Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming the seniors' club LAB (Leben Aktiv Bereichern – Actively enriching life) from Wiesbaden to our leap in time lab. In two groups, the seniors interacted with different types of robots, including Pepper, Zembo, and our humanoid robot Lena.

In an ever-evolving work landscape, where finding the perfect match between talent and employers remains a key challenge, our seminar provides an opportunity to explore the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address this critical issue. The seminar, entitled „How can AI help connect talents and employers? Concepts, User Interfaces, Programming Ideas or Social Marketing Approaches,“ aims to provide an in-depth look at how AI can revolutionize and accelerate the connection between talent and employers.

We are pleased to announce that the paper “Social Influence in Customer-Robot Interactions” by Martin Hannig and Ruth Stock-Homburg has been accepted for presentation at the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2023 in Hyderabad, India.

Last week we had the honor of welcoming Professor Tuure Tuunanen from the University of Jyväskylä. During his visit, Professor Tuunanen shared his current research in echeloned Design Science Research. This is a research paradigm that focuses on creating artifacts to solve real-world problems.

In May 2023, an international interdisciplinary plenary on the topic of the influence of artificial intelligence on user innovation processes took place at MIT, Boston USA. Under the chairmanship of Prof. Eric von Hippel, research, thought experiments and practical impressions were discussed.

In our seminar, students were introduced to the concept of user innovations. In groups, students completed an innovation process in four months and developed their own innovations. Starting with idea generation, they developed products and services that satisfied the need of themselves and other users. They conducted market analyses, product benchmarking and empirical studies to test their innovations' market viability.

Everyone can be innovative. Two students from our “Digital Innovation Marketing”-masterclass took matters into their own hands. To beat the summer heat, they built a prototype small air conditioner using parts from a refrigerator.

In our lecture “Digital Product and Service Marketing”, we were pleased to hear from Dieter Lauszus of Ebel Hofer Consulting, one of Germany's leading experts on pricing strategy.

Prof. Stock-Homburg, Lea Heitlinger, and Mona Kegel attended a pre-conference workshop on “Human-Robot Interaction in Service” at the Journal of Service Robots in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

As part of our Digital Innovation Marketing course, we had the pleasure of hosting Daniel Pfeifer, Associate Manager at Invensity, as a guest speaker in our lecture hall on June 29, 2023.

On June 21, 2023, we had the privilege of inviting Sarah Lou Falk, a prominent influencer and experienced consultant, to deliver a captivating online guest lecture as part of our marketing course.

In many business areas, some brands divide a large part of the market among themselves. Which brand do you prefer? Coke or Pepsi? Visa or Mastercard? Mcdonald's or Burger King? Although the brands often hardly differ from an objective point of view, consumers usually have apparent preferences. It is well known that strong brands directly affect the consumer's motivation to act but not the sensory experience.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Ruth Stock-Homburg highlighted the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence in the working world at LANXESS in the Digital Morning. With exciting insights and practical examples, she outlined the direction in which the working world could develop with the potential of AI.

As a part of the Digital Product and Service Marketing course, we were pleased to welcome Fabian Stamminger from SwissCommerce Group to our lecture hall on May 31, 2023.

As a part of the Marketing course, we were pleased to welcome guest speaker Oliver Klink, chairman of the board of Sparkasse Taunus, to our lecture hall on May 24, 2023.

You should actively explore new technologies, try them out and integrate them into your work practices. Today, the students in our Digital Innovation Marketing module did just that.

It's great to see what students can get up to. Konaktiva is one of the oldest and largest student-organized business contact fairs in Germany. And we are part of it!

For companies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find qualified workers. Where are the missing workers? And how can they be recruited or contacted in the first place? Artificial intelligence (AI) may have an answer.

With our kick-off event, Prof. Stock-Homburg started our seminar „Empowering users: The key to unlocking innovation?“ with the support of Patrick Großplötzl.

Sven Schultze and Meike Kietzmann attended the WhiteBox Symposium on Explainability and presented their research.

There are new advances in technology on an almost daily basis. For example, we are currently seeing an explosion in the use of chatbots. These developments in AI and robotics technology are having a huge impact on social robots, as these agents evolve from automated devices to highly autonomous partners.

The article on ZDF WISO provides a great overview of the current state of AI development. In addition to the USA, German institutes and companies are also focusing on digitization and the use of AI.

Many branches have a shortage of personnel and a high employee turnover. This leads to the idea of rehiring valued former employees, a procedure that is known as rehiring or boomerang hiring.

We had an eventful winter semester 2022/23 with many guest lectures from the practice.

Our seminar “Digital and Sustainable Marketing” organized by Meike Kietzmann, M.Sc., and Lea Heitlinger, M.Sc., had its highlight. We had the pleasure to listen to exciting presentations of the students.