Heiko Gewald

Neu Ulm University of Applied Sciences · Department of Information Management

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) apps help their users use and combine multiple mobility services, such as car-sharing and public transport. Many mobility providers are considering how to position themselves in this changing environment and whether to enter the service ecosystem of one or more MaaS app providers. To explain the development and emergenc...

mHealth apps can especially benefit older adults with chronic conditions, but their usage rates remain often low. This study examines how older adults’ self-perceived technical skills and confidence affect their use of a mHealth app. It was conducted in southern Germany and included older adults (65 years and older) with and without age-related chr...

The research presents the development and test of a machine learning (ML) model to assess the subjective well-being of older adults based solely on natural speech. The use of such technologies can have a positive impact on healthcare delivery: the proposed ML model is patient-centric and securely uses user-generated data to provide sustainable valu...

As the world's population continues to live longer, the consideration/inclusion of older adults in mainstream technology development is paramount. Organizations that develop software and hardware for mainstream technology will miss a significant market segment if they fail to consider the aging population. The following questions are addressed in t...

Objective Health-related apps on mobile devices (mHealth apps) have become an effective self-management tool and treatment support for patients. There is limited research, however, on how older people (50 and over) perceive the opportunity of using mHealth apps. Our aim was to investigate the perceptions of older people in Australia regarding the o...

Germany became the first country to accept certain mobile health (mHealth) apps for prescription with costs covered by statutory health insurance. Yet, this option has only been used to a limited extent. To develop an international comparison, this study investigates GPs’ perceptions of mHealth apps with a medical purpose in Germany and Australia....

This article is open access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050923022214/pdf

Traffic caused by drivers searching for a free parking space has numerous negative effects, such as increased emissions and noise pollution. Innovative solutions can reduce these negative effects by providing car drivers with better information via a smart parking app. However, smart parking apps currently do not offer overarching solutions which s...

The predominant use of private cars is the root of several problems like traffic congestion and air pollution in cities worldwide. While it is generally believed that mobility apps as part of smart city initiatives can help influence mobility choices in favor of public transport, there is not much empirical evidence for this. This study used a choi...

This article is available for free ( open access): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1471772723000283

Mobile health applications (mHealth apps) can provide effective self-management instruments for patients and offer advanced approaches to treatment. However, little is known about how the older population perceives the opportunity of using mHealth apps as a non-drug intervention. We aimed to identify the opinions and experiences of older people in...

Objective: Germany is the first country that approved validated mobile health apps (called DiGA) for prescription by doctors and psychotherapists. The aim of this study is to investigate doctors' perspectives towards these mobile health apps and their intentions to prescribe them. Additionally, we investigated the influence of different roles and...

Background: Ongoing advancements in digital solutions support older adults' healthy aging and well-being. However, a unified synthesis of sociodemographic, cognitive, attitudinal, emotional, and environmental factors that influence older adults' intention to use these new digital technologies is still lacking. Understanding the salient factors tha...

Process mining (PM) has gained traction as a Big Data Analytics technique to discover, monitor, and improve business processes based on event data that are available in organizations' information systems. However, despite high expectations and widespread use in practice, organizations still struggle to implement and realize value from PM. In partic...

Background The enactment of the “Act to Improve Healthcare Provision through Digitalisation and Innovation ” (Digital Healthcare Act; Digitale-Versorgung-Gesetz [DVG]) in Germany has introduced a paradigm shift in medical practice, allowing physicians to prescribe mobile health (mHealth) apps alongside traditional medications. This transformation i...

BACKGROUND The enactment of the “Act to Improve Healthcare Provision through Digitalisation and Innovation ” (Digital Healthcare Act; Digitale-Versorgung-Gesetz [DVG]) in Germany has introduced a paradigm shift in medical practice, allowing physicians to prescribe mobile health (mHealth) apps alongside traditional medications. This transformation i...

The urgency of global climate change is becoming increasingly evident, but prevailing mobility patterns in developed countries still cause severe environmental damage. Therefore, developed countries need to change their mobility patterns fundamentally, such as modal changes to public transportation instead of private car use. Digital nudging in dig...

The urgency of climate change is evident worldwide, but current mobility patterns still cause severe environmental damage. The largest share of these mobility-related problems is caused by everyday private car use, such as commuting. One way to change mobility patterns is through digital nudging in the form of trip recommendations to increase commu...

The disruptive nature of digitalization and the complexity and ambiguity of their technical properties require many new skills from employees today. Recent research emphasizes that the employees' digital mindset plays an essential role in digital transformation by leveraging employee engagement. This paper aims to advance the understanding of how t...

BACKGROUND Ongoing advancements in digital solutions support older adults’ healthy aging and well-being. However, a unified synthesis of sociodemographic, cognitive, attitudinal, emotional, and environmental factors that influence older adults’ intention to use these new digital technologies is still lacking. Understanding the salient factors that...

Communication between patients and hospital staff is a vital part of patient satisfaction and can contribute to better healthcare outcomes. Especially in emergency departments, where the workload is high, it is difficult to always address the communication needs of patients. In a qualitative study, we interviewed 32 patients in emergency department...

Organizations are challenged to design solutions that increase the quality of life and well-being of elderly people because they inadequately understand the needs of this specific target group. Design thinking (DT) is a promising methodological framework for understanding the wants and needs of users. However, DT’s fast and highly interactive style...

Healthcare systems are increasingly challenged due to the ramifications of the demographic change. Chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease cause cost in healthcare systems and can predominantly be found among older people. Information technology can act as one solution to release tension from the healthcare system by providing opportunity to m...

In addition to health-related impairments of age such as poor health, cognitive disorders, and frailty, aging people also face the risk of encountering situations that can lead to social exclusion and have significant negative consequences for their independence and quality of life. The home healthcare initiative intends to reduce healthcare costs,...

Connected IT services are considered a key offering for the future differentiation of car manufacturers in automotive aftersales. Enabled by ICT, the additional value and customer experience offered can make the difference on the market. However, the customers’ perception and thus their intention to use such services has rarely been studied in the...

Twitter is not only used to stay connected to a specific group of people or friends, but emerges as a platform to spread news. Celebrities, institutions and news outlets increasingly tweet information which they deem as worthy. However, independent users are also able to share various information, which makes it increasingly hard to distinguish whi...

Customers' emotions play a vital role in the service industry. The better frontline personnel understand the customer, the better the service they can provide. As human emotions generate certain (unintentional) bodily reactions, such as increase in heart rate, sweating, dilation, blushing and paling, which are measurable, artificial intelligence (A...

The lack of physical activity is a persistent issue in modern societies. Frequently, adults do not exercise enough and thus increase their risk of cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, etc. Compared to other industrialised countries, Germany is at the top of the list for inactivity. Mobile health apps can help to increase activity levels and de...

Over recent years, attention to the urgency of climate change and creating a more sustainable future has risen significantly. However, many people still have not changed their behavior and gone greener even though they know about the severe consequences. Green information systems (IS) provides a promising research agenda to tackle environmental pro...

Designing technologies that users are interested in, use and continue to use has long been a challenge. In the health sector, the issue of technology adoption is even more critical, as the potential insistence of technologies can lead to patients refusing to try them out at all. Developers and researchers need to consider this issue when designing...

In recent years, a change in business logic from goods-dominant (G-D) to service-dominant (S-D) logic can be observed widely. For instance, in the case of the mobility sector, companies such as Daimler AG and the BMW Group are shifting from solely producing cars to also providing mobility services. One fruit of their efforts is the Reach Now app, w...

The study analyzes data collected in two case studies in the healthcare industry, which is characterized by a variety of social and technical elements forming an activity system where all elements interact with each other. The findings indicate that many problems emerging during the implementation of a health information system can be traced back t...

Alzheimer's dementia (AD) is the most common incurable neurodegenerative disease worldwide. Apart from memory loss, AD leads to speech disorders. Timely diagnosis is crucial to halt the progression of the disease. However, current diagnostic procedures are costly, invasive, and distressing. Early-stage AD manifests itself in speech disorders, which...

BACKGROUND Several technologies process personal data, such as mHealth applications, or smart speakers. Privacy research focuses on the influence of privacy-related issues. However, the understanding of the characteristics of the data (e.g., surveillance vs health data) especially among older adults and the relation to privacy is relatively thin....

Background New technologies such as mobile health (mHealth) apps and smart speakers make intensive use of sensitive personal data. Users are typically aware of this and express concerns about their data privacy. However, many people use these technologies although they think their data are not well protected. This raises specific concerns for sensi...

In today's fast-changing environment, many organizations are applying the DevOps (Development and Operations) concept to transform their IT functions and establish cross-functional IT teams to deliver software services quickly, reliably, and safely with end-to-end responsibility. The results of an empirical study on which this chapter is based pres...

This article describes how the information about an individual's personal health is among ones most sensitive and important intangible belongings. When health information is misused, serious non-revertible damage can be caused, e.g. through making intimidating details public or leaking it to employers, insurances etc. Therefore, health information...

Cities around the globe face mobility-related challenges such as traffic congestion and air and noise pollution caused by the extensive use of private cars. Smart solutions promise to make urban mobility more intelligent, interconnected, and efficient using information technology (IT). This study analyzes IT choice in the service ecosystems of diff...

Cities around the world face major challenges caused by the extensive use of private cars. To counteract these problems, a new paradigm is necessary which promotes alternative mobility services. ‘Smart mobility’ refers to a new mobility behaviour that makes use of innovative technical solutions, such as the IT-supported combination of different alt...

Digitalization is changing the mobility sector. Companies have developed entirely new mobility services, and mobility services with pre-digital roots, such as ride-sharing and public transport, have leveraged digitalization to become more convenient to use. Nevertheless, private car use remains the dominant mode of transport in most developed count...

Technical progress is disrupting the mobility sector. New door-to-door (D2D) mobility integrators promise to offer smart mobility by packaging together different mobility services such as car-sharing and public transport. However, mobility providers up to now have rarely entered into value co-creation relationships. As a result, citizens are offere...

A top priority of organisations around the globe is to achieve IT-business alignment at all levels of the organisation. This paper addresses operational alignment within IT functions. Traditionally, IT functions are divided into highly independent subunits. In the face of pressure to adapt to rapidly changing customer demands and to manage increasi...

Access: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2020/86/ As cities keep growing, urban mobility is one of the most significant challenges cities have to face nowadays. As one measure of smart city initiatives, mobility apps aim to support the use of public transport and reduce the number of private cars. This paper applies the theoretical framework of Servi...

Access: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pacis2020/223/ Service integrators have disrupted many industries by the implementation of novel business models, such as the provision of digital marketplaces, where businesses and customers directly interact with each other. In the travel sector, service integrators have become indispensable. In the mobility sect...

Corporations continue to see a growing demand for Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) programs which allow employees to use their own computing devices for business purposes. This study analyses the demand of digital natives for such programs when entering the workforce and how they perceive the benefits and risk associated with BYOD. A theoretical model...

Seniors show remarkable differences in IT use among their own peers. Even though IT use among seniors is increasing, viewing them as a homogenous group is insufficient to predict use behavior. This research investigates how influences on finding new ways to use IT is moderated by seniors’ perceived age. We build on the post-adoption perspective to...

Physicians' use of information systems continues to be a highly relevant area of information systems research. Although numerous studies have investigated the relationship between hospital physicians and hospital information systems (HIS), a comprehensive framework for assessing the factors which inhibit the use of HIS has yet to be developed. To a...

Changes in IT organization and technology environments make it necessary to adapt and review how mission critical IT functions align with firm strategy. IT functions increasingly use cross-functional teams to manage the lifecycle of digital solutions. As cross-functional teams begin to alter how we develop and maintain software, they may also resul...

Lacking physical activity is an ongoing problem in our society and fitness apps are positioned to address this issue. They aim to induce motivation towards physical activity by providing different motivational features that build upon self-quantification, gamification, and social network capabilities. Little is known, however, whether, how, and why...

An executive crash course.

In recent years a lively scene of startup companies developed focusing specifically on the financial services sector. These so-called FinTechs are characterized by highly innovative capacities, rapid development methods and a short time to market for their services and technical solutions. This external source of innovation can pose a competitive t...

Stressful emergency releases are a thing of the past for companies that subscribe to the DevOps method of software development and delivery. New releases are frequent. Bugs are fixed rapidly. New business opportunities are sought with gusto and confidence. New features are released, revised, and improved with rapid iterations. DevOps presents a str...

Cities around the world face major mobility-related challenges, such as traffic congestion and air pollution. One primary cause of these challenges is the decision of citizens to use their private car instead of alternative mobility services such as public transport, car-sharing and bike-sharing. Technological progress offers new possibilities to a...

The fast-growing group of senior citizens does often not participate in the digitization of the overall society. In order to enable a longer, self-sustained living, it is important to empower and include this group. One problem in particular can be observed: Many older people lack the motoric skills to use contemporary digital devices. To overcome...

Bereits heute ist unsere Gesellschaft von zunehmender Digitalisierung geprägt, welche viele Aspekte des alltäglichen Lebens und des Miteinanders verändert. Insbesondere für die alternde Gesellschaft zeigen sich hohe Potenziale zur Unterstützung der Lebensführung, Gesundheit und des Wohlbefindens. Entsprechend ist es von großer Wichtigkeit die (gesu...

Innovation management is challenged by the new circumstances created through the pervasive digitization of entire industries and society at large. Since digital technology is an important part of most novel services and products, innovation management is searching for ways to align traditional innovation processes and routines with the new requirem...

The concept of cognitive age refers to people’s tendency to view themselves as younger than they really are. Especially among elderly people this phenomenon is exceptionally strong. There have been few studies which investigated differences among elderly people concerning their self-perceived age in the context of IT adoption. However, to date it i...

This article describes how the information about an individual's personal health is among ones most sensitive and important intangible belongings. When health information is misused, serious nonrevertible damage can be caused, e.g. through making intimidating details public or leaking it to employers, insurances etc. Therefore, health information n...

Activity tracking apps-such as Fitbit or Nike+ Running-are positioned to enhance people's motivation towards physical activity and healthy behavior. Though various 'motivational' features are incorporated, the effectiveness of these apps is often mixed raising concerns about the 'one-size-fits-all' applicability. To get a better understanding about...

Activity tracking devices and apps are positioned to enhance healthy behavior. Albeit positive outcomes are widely anticipated, many users abandon their devices and apps after short time which raises concerns about their effectiveness. Studies indicate that self-tracking can provoke-positive but particularly negative-emotions with which individuals...

Society has arrived in the digital era. The continuous transition from an analogue into a digital world provides many benefits for of our daily lives. Yet, digital access is still unevenly distributed and accompanied by unequal use of digital resources, resulting in social disparities. Especially senior citizens are lagging behind in making use of...

Technical advances such as sensors and open data have enabled service integrators to offer smarter service packages. Door-to-door (D2D) mobility integrators now promise to provide smart (i.e., highly individualized, dynamic, and context-aware) services by packaging component mobility services provided by independent mobility providers, such as bus,...

More and more people regularly use physician rating websites to inform their choice of physicians. As physician rating websites attract more users, the number of such websites is expanding as well. Research on several German and English physician rating platforms has shown that despite similarities among the factors constituting ratings across plat...

The fast-growing group of senior citizens does often not participate in the digitization of the overall society. In order to enable a longer, self-sustained living, it is important to empower and include this group. One problem in particular can be observed: Many older people lack the motoric skills to use contemporary digital devices. To overcome...