Monthly Archives: December 2014

Presentation av labbets forskning för Volvo Cars

Idag hade sektionen besök av Volvo Cars. Maria och Pontus presenterade labbets forskning för Volvo Cars forskningschef. Vi berättade om projekten Readi2… där vi samarbetar med Volvo AB och Safe Speech for Knowledge där vi arbetat tillsammans med Volvo Monitoring and Concept Center i Los Angeles. Vi diskuterade även designstudioprojekt som just nu pågår i kursen Designstudio Mobil, där studenterna undersöker alternativa interaktionsformer för autonoma bilar.

Present your work. Part 2: Asif Akram

Digital Service Innovation: Value Network Transformation in the Vehicle Industry

Asif Akram

Advancement in digital technology is rapidly changing the contemporary landscape of business and associated networks for manufacturing firms. Many traditional physical artifacts are now being embedded with digital components, providing them digital capability. As a result, tremendous amounts of information can be captured, digitized and used in innovative ways to design digital services. During this process, firms experience a number of changes on individual, organization, and market level. Such digital service innovation includes not only a shift in technology but it also transforms the value networks and calls for rethinking existing value perceptions, value creation, relationships and so on. While this disruptive change motivated by digital technology can be observed in many industries, this thesis focuses on its influence on value networks within the vehicle industry.

The project in this study is aimed at exploring services for vehicles based on remote diagnostics technology. A digital services perspective encompasses an environment with providers, customers, information users and consumers as well as management of this environment. To design and develop digital services is not solely about developing technology; it also incorporate issues related to technology’s value creation, ownership, and customer relationships.

This thesis contributes to the existing literature on the transformation of value networks in the changing environment influenced by digital technology.  The research question addressed in this thesis is: How does digital service innovation transform value networks? The results illustrate that there is a paradigm shift for such a firm as it is stretching its scope from manufacturing to solution or even service -oriented business with remote diagnostics technology. The technology provides opportunities to create value in a novel way tough some challenges and tensions emerge during the process itself. This value creation also requires the relationships to be re-structured, modified as well as establishing new ones. In general, it can be said that innovation in the digital age has a profound impact on changing the business landscape from value chain to value network.

Present your work. Part 1: Soumitra Chowdhury

The Business Logics of Digital Services: A vehicle manufacturing firm’s endeavor for creating digital  service business with digitalized product platforms.

Soumitra Chowdhury

My PhD thesis focuses on the business logics of digital services in the context of digitalized product platforms. With the advent of innovative digital technologies, manufacturing firms are expanding business from tangible products sale to digital service offerings. Firms are creating digitalized product platforms by embedding digital technologies in tangible products. These platforms are paving the way for firms to design digital services and offer the services to customers. As manufacturing firms traditionally follow goods-centric business logic with focus on tangible product sales, they are now challenged to adapt their business logic in relation to digital services. Earlier research in manufacturing industry shows that delay in reshaping business logic in the digital age has caused downfall in business.

Existing research in Information Systems (IS) shows that new value system emanates when embedded digital technologies in product platforms enable digital service design. The ongoing digital innovation of previously non-digital products have drawn attention in IS research as digital innovation is enabling the design of novel digital services and creating new business opportunities. Digital technologies can be reprogrammed to create new functionalities that can lead to new digital service offerings. Due to the layered architecture of digital technology, innovation can take place at any of the layers such as, device layer, network layer, application functionality layer or contents layer. This implies that digital service business can be conducted in different ways and firms can endeavor new business logics when digitalized product platforms are created. However, existing IS research paid little attention to the business logics of digital services that are enabled by embedded digital technology in tangible products.

Therefore, this research seeks answer to the following question: what are the business logics of digital services in the context of digitalized product platforms? Based on a collaborative research project with a vehicle manufacturing firm, research was conducted on Remote Diagnostics Services (RDS). RDS are digital services enabled by embedded technology in vehicles. Using the concepts of goods-centric business logic, service-centric business logic and digital platforms, this research makes contribution by identifying and describing three business logics that are specific for digital services in the context of digitalized product platforms. The specific business logics of digital services are: Digitalized product platform (DPP) centric business logic, customer-centric business logic and hybrid business logic. The business logics show specific value dimensions, role of products, roles of firm and roles of customers in comparison with the goods-centric business logic and the service-centric business logic.