We are thrilled to announce that the paper “How do you drive? Analyzing vehicle sensor data in Product Lifecycle Management” has been accepted for presentation and publication at the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2020). The paper was written by Niklas Brandt und Frederik Ahlemann.

Paper abstract

For most car and truck manufacturers access to information about the status of produced vehicles end with their sale. With embedded connectivity units this changes so that manufacturers can gather data from vehicle in-build sensors and thus, gain insights into each products usage. Our study investigates why manufacturers aim to integrate connectivity units into their products to gather sensor-based usage information and what hinders them to do so. Thereby, we aim to identify the factors that have an influence on the decision of vehicle manufacturers to adopt the concept of the vehicle digital twin.

To unveil those factors, we conducted 30 expert interviews at two vehicle manufacturers in which we found benefits and barriers regarding the realization of a product digital twin. By conceptualizing the benefits and barriers, which have a positive or negative influence on the adoption decision from the perspective of the manufacturers, we were able to derive general influences on the adoption decision. In our adapted technology-organization-environment framework we found influences in the technological (i.e. product data and product heterogeneity), the organizational (i.e. business model orientation, readiness of internal processes and digital culture) and the environmental (i.e. competitors behaviour, legal regulations and customer demand) dimension.

The result of the work is an adapted technology organization environment framework. This framework summarizes which factors influence the decision of a company to implement the concept of the vehicle digital twins.

The aim of ECIS 2020 is to form a meeting place for people in the IS field to discuss fundamental and innovative issues related to Information Systems. Since it was first held in 1993, ECIS has been established as the most important and prestigious European conference on information systems research. ECIS 2020 was planned to take place in Marrakech, Morocco, June 15-17, 2020. Due to COVID-19, ECIS 2020 conference will be held as a Full Online Event during the originally scheduled dates, from June 15th to 17th, 2020