In the research project Networked Service Society, the Institute for Information Systems at the University of Münster strives to establish long-term research structures with the Asia Pacific region. For this purpose, a guest researcher from Münster is sent permanently to the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. In addition, research endeavors with partners from New Zealand and Korea have been launched. We strive to jointly apply for subsequent research projects to further enhance the quality and scope of our cooperation.

The core subject matter of the project is to understand phenomena in and design information technology for the Networked Service Society. The emergence of this research field has been fueled by two interwoven developments. First, the ubiquitous access to the Internet with mobile devices such as smart phones enables users to connect with each other anywhere and anytime. Second, there is a mega-trend for a service-based economy, focusing on creating unique value propositions for customers by combining goods and service into advanced offering. In the NSS project, we develop new insights of how businesses and governments can capitalize on both trends.

Research Areas:

• Business Value of Social Media: Social media, in particular online social network sites such as Facebook, are accessed by numerous people anywhere and anytime, free of charge. Companies increasingly strive to capitalize on the data stored on these platforms. We theorize on the inner workings of social media, as well as develop innovative IT solutions to benefit companies and their customers at the same time.
• Next Generation E-Government Service Portfolios: Recent developments in mobile technology enable local authorities to improve the accessibility and the convenience of conveying information to citizens. We survey E-Government policy makers in New Zealand, Australia, and Germany as to how the provisioning of government services can be affected and enabled by IT.
• Service Bundling: Ubiquitous information networks enable companies and public administrations to configure value propositions of goods and services for individual customers. We engineer new strategies and methods for service bundling and service quality assessment to bundle services fulfilling customer’s individual demand.