determine which wood product information young consumers strongly value because providing a high amount leads to information overload. As information needs may vary between different consumer segments, the present work aims at identifying segments of young consumers and their preferred wood-product information. The importance of different wood product information items concerning the purchase decision was investigated with a German-language online survey (N = 185, age range 18–30). A cluster analysis revealed four consumer segments. Thereof, three segments (an environmentally oriented, an environmentally and quality oriented, and a quality oriented segment) valued the provision of wood product information. The preferred information types differed among the three segments. Overall, this paper provides insights into young consumers' preferences for wood product information and the consumer segments on which marketing should focus

Traceability system for capturing, processing and providing consumer-relevant information about wood products: System solution and its economic feasibility

Current research and practice reports indicate the existence of purchase barriers concerning eco-friendly products, e.g. wood products. These can be ascribed to consumers' mistrust regarding the non-observable environmental impact of wood products. To counter the mistrust, wood products are commonly endowed with eco-labels, which may be perceived mostly as a marketing tool, therefore not fulfilling their intended purpose. Current studies have shown that providing consumers with wood product information based on traceability systems increases product trust and purchase intentions, with those information items most valued by consumers being identified as well. Based on this, the paper proposes a traceability information system for the capturing, processing, and provision of product information using examples of wood furniture. Furthermore, a cost-benefit model for the proposed solution is developed. The calculations indicate the possibility of implementing traceability at the item level based on a four-layer system architecture enabling the capture and delivery of all information valued by consumers at acceptable costs. The proposed system helps to overcome purchase barriers of eco-friendly products, increasing consumers' product trust and purchase intentions

OpenID as an Approach for User-centric Identity Management

Nowadays, users are confronted with a number of different passwords and accounts in the Internet, resulting in a complex and time-consuming identity management. OpenID as an approach for a user-centric identity management is supposed to reduce the user’s effort. This paper analyses how OpenID can be used as an identity management solution in the Internet and to what extent it matches the idea of a user-centric identity. On the basis of a study, we show general limitations of OpenID and specific challenges regarding the user-centricity. At the end, we point out open research questions and further developments in this area

Design of a Reference Architecture for Production Scheduling Applications based on a Problem Representation including Practical Constraints

Changing customer demands increase the complexity and importance of production scheduling, requiring better scheduling algorithms, e.g., machine learning algorithms. At the same time, current research often neglects practical constraints, e.g., changeovers or transportation. To address this issue, we derive a representation of the scheduling problem and develop a reference architecture for future scheduling applications to increase the impact of future research. To achieve this goal, we apply a design science research approach and, first, rigorously identify the problem and derive requirements for a scheduling application based on a structured literature review. Then, we develop the problem representation and reference architecture as design science artifacts. Finally, we demonstrate the artifacts in an application scenario and publish the resulting prototypical scheduling application, enabling machine learning-based scheduling algorithms, for usage in future development projects. Our results guide future research into including practical constraints and provide practitioners with a framework for developing scheduling applications

Decision Support Systems in the Context of Cyber-Physical Systems: Influencing Factors and Challenges for the Adoption in Production Scheduling

Cyber-physical systems promise a complete networking of all actors and resources involved in production and thus an improved availability of information. In this context decision support systems enable appropriate processing and presentation of the captured data. In particular, production scheduling could benefit from this, since it is responsible for the short-term planning and control of released orders. Since decision support systems and cyber-physical systems together are not yet widely used in production scheduling, the aim of this research study is to analyze the adoption of these technologies. In order to do so, we conducted a qualitative interview study with experts on production scheduling. Thereby, we identified eleven influencing factors and 22 related challenges, which affect the adoption of decision support systems in production scheduling in the context of cyber-physical systems. The results help to explain the adoption and can serve as a starting point for the development of those systems

Enabling the Adoption of Wearable Computers in Enterprises - Results of Analyzing Influencing Factors and Challenges in the Industrial Sector

Wearable computers like smart glasses or smartwatches enable the use of information systems in application scenarios in which information technology has rarely been used until now. The reason for this is, that users are able to interact with the devices hands-free, e.g. by using voice commands. A hands-free use is in particular relevant for enterprises in the industrial sector, as industrial workers often need to perform tasks manually, e.g. in manufacturing or maintenance. However, the technology is currently not used widely in enterprises. Thus, the aim of our research is to identify influencing factors and related challenges of using wearable computers in order to analyze how its adoption can be increased. Based on an empirical interview study within the industrial sector, we identified 11 influencing factors and 25 related challenges which affect the adoption of wearable computers

Data Driven Creation of Sentiment Dictionaries for Corporate Credit Risk Analysis

It has been shown, that German-language user generated content can improve corporate credit risk assessment, when sentiment analysis is applied. However, the approaches have only been conducted by human coders. In order to automate the analysis, we construct 20 domain-dependent sentiment dictionaries based on parts of a manually classified corpus from Twitter. Then, we apply the dictionaries to the remaining part of the corpus and rank the dictionaries based on their accuracy. Results from McNemar’s tests indicate, that the three best dictionaries do not differ significantly, but significant difference can be assured regarding the first and the fourth dictionary in the ranking. In addition to that, a general German-language dictionary is inferior compared to the constructed dictionaries. The results emphasize the importance of domain-dependent dictionaries in German-language sentiment analysis for future research. Furthermore, practitioners can utilize the dictionaries in order to create an additional indicator for corporate credit risk assessment