Sprachbasierte Interfaces (Conversational Interfaces, CIs) verändern die Art und Weise, wie Nutzer mit Unternehmen in einem breiten Spektrum von Dienstleistungen interagieren. CIs ermöglichen den Unternehmen, auf der Grundlage der derzeitigen kontinuierlichen Fortschritte in der künstlichen Intelligenz (KI) und der Verarbeitung natürlicher Sprache (NLP), die Kundeninteraktion zu automatisieren, ohne dass die Dynamik menschlicher Interaktion verloren geht. Somit erzeugen CIs eine Dienstleistungserfahrung, die der Interaktion mit einem menschlichen Servicemitarbeiter ähnelt. Von der Unterstützung bei der Anmeldung von Versicherungsansprüchen bis hin zur Bereitstellung von Produktempfehlungen unterstützen CIs die Nutzer zunehmend bei der Lösung von Serviceanfragen. Sie sind dabei intuitiver und natürlicher als herkömmliche Servicetechnologien (z. B. Websites). Einem neuartigen Interaktionsparadigma folgend ahmen CIs zwischenmenschliche Kommunikation in schriftlicher oder gesprochener Form nach. Als Folge können CIs mit den Nutzern auf eine Art und Weise interagieren, die bisher als Wesensmerkmal menschlicher Kommunikation galt: ein auf natürlicher Sprache basierender Dialog. Dies wirft grundlegende Fragen darüber auf, wie Nutzer auf CI-gestützte Service-Interaktionen reagieren und welche Auswirkungen dies auf das Serviceergebnis haben könnte. Der übergreifende Beitrag dieser Dissertation ist ein neuartiger konzeptioneller Rahmen für CI-unterstützte Service-Interaktionen, der auf grundlegenden Theorien der menschlichen Kommunikation, der technologievermittelten Servicebereitstellung und auf laufenden Arbeiten zu Mensch-KI-Beziehungen aufbaut und diese integriert. Der konzeptionelle Rahmen wird in sechs komplementären Projekten entwickelt und getestet. In Kombination zeigen diese Arbeiten, wie CIs und ihr Design (z.B. das Geschlecht der Stimme, die Interaktionsmodalität) die Nutzererfahrungen (z.B. Vertrauen, Flow, Fluency) prägen und sich letztlich auf das Ergebnis der Dienstleistung auswirken. Darüber hinaus wird untersucht, wie moderierende Faktoren, die sich in der konversationalen Gestaltung von CIs manifestieren, diese Effekte beeinflussen. Die Dissertation hat wichtige Implikationen für Forschung und Praxis: Aus theoretischer Sicht zeigt diese Arbeit, wie grundlegende Erkenntnisse aus der menschlichen Kommunikation genutzt werden können, um die aufkommende interdisziplinäre Forschung zu dem Thema voranzutreiben, wie Nutzer in Beziehung zu den Service-Interaktionen von CIs treten und von diesen beeinflusst werden. Die Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation haben ebenfalls wichtige praktische Auswirkungen für Unternehmen, die das Potenzial von CIs zur Verbesserung der Nutzererfahrungen und das theoriegeleiteten Konversationsdesign von CIs nutzen wollen.

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Direct alcohol biomarkers are of growing interest for the assessment of alcohol consumption, with particular interest in phosphatidylethanol (PEth) in recent years. PEth is only formed when alcohol is present in the body. However, there is no statement about how much the PEth concentration increases after single moderate alcohol consumption. This study was conducted to determine the increase in PEth concentrations after a single drinking event. Additionally, a new volumetric sampling device (volumetric dried blood spot cards (DBSV)) was evaluated, which was designed to simplify further sampling processes and to allow for easy self-sampling. Dried blood samples from 31 volunteers were collected before and after single alcohol consumption with a mean maximum breath alcohol concentration of 0.4 mg/L (range: 0.30–0.55 mg/L). PEth concentrations were determined after automated extraction by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. PEth 16:0/18:1 and PEth 16:0/18:2 concentrations increased to an average of 45 ng/mL each in patients starting below 20 ng/mL (range: 25.0–57.0 ng/mL for PEth 16:0/18:1; range 26.8–62.3 ng/mL for PEth 16:0/18:2). PEth concentrations in patients starting above 20 ng/mL increased by a mean of 30 ng/mL (range: 6.2–71.3 ng/mL for PEth 16:0/18:1; range 8.8–65.3 ng/mL for PEth 16:0/18:2). In addition, the comparison of the new sampling device DBSV with a standard filter paper card (with volumetrically applied 20 µL of blood samples) yielded a close agreement for the determined PEth concentrations in 24 forensic samples and three external controls. Therefore, the sampling device DBSV proved to be suitable for the determination of PEth concentrations in blood.

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Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is commonly employed by large organizations to coordinate local information system development efforts in line with organization-wide strategic objectives while simultaneously avoiding redundancies and inconsistencies. Even though EAM tools and processes have become increasingly mature over the past decade, many organizations still struggle to generate impact from their EAM initiatives. To this end, we describe how enterprise architects at Commerzbank, a major international bank, employed a control mechanism portfolio perspective to more effectively anchor EAM within the organization. This approach allows to purposefully combine a wide range of different formal and informal EAM control mechanisms, thereby going beyond the formal, topdown driven mechanisms predominantly discussed in EAM literature. Furthermore, such EAM control mechanism portfolios provide an effective means to purposefully realign EAM in reaction to major strategic shifts. The application of this perspective is demonstrated by tracing the evolution of EAM at Commerzbank for more than a decade (2008 to 2018) through a turbulent and challenging competitive environment, resulting in several major strategic realignments that required corresponding adjustments in EAM. We believe that such consciously designed and diversified EAM control mechanism portfolios also provide a useful means for other large organizations to more effectively conduct EAM.

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The goals of design science research (DSR) projects are to generate novel and useful artifacts and to produce rigorous and generalizable design knowledge. Often, DSR projects are conducted in collaborative, interdisciplinary project teams. Different disciplinary approaches to codifying design knowledge result in challenging project interactions. To study this situation, we analyze design knowledge codification in interdisciplinary teams over time. We gain insights from a survey of recent DSR papers that have been published in the AIS Senior Scholars’ Basket. We then present a detailed case study of a longitudinal project that brought to light issues of sharing design knowledge across disciplinary borders. Drawing from the survey and case study, we provide actionable guidance on how to effectively codify and share design knowledge to support researchers and practitioners to build useful artifacts and to make interdisciplinary design knowledge contributions reusable and applicable.

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Although the idea of low code development is not new, the market for these oftentimes platform-based development approaches is exponentially growing. Especially factors such as increasing affinity for technology development across all user groups, consumerization of development, and advancing digitalization are opening a new target group for the low code movement. The broad application possibilities of low code, as well as the benefits, are therefore getting more important for businesses. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), low code constitutes a promising avenue to survive and succeed in the rapidly changing world. However, a clear understanding regarding the application of this paradigm of software development in SMEs is still missing. To provide a coherent understanding of the phenomenon low code in SMEs, we review extant literature and conduct interviews, identifying potential application domains and conceptualizing the benefits and challenges of low code from a holistic perspective.

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With this paper, we examine the use of data analytics for crisis management in automotive procurement departments. Possible business values of data analytics were part of numerous research approaches. Nevertheless, automotive manufacturers are repeatedly confronted with supply chain disruptions. Procurement departments have a central role within supply chains and are predominantly responsible for stable supply processes. Taking into account the potential of data analytics, such crises should be avoided or at least mitigated. Thus, there is the question, why data analytics cannot currently help automotive procurement departments by facing such crises. We therefore evaluate problems and obstacles by implementing and using data analytics in automotive procurement departments. Therefore, we talk to experienced procurement experts for evaluating practical insights. With our findings we provide practical insights and applicable recommendations for action with the goal of helping procurement leaders to better leverage data analytics for meeting current and future crises.

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Pandemics like COVID-19 highlight the needs and pitfalls of inclusive and equitable education in a digital society. IT-based instructional designs are needed to increase learners’ expertise, and to develop higher-order thinking skills. Instructional designs for collaborative learning (CL) seem to be a promising solution. However, they are mostly suitable for face-to-face and not for distance teaching. The core problem that impedes their reusability and scalability is a ‘collaboration problem’ for which collaboration engineering (CE) provides guidance. Therefore, we deploy a design science research study and contribute to CL and CE literature. We develop requirements and provide the design of an IT-based collaborative work practice fostering CL. We provide empirical evidence with an online experiment in a large-scale lecture with undergraduate business information students. This reveals that groups of learners who followed our CL experience achieve higher levels of expertise than those who followed a traditional ad hoc CL experience.

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