Author(s): 

Viola Deutscher

Cooperation Partners: 

Esther Winther, University of Duisburg-Essen; Vocational schools/companies with VET programmes

Description:

The DFG funded research project analyzes the competence development in vocational education training (VET) as well as relevant success factors for competence development for commercial apprentices (n = 877). With this objective, the project refers to the modeling of VET enculturation processes at both group and individual level, including the description of company learning conditions.

A validated competence assessment is used simultaneously with an instrument for recording the enculturation conditions of vocational learning at the beginning, at the middle and at the end of initial vocational training (longitudinal design). Via this design, practical findings about the genesis of professional competences can be generated that help companies to improve their educational programmes.

Author(s): 

Dirk Ifenthaler

Cooperation Partners:

Chair of Learning, Design and Technology

Description:

The field of learning analytics is generating growing interest in data and computer science as well educational science and hence, becoming an important aspect of modern e-learning environments. However, implementing learning analytics into existing legacy systems in learning environments with high data privacy concerns is quite a challenge. This research shows how a learning analytics application has been implemented into such an existing university environment by adding a plugin to the local digital learning environment which injects user centric information to specific objects within students’ and teachers’ learning environment. The LeAP platform can be used in various learning and teaching scenarios in order to provide adaptive support for learners and teachers.

Author(s): 

Gokhan Gecer, Florian Kraus, Pinar Yildirim

Cooperation Partners: 

Wharton School (Philadelphia)

Description:

An increasing number of people use ad-blockers recently which becomes a threat to the main revenue stream of publishers. In order to deal with this challenge, some publishers offer an ad-free (premium) version of their websites to customers who pay a subscription fee. Others ask the users to turn off their ad-blocker. We have developed a game-theoretical model of a media eco­system that contains publishers and users. Publishers maximize their profits from advertising income and/or subscription fees. Users consume the content provided by the publishers deciding on the amount of content they consume. They are utility maximizers. In our model, the publisher could choose one of two strategies against the ad-blockers: (1) show the content only to those who turn the ad-blockers off, and (2) show the content to users who pay a subscription fee beside the ones who turn the ad-blockers off. We have analyzed the model in monopoly and duopoly markets.

The results show that when producing content is costly, the publisher decreases its content quality, accordingly the number of users who consume the content decreases. Hence, the publisher offers a subscription option to the users. In a duopoly market, the substitutability of the content is also important. Our results show that when a publisher produces less substitutable content for a low cost (YouTubers and bloggers), it does not offer a subscription option. On the other hand, when the content is more substitutable (newspapers and tabloids) and when the content is less substitutable but it is costly to produce it (websites with a specific focus), the publisher offers a subscription option.

Author(s): 

Gokhan Gecer, Florian Kraus

Cooperation Partners: 

Chair of Sales & Services Marketing

Description:

Customer engagement with mobile devices has changed customers' habits in online purchasing, in particular the usage of mobile apps for shopping increases the customer lifetime value (CLV). Hence, we suggest the idea that online retailers should steer their customers to the mobile channel by offering a permanent discount over the mobile app. Although this strategy decreases the short-term income, it may increase the CLV. Based on this suggestion, we develop a probability-based CLV model to show to what type of customers an online retailer should offer a discount over the mobile app as well as the optimal value of that discount.

Following an analytical modeling approach, we are able to show that the online retailer should offer such a discount to a customer who is either very likely or unlikely to increase her purchasing probability. Also, the firm could offer such a discount to encourage the customer to switch to the mobile app. Online retailers should not offer the discount to those who already have a high purchasing probability because their CLV is already huge. Last but not least, an online retailer should not follow this strategy to gain new customers (customer acquisition) but rather apply it to increase customer retention.

Author(s): 

Christopher Ludwig, Christoph Spengel, Rainer Bräutigam

Cooperation Partners: 

Chair of Business Administration and Taxation II

Description:

This project is based on publicly accessible Airbnb data regarding the type of lodging offered on the platform, the price per night, the facilities and equipment, the location of the accommodation as well as booking trends in 20 German cities. On the basis of this data we carry out projections to estimate the annual turnover of hosts as well as the potential tax revenue arising from this turnover. The annual turnover of all accommodations in the 20 considered cities is approximately 683 million euros. Based on the annual turnover projections, the analysis shows that the estimated tax revenue from income and value-added tax liability, is enormous for lodgings offered on the exemplarily analyzed sharing platform.
Given the size of tax revenues at stake, we develop recommendations on how to adjust existing tax systems in order to adapt them to the digital economy and to ensure compliance among taxpayers.

Author(s):  Johannes Diefenbach, Fikri Karaesmen, Justus Arne Schwarz, Raik Stolletz

Cooperation Partners: Koc University (Istanbul) and the Robert Bosch GmbH

Description:

This project contributes by developing new analytical models and fast approximation methods for the performance analysis and optimization of dynamic semiconductor manufacturing processes. Methods from prescriptive analytics generate insights on how new products are introduced to the production system and the market, especially when the yield is stochastic.

The research project is part of “Productive 4.0”, Europe’s biggest research project in the field of Digital Industry. The project is recognized as an ECSEL Lighthouse Initiative and receives funding from the EU and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It investigates how electronics and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can enhance production efficiency in semi-conductor supply chains across the entire value chain and product life cycle. With 109 partners from industry and research institutions, Productive4.0 provides companies with fundamental tools necessary to trans­form the potentials of the upcoming digital revolution into business success.