Historically, there has been a tendency to consider hypertext as a type of system, perhaps characterised by provision of links or other structure to users. In this article, we consider hypertext as a method of inquiry, a way of viewing arbitrary systems. In this view, what are traditionally called “navigational hypertext systems” might be considered as information retrieval systems. This opens the hypertext field to various other types of systems that traditionally would not be considered as part of the field. The change of view enables a deeper fusion of human and machine. In particular, today's AI-based, intelligent systems open the demand of synthesising automation (on the machine's side) and augmentation (on the user's side). This article is not about researching AI systems; it is about extending the view of hypertext systems to synthesise augmentation and automation. We specifically apply this view to intelligent systems, asking the question about how hypertext can act as a common medium between human and machine, particularly for knowledge intensive tasks. We propose spatial hypertext as a medium that enables users to create cognitive maps. Along these lines, we provide examples from multiple projects and examine how these applications can be productive.

Software integration, especially in Open Source Software (OSS), suffers from technical debt as software evolves over time. Evolvement often ends in incompatibility issues like changed or removed APIs. The problems increase, as more components need to be integrated. This article analyzes common problems in OSS integration with respect to technical debt esp. externally induced technical debt and collects empirical evidence from the case study "AMiProSI" which combines different functions of various OSS systems to create a unified intranet solution. As part of the analysis, this paper discusses component-based development and its related dependencies and explains related technical debt (TD). By bringing down the individual problems in sub-categories of technical debt, we show what kind of TD has arisen in our case study AMiProSI and give advice on how this could be prevented in other projects.

Migraine is common in childhood, peaks in adolescents and persists into adulthood in at least 40% of patients. There is need for early interventions to improve the burden of disease and, if possible, reduce chronification. The aim of the project is to compare two types of ambulatory treatment strategies regarding their effect on headache days and quality of life in 6 to 11 year old children with migraine: 1) the routine care in pediatricians’ practices (intervention group A) and 2) a structured interdisciplinary multimodal intervention administered at social pediatric centers (intervention group B).

Auch Minderjährige können nun gegen COVID-19 geimpft werden. Was müssen Ärzte bei Aufklärung und Einwilligung beachten? Und was passiert, wenn Eltern und Kinder unterschiedlicher Meinung über die Impfung sind? Gastautor Professor Markus Finn gibt eine juristische Einschätzung.

The increasing availability of audio data on the internet lead to a multitude of datasets for development and training of text to speech applications, based on neural networks. Highly differing quality of voice, low sampling rates, lack of text normalization and disadvantageous alignment of audio samples to corresponding transcript sentences still limit the performance of deep neural networks trained on this task. Additionally, data resources in languages like German are still very limited. We introduce the "HUI-Audio-Corpus-German", a large, open-source dataset for TTS engines, created with a processing pipeline, which produces high quality audio to transcription alignments and decreases manual effort needed for creation.

Until today, scholars claim that the phenomenon of “co-creation” of value in an “interacted” economy and in the context of positive actor-to-actor relationships has not been adequately explored. This study aims to first to identify and separate the accessible values of internet of things (IoT)-based business models for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) customer groups. It quantifies the drivers to successfully implement disruptive business models. Data were gathered from 292 customers in Western Europe. The conceptual framework was tested using partial least square structural equation modeling. Managing disruptions in the digital age is closely related to the fact that the existing trust in buyer-seller relationships is not enough to accept IoT projects. A company’s digitalization capabilities, satisfaction with the existing relationship and trust in the IoT credibility of the manufacturer drives the perceived value of IoT-based business models in B2B settings. Contrastingly, in B2G settings, money is less important. Research refers to one business field, the data set is of European origin only. Findings indicate that the drivers to engage in IoT-related projects differ significantly between the customer groups and therefore require different marketing management strategies. Saving time today is more important to B2G buyers than saving money. The disparate nature of B2B and B2G buyers indicates that market segmentation and targeted marketing must be considered before joint-venturing in IoT business models. To joint venture supply chain partners co-creating value in the context of IoT-related business models, relationship management should be focused with buyers on the same footing, as active players and co-developers of a personalized experience in digital service projects. Diverging from established studies focusing on the relationship within a network of actors, this study defines disruptive business models and identifies its drivers in B2B and B2G relationships. This study proposes joint venturing with B2B and B2G customers to overcome the perceived risk of these IoT-related business models. Including customers in platforms and networks may lead to the co-creation of value in joint IoT projects.

In this conceptual paper the authors provide a new approach for sales excellence in the digital era. Besides clarifying the objective and identifying the major dimensions of sales excellence in the context of digital transformation, the paper will particularly provide a concept for a proper sales excellence assessment as well as shed some light on the implications and costs of not following the sales excellence approach.

The increasing application of digital technologies is transforming sales considerably. However, it is unclear how sales can adapt properly – particularly from the B2B sales skills side. Despite the urgency of this matter, in-depth research on B2B sales skills in the digital era remains sparse. In this structured abstract, a new conceptual model for a more modern B2B skill set is thus developed in a cross-country study. As a preliminary result, most of the traditional sales skills are still required in future, but need to be complemented by intercultural as well as digital sales skills.

Open Innovation means a situation where a company does not just rely on their own internal knowledge and resources for innovation but also uses multiple external sources to drive innovation. This approach may also influence various aspects of customers' brand perception. To investigate this issue, an experimental study based on two different Facebook posts by the well-known consumer brand "Frosch" was conducted (n = 2,426). The results show that open innovation creates an additional communicative value, by affecting consumers' price acceptance level, the brand personality, and the perceived quality. The effect depends on the extend of knowledge about the nature of open innovation.

Bei der Öffnung unternehmerischer Innovationsprozesse (Open Innovation) kommt die Frage auf, ob und inwiefern dadurch die Markenwahrnehmung der Konsumenten beeinflusst werden kann. In einer experimentellen empirischen Studie (n = 2.426) werden Facebook-Nutzern unterschiedliche Posts der Konsumgütermarke „Frosch" gezeigt und Aspekte der Markenwahrnehmung erhoben. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Open Innovation einen kommunikativen Wert generieren kann, der aus Kundenperspektive insbesondere die Preisbereitschaft, die Markenpersönlichkeit sowie die wahrgenommene Qualität beeinflusst. Die Wirkung ist umso stärker, je größer das Wissen der Konsumenten über Open Innovation ist. Für die Praxis bedeutet dies, dass Open Innovation Teil einer langfristigen Kommunikationsstrategie sein kann, um die Marke zu stärken.

The majority of business-to-business companies are working on their digital transformation in sales. Despite enormous transformation efforts, the expected productivity gains are often missing in most companies. Based on empirical research, this paper aims to develop a new market- oriented transformation model. Management implications as well as future research directions are derived for a more focused digital transformation process in sales. Design/methodology/approach – Within the exploratory research study, 90 key informants were interviewed to provide better insights in the context of digital transformation in sales. The accuracy of the research results was safeguarded by triangulation. Findings – As this research paper will show, the reasons for the missing productivity gains caused by a limited knowledge about the main success factors of digital transformation as well as a lack of understanding of digital transformation as an evolving process. Originality/value – Based on the empirical research, a new market-oriented transformation model is developed and management implications as well as future research directions are derived for a more focused digital transformation process in sales.