Engineering the Value Network of the Customer Interface and Marketing in the Data-Rich Retail Environment

Abstract

In this paper we use a mixed-methods engineering approach to analyze how traditional retailers can use mobile commerce services to enable data-driven marketing and thus compete with the pervasive end-customer ownership of companies controlling the mobile channel. The paper provides the first systematic analysis of the implications of the virtual world market players Apple, Google, Facebook, eBay/PayPal, and Amazon on traditional retailers' business. We use case study research to identify the elements that are required for and suitable to such a strategy. In a second step, we use design science in order to identify and develop the necessary value creation roles, their activities, and the value flows between them. The paper provides two major outcomes: (1) a set of 12 building blocks for generating and applying customer data for traditional retailers adding mobile services and (2) a role-based reference model for the value network of the future retail customer interface and marketing (CIM). The reference model is validated with expert interviews. As an exemplary application of the model, we show two extreme scenarios with strong and weak retailer market positions. As an additional contribution to practice, we present a further introspective analysis of the value network's key new role-that of mobile customer relationship management service provider-and propose a corresponding functional component architecture that fulfills the information technology requirements for the role's complex functionality.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: AGFEA, big data, CIM, data-driven marketing, e-tail, IT strategy, mobile CRM service provider, mobile services, retail innovation, strategic impact of digitization, value network.The influence of information technology (IT) on traditional retailers' business is continually increasing. Current innovation activities include, for instance, in-store technology for efficiency purposes and for better service as well as electronic commerce. Above all, the rise of the Internet has changed the retail business more than any other event in the past 50 years. In some domains, online retailers, having lower operational and capital expenses, have made the market very difficult for traditional market participants. Moreover, mobile technology shows even more potential to change the whole game. In this context, customers using apps to buy over the mobile channel or to compare prices while they are at the retailer's brick-and-mortar store are merely tactical issues.The strategic threat for traditional retailers is the upcoming pervasive endcustomer ownership of companies that control the mobile channel. The major

Introduction to the Special Issue Information Technology in Retail: Toward Omnichannel Retailing

“…The detailed literature reviews relating to IT in retail are presented in the papers in this Special Issue [2, 6,9,11]. Here, we focus on the emerging theme-omnichannel retailing.…”

“…Four papers [2, 6,9,11] in this issue were selected from an initial set of 16 papers that were accepted for conference presentation, and they have undergone several cycles or revisions and reviews before publication here. The panel discussions allowed authors to improve and revise their work, incorporating comments into a new version of their paper.…”

“…The first paper in this issue, by Pousttchi and Hufenbach [11], explores the strategic threat related to the control of customer-related data by large organizations such as Apple and Google. The authors investigate how the loss of control over data ownership might influence retailers and analyze the responses available; this includes 12 building blocks that could be applied in Downloaded by [New York University] at 13:24 08 June 2015…”

Introduction to the Special Issue on Mobile Commerce: Mobile Commerce Research Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow—What Remains to Be Done?

“…M-commerce as a distinct field of research, and the existence of an mcommerce research community is based on the particularities of mobility and mobile information systems (see, e.g., [11,13,20]) as well as on their ecosystems and their rewriting of the rules for traditional industries (see, e.g., [18,19,21,22]). We believe that a lot of the work on mobile topics presented at conferences reapplied theory and methodologies developed by IS scholars who studied previous waves of technology (e.g., technology acceptance model, diffusion models, motivations for use).…”

How Do Small and Medium-Sized Game Companies Use Analytics? An Attention-Based View of Game Analytics

“…The use of big data and business analytics has become pervasive across industries (e.g. Grover and Kar 2017;Pousttchi and Hufenbach 2014;Bradlow et al 2017) including game development (Bauckhage et al 2012). A key driver in the diffusion of analytics among game developers has been the rapid proliferation of the freemium business model that has created the increased need to accurately measure, predict, and intervene in player behavior.…”