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Philipp Alexander Ebel
Title
Prof. Dr.
Last Name
Ebel
First name
Philipp Alexander
Email
philipp.ebel@unisg.ch
Phone
+41 71 224 3210
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1 - 10 of 50
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PublicationStairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell: A Model for Assessing Cognitive Automation Use CasesCognitive automation (CA) moves beyond rule-based business process automation to target cognitive knowledge and service work. This allows the automation of tasks and processes, for which automation seemed unimaginable a decade ago. To organizations, these CA use cases offer vast opportunities to gain a significant competitive advantage. However, CA imposes novel challenges on organizations’ decisions regarding the automation potential of use cases, resulting in low adoption and high project failure rates. To counteract this, we draw on an action research study with a leading European manufacturing company to develop and test a model for assessing use cases’ amenability to CA. The proposed model comprises four dimensions: cognition, data, relationship, and transparency requirements. The model proposes that a use case is less (more) amenable to CA if these requirements are high (low). To account for the model’s industry-agnostic generalizability, we draw on an internal evaluation within the action research company and three additional external evaluations undertaken by independent project teams in three distinct industries. From a practice perspective, the model will help organizations make more informed decisions in selecting use cases for CA and planning their respective initiatives. From a research perspective, the identified determinants affecting use cases’ amenability to CA will enhance our understanding of CA in particular and artificial intelligence as the driving force behind CA in general.Type: journal articleJournal: Journal of Information Technology
Scopus© Citations 1 -
PublicationLeveraging Low Code Development of Smart Personal Assistants: An Integrated Design Approach with the SPADE Method( 2023-03-31)Smart personal assistants (SPAs) promise individualized user interactions owing to their varying interaction possibilities, knowledgeability, and human-like behaviors. To support the widespread adoption and use of SPAs, organizations such as Google or Amazon provide low code environments that support the development of SPAs (e.g., for Google Home or Amazon’s Alexa). These so-called low code platforms enable domain experts (e.g., business users without programming skills or experience) to develop SPAs for their purposes. However, using these platforms alone does not guarantee a useful and good conversation with novel SPAs due to non-intuitive design choices. Following a design science research approach, we propose the Smart Personal Assistant for Domain Experts (SPADE) method to address the missing link. This method supports domain experts in the development and contextualization of sophisticated SPAs for various application scenarios and focuses especially on conversational and anthropomorphic design steps. Our proof of concept and proof of value results show that SPADE is useful for supporting domain experts to create effective SPAs in different domains beyond private set-ups.Type: journal articleJournal: Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS)
Scopus© Citations 9 -
PublicationCognitive automationFacilitated by AI technology, the phenomenon of cognitive automation extends the scope of deterministic business process automation (BPA) through the probabilistic automation of knowledge and service work. By transforming work systems through cognitive automation, organizations are provided with vast strategic opportunities to gain business value. However, research lacks a unified conceptual lens on cognitive automation, which hinders scientific progress. Thus, based on a Systematic Literature Review, we describe the fundamentals of cognitive automation and provide an integrated conceptualization. We provide an overview of the major BPA approaches such as workflow management, robotic process automation, and Machine Learning-facilitated BPA while emphasizing their complementary relationships. Furthermore, we show how the phenomenon of cognitive automation can be instantiated by Machine Learning-facilitated BPA systems that operate along the spectrum of lightweight and heavyweight IT implementations in larger IS ecosystems. Based on this, we describe the relevance and opportunities of cognitive automation in Information Systems research.Type: journal articleJournal: Electronic MarketsVolume: 32Issue: 1
Scopus© Citations 25 -
PublicationType: journal articleJournal: HMD Praxis der WirtschaftsinformatikVolume: 59Issue: 5
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PublicationDesigning for Crowdfunding Co-creation: How to Leverage the Potential of Backers for Product Development( 2020-01-03)
;Lipusch, Nikolaus ;Dellermann, Dominik ;Bretschneider, UlrichCrowdfunding is now established as a valid alternative to conventional methods of financing for startups. Unfortunately, to date, research has not investigated how backers can be encouraged to support entrepreneurs beyond funding. The aim of this study is to design and evaluate certain design elements for reward-based crowdfunding platforms that can engage backers in co-creational activities for product development. The study uses a design science research (DSR) approach and the theoretical concept of psychological ownership to inform a new design and then experimentally test that design. The results suggest that the derived artifacts positively influence co-creational activities in crowdfunding and that feelings of psychological ownership play an important mediating role. The contribution of this research is threefold. First, this paper extends crowdfunding’s application potential from merely a method of financing to a method of value creation with customers for product development. Second, the study advances DSR by applying a new DSR approach that shows whether a design performs as hypothesized by theory. Third, this research allows the exploration of backers’ individual behavior as opposed to their collective behavior.Type: journal articleJournal: Business & Information Systems Engineering (BISE)Volume: 62Issue: 6Scopus© Citations 23 -
PublicationMensch-Maschine-Kollaboration: Grundlagen, Gestaltungsherausforderungen und Potenziale für verschiedene Anwendungsdomänen(Springer Fachmedien, 2019-01-16)
;Bittner, Eva A. C. ;Oeste-Reiß, SarahType: journal articleJournal: HMD Praxis der Wirtschaftsinformatik -
PublicationHybrid Intelligence(Springer Fachmedien, 2019)
;Dellermann, DominikResearch has a long history of discussing what is superior in predicting certain outcomes: statistical methods or the human brain. This debate has repeatedly been sparked off by the remarkable technological advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), such as solving tasks like object and speech recognition, achieving significant improvements in accuracy through deep-learning algorithms (Goodfellow et al. 2016), or combining various methods of computational intelligence, such as fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, and case-based reasoning (Medsker 2012). One of the implicit promises that underlie these advancements is that machines will 1 day be capable of performing complex tasks or may even supersede humans in performing these tasks. This triggers new heated debates of when machines will ultimately replace humans (McAfee and Brynjolfsson 2017). While previous research has proved that AI performs well in some clearly defined tasks such as playing chess, playing Go...Type: journal articleJournal: Business & Information Systems EngineeringVolume: 61Issue: 5 -
PublicationRadically Rethinking the Way Crowdfunding Works: The Case of Jumpstartfund and the Hyperloop( 2019-11-21)
;Lipusch, Nikolaus ;Dellermann, Dominik ;Bretschneider, UlrichIn this research, we explore the unique case of JumpStartFund, a new crowdfunding platform that is used to develop the Hyperloop project. To this end, we employ an in-depth single case study to examine the participation architecture of the platform as well as the Hyperloop campaign content, based on which we derive a new crowdfunding model. The derived crowdfunding model differs from existing crowdfunding models in that it allows entrepreneurs to develop their business with the crowdmore actively. Our research has important implications for research and practice. First, we introduce a new crowdfunding model that expands the boundaries of existent models. Second, we explain how our model helps to more efficiently leverage the potential inherent in the crowd thereby redefining entrepreneurial success within crowdfunding. Third, we discuss how our findings contribute to existent research within the context of crowdsourcing.Type: journal articleJournal: International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing (IJEV)Volume: 11Issue: 6Scopus© Citations 1 -
PublicationRadically rethinking the way crowdfunding works: the case of JumpStartFund and the Hyperloop( 2019)
;Lipusch, Nikolaus ;Dellermann, Dominik ;Bretschneider, UlrichIn this research, we explore the unique case of JumpStartFund, a new crowdfunding platform that is used to develop the Hyperloop project. To this end, we employ an in-depth single case study to examine the participation architecture of the platform as well as the Hyperloop campaign content, based on which we derive a new crowdfunding model. The derived crowdfunding model differs from existing crowdfunding models in that it allows entrepreneurs to develop their business with the crowdmore actively. Our research has important implications for research and practice. First, we introduce a new crowdfunding model that expands the boundaries of existent models. Second, we explain how our model helps to more efficiently leverage the potential inherent in the crowd thereby redefining entrepreneurial success within crowdfunding. Third, we discuss how our findings contribute to existent research within the context of crowdsourcing.Type: journal articleJournal: International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing (IJEV)Volume: 11Issue: 6 -
PublicationDesign principles for a hybrid intelligence decision support system for business model validationOne of the most critical tasks for startups is to validate their business model. Therefore, entrepreneurs try to collect information such as feedback from other actors to assess the validity of their assumptions and make decisions. However, previous work on decisional guidance for business model validation provides no solution for the highly uncertain and complex context of early-stage startups. The purpose of this paper is, thus, to develop design principles for a Hybrid Intelligence decision support system (HI-DSS) that combines the complementary capabilities of human and machine intelligence. We follow a design science research approach to design a prototype artifact and a set of design principles. Our study provides prescriptive knowledge for HI-DSS and contributes to previous work on decision support for business models, the applications of complementary strengths of humans and machines for making decisions, and support systems for extremely uncertain decision-making problems.Type: journal articleJournal: Electronic MarketsVolume: 29Issue: 3