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Diffusion of mobile banking among rural women: incentivizing local leaders vs. a marketing campaign
No full textHow can we promote the adoption of mobile banking among the socially and economically disadvantaged? We compare the effectiveness of two strategies, seeded diffusion via incentivized local leaders and a traditional marketing campaign, to promote the adoption of mobile banking among poor women in rural Peru. For the first one, we exploit the existence of local leaders who were trained by a local firm to promote the diffusion of a mobile banking application. For the second, we take advantage of an on-going traditional marketing campaign at the regional level. Our findings show that the personalized seeded diffusion via local leaders is an effective promotion strategy. It significantly outperforms the traditional campaign, during which adoption rates are statistically indistinguishable from zero. We additionally show that the seeded incentivized diffusion relies on features of the underlying community networks known to promote diffusion of information and trust. Our results emphasize the necessity of personalized approaches to promote technological products such a mobile banking among vulnerable populations
Recognition of differences in the capacity to deal with floods—A cross-country comparison of flood risk management
Get PDFFlood risks worldwide are increasing due to climate change. Managing these risks is ever more necessary. Although flood risk management (FRM) is often understood as a technical challenge, it also involves decisions about the distribution of resources and risks in floods, which can be inherently unfair. People are disparately affected by floods due to their location. Because of their various socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, they also differ in their capacity to deal with floods. These differences need to be recognised in FRM to prevent disproportionate impacts on vulnerable communities. However, at present, a knowledge gap exists on how to make FRM more inclusive and just, and discussions on recognition justice in the context of FRM are scarce. This article therefore examines recognition of differences in the capacity of people to deal with floods in FRM in England (United Kingdom), Finland, Flanders (Belgium) and France. We analyse if, and how, these differences are recognised in FRM policy and practice and through decision-making procedures, drawing on examples from the implementation of five FRM strategies in each country (flood risk prevention, flood defence, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation and flood recovery). Furthermore, we aim to highlight opportunity spaces to strengthen recognition justice in future FRM
Applying artificial intelligence in healthcare: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
Get PDFThe COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in global healthcare systems and highlighted the need for innovative, technology-driven solutions like Artificial Intelligence (AI). While AI holds transformative potential in healthcare, previous research on the topic has been limited and fragmented, leading to an incomplete understanding of the ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘how’ of its application, as well as its associated benefits and challenges. This motivated this research, which proposes a comprehensive AI framework for healthcare and assesses its effectiveness within the UAE’s healthcare sector. The study provides valuable insights into AI applications for healthcare stakeholders that range from the molecular to the population level. It covers the different computational techniques employed, from machine learning to computer vision, and the various types of data inputs fed into these techniques, including clinical, epidemiological, locational, behavioural and genomic data. Additionally, the research highlights AI‘s capacity to enhance healthcare‘s operational, quality-related and social outcomes, and recognises regulatory policies, technological infrastructure, stakeholder cooperation and innovation readiness as key facilitators of AI adoption. Lastly, we stress the importance of addressing challenges such as data privacy, security, generalisability and algorithmic bias. Our findings are relevant beyond the COVID-19 pandemic in facilitating the development of AI-related policy interventions and support mechanisms for building stronger, more resilient healthcare systems that can withstand future challenges, whether pandemics or other unforeseen health crises
Enterprise Service Management als Wertschöpfungsinstrument für IT-Dienstleistungsunternehmen in der DACH-Region: Fallstudienbasierte Untersuchung der Umsetzung des ESM entlang der Wertschöpfungskette
No full textA critical analysis of the literature on the emerging discipline of Enterprise-Service-Manage-ment (ESM) and existing value creation theories shows that a holistic approach has not yet been investigated. To fill this gap, this case study research focuses on how ESM can be imple-mented from business and technological perspectives serve as a value creation model. This thesis analyses how ESM needs to be implemented in order to serve as a value creation model for IT service companies in the DACH region.
The research takes the form of multiple case studies focusing on IT service providers in the DACH region and uses a qualitative methodology to analyse the cases collected through inter-views, documents and archival data. In order to obtain a holistic view of ESM, the case studies analyse the implementation along the value chain with a focus on the ESM and value creation as defined objects of analysis. As part of the cross-case analysis, empirical and theoretical pat-terns were critically analysed and examined for commonalities. As a result, a new interdisci-plinary theory of the ESM as a value creation instrument was developed, which is based on a typology. With ESM, the services and solutions of an IT service provider are managed end-to-end with the aim of achieving value creation on the customer and company side. The research shows that industry-specific challenges and specific implementation problems of the provid-ers must be taken into account when implementing ESM. For this reason, ESM is not a best practice approach but an empirically based framework for the individual implementation of ESM.
The research generates a new understanding of ESM, which represents a holistic value-ori-ented management approach. The implementation comprises the systematic management of corporate activities, services, solutions, technologies and people along the value chain in order to create value. The results show that ESM requires an organisational structure, culture and platforms that are geared towards value creation
Child spirituality and holistic ministry: a qualitative study in Wonji Shoa, Ethiopia
Get PDFThis research is a qualitative study of child spirituality in Wonji Shoa, Ethiopia. The research project stemmed from observing divergent, categorical, skeptical, and restrictive views and actions on the spiritual dimension of children among stakeholders in positions of influence. The research focuses on an in-depth understanding of a group of Ethiopian children's perspectives and experiences of spirituality and the implication this may have on holistic child ministry run by churches and parachurch organizations. The study involved children as primary sources in seeking answers to the overacting research questions: How can a better understanding of children's views and experiences of spirituality in Wonji Shoa, Ethiopia, contribute to holistic child ministry? A phenomenological case study was applied as a methodological framework, and primary data were collected using group and individual interviews. The key findings of the study include: 1) Children's understanding and experience of spirituality is multidimensional, including divine, religious, personal, worldly and evil spirituality; 2) Spirituality involves connectedness with the divine, religious and personal dimensions of spirituality and dissociation from evil spirituality, 3) Contextual factors influencing child spirituality are multifaceted, including people, religion, community and beyond community factors which are connected in weblike structure rather than the nested structure of the ecological theory. Through discussion of findings and review of contemporary theories, the concept of relationality' is adopted as an overarching theme to revisit holistic child ministry. The research findings enhance holistic child ministry with a broader view of spirituality and spiritual contexts. The research contributes to the body of knowledge, the practical field of child ministry, policy formulation and methodological input for researching child spirituality with children
Is there a performance-injury conflict between maximum horizontal deceleration and surrogates of non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injury?
Get PDFThis study aimed to examine the biomechanical determinants of horizontal deceleration and their correlations with non-contact ACL injury surrogates (e.g., knee joint moments). Thirty-two male team-sport players (Age: 21.85 ± 0.33 yrs; Height: 1.80 ± 0.11 m; Mass: 71.28 ± 1.39 kg) performed horizontal deceleration following 15 m sprints. Lower limb kinetics and kinematics of the first braking step were collected using 3D motion and force plates, and deceleration was assessed using radar gun. The Pearson correlation was used to determine correlations between selected variables and p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Greater peak and mean horizontal deceleration were significantly correlated (p ≤ 0.05) with greater mean horizontal braking GRF (r = 0.52 and 0.41) and greater mean horizontal braking GRF ratio (r = 0.43 and 0.48). Greater knee joint loading (knee flexion moment, knee abduction moment, and knee internal rotation moment) were significantly correlated (p ≤ 0.05) with greater peak and mean vertical braking GRF (r = 0.30-0.41) and greater peak resultant braking GRF (r = 0.33-0.48). There were non-significant correlations between mean and peak deceleration and knee joint loading variables (p > 0.05). Therefore, deceleration strategies that emphasize greater horizontal and posteriorly orientated forces during the first contact of deceleration appear effective for facilitating more effective deceleration, without concomitant increases in the loading of non-contact ACL injury surrogates
Self-assessment design in a digital world: centring student agency
Get PDFDigital technologies allow student self-assessment to be adaptive, scalable and multimodal. Despite such technological advances, digital self-assessment practices have largely reinforced the existing norms around student roles, leaving the fundamentals of self-assessment design untouched. Digital self-assessment has centred on learning outcomes and self-regulation with less attention to students’ own initiatives, aspirations and roles – their agency. Ironically, the ‘self’ has remained at the margins of digital self-assessment work. In this conceptual study, we propose ‘the digital’ as a catalyst to rethink the student role in self-assessment. This way, the digital could address fundamental issues with self-assessment already present in the pre-digital age. We explore three ways in which digital self-assessment could promote student agency. By reviewing critical examples of literature on self-assessment and digital technologies, we propose that the digital in self-assessment may be seen: (1) as a tool for promoting students’ self-regulation, as understood in individualistic terms; (2) as a means to develop students’ digital agency; and (3) as a means to provide students with agency over their identity formation in the digital world. These three ideas may guide future work to ensure self-assessment design is relevant for students’ increasingly digital futures, particularly in an era of Artificial Intelligence
Trust and trustworthiness in the villain’s dilemma: collaborative dishonesty with conflicting incentives?
Get PDFWrong-doers may try to collaborate to achieve greater gains than would be possible alone. Yet potential collaborators face two issues: they need to accurately identify other cheaters and trust that their collaborators do not betray them when the opportunity arises. These concerns may be in tension, since the people who are genuine cheaters could also be the likeliest to be untrustworthy. We formalise this interaction in the “villain’s dilemma” and use it in a laboratory experiment to study three questions: what kind of information helps people to overcome the villain’s dilemma? Does the villain’s dilemma promote or hamper cheating relative to individual settings? Who participates in the villain’s dilemma and who is a trustworthy collaborative cheater? We find that information has important consequences for behaviour in the villain’s dilemma. Public information about actions is important for supporting collaborative dishonesty, while more limited sources of information lead to back-stabbing and poor collaboration. We also find that the level of information, role of the decision maker, and round of the experiment affect whether dishonesty is higher or lower in the villain’s dilemma than in our individual honesty settings. Finally, individual factors are generally unrelated to collaborating but individual dishonesty predicts untrustworthiness as a collaborator
Erfolgsfaktoren des strategischen Post-Merger-Integrationsmanagements im deutschen Mittelstand – Konzeption eines multiperspektivischen Modells
No full textMerger and acquisition (M&A) projects are becoming increasingly significant in the strategic development of German Mittelstand enterprises. However, a general problem of success is identified, the causes of which are often linked to the particularly critical phase of post-merger integration (PMI). Several questions pertaining to the success factors of PMI have not been the subject of sufficient investigation. This thesis categorises success factors based on theo-retical frameworks and research approaches from previous strategic management, PMI man-agement and SME research. The qualitative research approach used empirically addresses the question of which success factors can be identified based on the experiences of experts in the German Mittelstand.
The study is grounded in a theoretical and empirical justification of 46 success factors, which are then conceptualised within categories of strategic PMI management. These categories in-clude strategic vision, risk management, information management, customer management, project and communication management, organisational and operational structure, and fam-ily governance. All categories are operationalised reflectively via success indicators assigned to the respective critical factors within category-specific sub-models. These sub-models are linked in a holistic management approach. The research hypotheses generated from the final-ised model regarding the relationships between the critical success factors and PMI success form the basis for further investigations. The model employs visualisation to demonstrate how strategic interventions within the PMI management exert influence on the factors that con-tribute to PMI success. Furthermore, it supports the German Mittelstand in identifying suita-ble strategies for successful PMI management and in making better decisions.
The results and findings have been utilised in the development of a preliminary concept for a management tool, the PMI cockpit, the purpose of which is to facilitate the timely and con-tinuous monitoring of the effects of different strategic interventions on the critical success factors of strategic PMI management. The concept will enable management to respond to observed developments with appropriate strategic measures. Future research approaches should build on the results and insights of this thesis to further explore the multidimensional causal structures of success factors and measure the impact of different strategic manage-ment actions on PMI success in M&A projects of German Mittelstand enterprises
Transformation im Verbriefungsprozess durch die Tokenisierung von Finanzprodukten: Modellbasierte Bewertung und Analyse mit besonderem Fokus auf die Veranlagung von Privatanlegern
No full textThis thesis explores the impact of tokenized assets on the securitization process and their influence on private investors' investment strategies. It investigates whether tokenization can lead to significant changes in traditional banking services, such as the issuance of financial products, and whether it enhances efficiency in investment portfolios. The main objective of the study is to assess the concrete potential of asset tokenization. In order to conduct such an evaluation, various perspectives were included into the investigation. With regard to the financial market, these perspectives include all actors involved in the securitization process, therefore issuers, investors, service providers, and markets. These four perspectives are utilized throughout the investigation to thoroughly analyze the potential of tokenization. For this study, qualitative methods (expert interviews) as well as quantitative methods (a comparison of two portfolios, one of them traditional, one tokenized) are utilized.
The study analyzes the development of established securitization methods in view of the evolution of DeFi and the integration of assets into blockchain infrastructures. The findings suggest that tokenization has the potential to optimize the securitization of assets, outperforming traditional methods in efficiency, transparency, and flexibility. However, IT security concerns, including cybersecurity risks and hacker attacks, represent significant challenges that need to be overcome in order to fully exploit the potential of tokenization. In addition, the study evaluates the portfolio efficiency of retail investors and shows that the integration of crypto assets into investment portfolios increases the portfolio efficiency. This leads to a better risk-return ratio through improved diversification opportunities and easier access to a wider range of assets through tokenization.
Summarized, this research project examines not only the impact of tokenization on the securitization process and investment strategies but also deepens the understanding of potential changes in securities securitization. It also serves as a practical guide for financial stakeholders navigating evolving financial landscapes