Dividing Complexity to Conquer New Dimensions – Towards a Framework for Designing Augmented Reality Solutions

Augmented reality (AR) can foster service innovation and thus cope with some of the most urgent challenges in the service science domain, namely supporting frontline workers while ensuring high safety standards. Therefore, the utilization of AR can help to achieve these goals. On the contrary, AR remains a complex technology with specific requirements and preconditions that demand expertise to overcome them. Based on a case study, we derive a framework for designing AR solutions, which helps divide the complexity of designing and developing AR-based services to support the adoption and diffusion of AR applications. Such an encompassing perspective on initial AR explorations helps to transform the acquired information into a thorough proof of concept, pilot implementations and ultimately productive software

Is There More Than Pokémon Go? – Exploring the State of Research on Causal Modeling in the Field of Augmented Reality

The paper explores how scholars apply causal modeling to gain an understanding of augmented reality as innovative technology and its potential for application. To do so, we conducted a structured literature review and applied a graph database-driven approach to analyze how scholars research augmented reality. Such an approach enables in-depth analysis of the body of knowledge that is not accessible in traditional ways of exploring literature. The results help to understand where we as a community stand and how directions for future research can help reshape the understanding of augmented reality and its application

THE PROCESS AUGMENTABILITY CANVAS - HOW TO FIND THE SWEET SPOT FOR AUGMENTED REALITY

The adoption of augmented reality (AR) has been one of the defining technological trends of the past decade. While AR has experienced significant growth in consumer electronics, its potential for professional use still needs to be explored. Despite the growing interest in AR, determining its feasibility and potential to satisfy business needs remains challenging. To address this gap, we used a mixedmethod research approach to create a guiding framework called the process augmentability canvas. Drawing on a comprehensive case study of a major European maintenance, repair, and overhaul service provider, as well as state-of-the literature, we present a canvas that allows scholars and practitioners to evaluate AR’s applicability for a given process thoroughly. By providing a structured approach to analyzing AR solutions, the process augmentability canvas contributes to a better understanding of how AR can be used efficiently in organizational settings

How to Empower Users for Co-Creation - Conceptualizing an Engagement Platform for Benefits Realization

Organizations invest huge portions of their budget in IT with the goal to realize benefits as improving work practice and establishing new processes. To achieve this goal, users are engaged throughout projects by various methods and approaches. Nevertheless, after the completion of a project, users lack power and opportunities to further realize benefits and thus assuring the overall success of a project. To close this gap, we present the concept of an engagement platform that empowers users collectively to induce change initiatives that enhances the realization of benefits in the post-project phase. By doing so, benefits management practices undergo a paradigm shift from recent top-down management towards bottom-up realization of benefits. This change in perspective also incorporates a service systems perspective as it focusses on the dynamic configuration of actors and resources to enable value creation in a complex context

Empowering Users to Create Augmented Reality-Based Solutions – Deriving Design Principles for No-Code AR Authoring Tools

Grounded on an experimental study with 18 participants, we derive 15 design principles for no-code AR authoring tools in an organizational setting. The study consists of two distinct treatments that aim to augment lightweight processes with AR. The outcomes are two interactive tutorials utilizing AR instructions. Following the no-code approach, the participants were empowered to create relevant AR content using a reduced interface and no need for advanced configurations or coding. The study thus combines two research streams with the aim of better understanding mechanisms for AR use in a professional context. As prior work has shown, despite the potential benefits, the adoption of AR authoring tools is limited because ramping up AR to productive use is heavily dependent on consulting and custom software solutions. Our novel approach bears the potential to broaden application domains and empower professionals to apply AR

Enhancing transfer-of-training for corporate training services: Conceptualizing transfer-supporting IT components with theory-driven design

Corporate training services have grown into a key approach for improving performance and a substantial industry in recent years due to increased job requirements, workforce flexibility and lifelong learning. Transfer-of-training is a key output of these services, defined as the application and generalization of new competences at work acquired in training. Corporate trainings are exemplars of highly co-created services. Improving the output productivity through better transfer-of-training requires collaboration between providers and customers. IT could be an enabler to embed transfer-related activities for transferring training contents to the work. However, IT support is missing for improving transfer-of-training in corporate trainings. Inspired by service logic and based on training research, this paper employs a theory-driven and iterative design approach to develop transfer-supporting IT components for corporate trainings. Furthermore, we present the implemented prototype, findings from several design interactions and report on the on-going summative evaluation in an international service management training

Engaging Users to Co-Create - Implications for Service Systems Design by Evaluating an Engagement Platform

Far-reaching digitalization affords significantly more opportunities for engaging actors and mobilizing resources in service systems. By leveraging these capabilities, digitally enabled service systems can facilitate user-generated services. Traditional service engineering approaches provide for such service systems. This paper presents and discusses the evaluation of a field-based design science research project for designing an engagement platform that facilitates the co-creation of user-generated services. This study reports contributions to the design knowledge of such an engagement platform and their consequences for engagement activities. Based on the evaluation, we propose design propositions for such an engagement platform from a sociotechnical perspective

Analysis of Learning Management Systems According to a Holistic View on Corporate Education Services

According to the still growing importance of services and especially knowledge-based services the importance of lifelong learning increases, too. In these premises the European Union targeted a rate of workforce participating in lifelong learning to at least 15 %, the current value is 9,3 %. The main impulse for current participants in an ongoing learning process is to improve career opportunities and to perform better in their jobs.Keeping these changes in mind, corporate education services are a good example of knowledge-based services. First of all, these services integrate the customer in depth to identify their specific needs and to deliver the service. Therefore, they can be seen as a good example of services following a service-dominant logic. Secondly, this sector gains on importance due to the economic as well as the demographic changes. Thirdly, corporate education services bear potential for economic growth. In 2008 market had a volume of 26,5 billion Euro in Germany. With the aspired increase in lifelong learning there is still potential to increase this number.Therefore this paper examines the potentials of current learning management systems to support corporate education services from a holistic perspective based on Kirkpatricks Four-Level Model. Based on this analysis potentials for further improvements of the support of the learning process are derived

Exploring Archetypes of Value Co-Destructive Privacy Practices

Personal data is a critical resource to tailor digital services to the context of use and the preferences of individual users. Services have the characteristic that users and providers no longer interact in a dyadic relationship but rather in service systems co-creating value. Here, actors can provoke adverse effects that result from misaligned or destructive behavior. In service research, value co-destruction emerged as a perspective to study such undermined value co-creation. We use this lens in the case of information privacy as an example of a normative value. Building on a multi-case analysis of information privacy violations reported in the news, we elucidate seven archetypes of value co- destruction. These archetypes enable an understanding of underlying conceptions and mechanisms of actor arrangements that inhibit the holistic consideration of normative values such as information privacy in digital services