The rise of cryptocurrencies is transforming how consumers trade, purchase, and pay for products. The current work explores how cryptocurrencies used as a payment method shape consumer-firm interactions. Through one large-scale pilot study, four experiments, and one field experiment, we demonstrate that consumers perceive cryptocurrencies as a riskier payment method compared to traditional payment methods. We introduce the Payment Method Technology Risk Transfer and demonstrate how this heightened risk perception, induced by a payment option, subsequently increases consumers' perceived interaction risk when engaging with the same firm. These risk dynamics negatively impact and ultimately erode consumers' evaluation of the firm offering the payment method. We further demonstrate two essential boundary conditions: When firms actively communicate the privacy benefits of cryptocurrencies as a payment method or when the firm has a higher baseline trust with consumers, the adverse effects of cryptocurrencies as a payment method are reduced. Our findings highlight the unintended risks associated with crypto payments and the importance of effectively managing consumer risk perceptions of digital currencies when used as a means of payment for products and services. This research offers novel insights into how digital currencies and innovative payment technologies influence the psychology of consumer-firm relationships, as well as strategies that firms can employ to manage consumer expectations and mitigate risk effectively.

Corruption in higher education threatens academic integrity and public trust in universities worldwide. Issues like bribery, plagiarism, and AI-assisted cheating are exacerbated by financial pressures and political influences. Addressing this crisis requires governance reforms, ethical awareness, and global collaboration to preserve education's core mission and prevent further erosion of academic standards.

In recent years, process mining has emerged as the leading Big Data technology for business process analysis. By extracting knowledge from event logs readily available in information systems, process mining provides new ways to discover, monitor, and improve processes while being agnostic to the source system. Despite its undisputed practical relevance, we have a limited understanding of how organizations realize value potentials from applying process mining in different organizational contexts. Addressing this gap, we conduct an assessing literature review by analyzing 58 papers from the literature on process mining to synthesize the existing knowledge on business value realization from process mining. Our analysis is guided by adopting the perspective of process mining embedded within its organizational context. By analyzing the dimensions of the nomological net around process mining, we contribute to the broader research field of Big Data value realization twofold. First, we uncover which benefits organizations gain by applying process mining. Second, we analyze the organizational capabilities and practices that influence how organizations use and implement process mining. In addition, we reveal how process mining leads to business value realization. Based on these results, we suggest directions for future research on process mining in the organizational context.

Although German companies have a strong innovative tradition, they must use intellectual property creatively if they are to be successful in meeting the economic challenges of the 21st century.