DIGITAL BUSINESS AND INFORMATION
SYSTEMS
PROGRAMME: DIGITAL BUSINESS & INNOVATION
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
School of Business & Economics
COURSE MANUAL
Academic Year 2022–2023
Period 4.1
Disclaimer:
The course scheme, content, structure, and other elements can be changed before and during
the course.
This course manual is liable to change. Please check the online version frequently.
Version
V1.0
Date
2022-08-29
Revisions
Initial version.
1. CONTENTS
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
code of conduct ................................................................................................................................ 4
Course Description Study Guide ..................................................................................................... 5
Course Coordinator and Lecturers ................................................................................................... 7
Communication and Contact Opportunities .................................................................................... 8
Promise: What to expect from this course? ..................................................................................... 8
1.1
Place within dBI curriculum ................................................................................................. 9
1.2
Changes to the course based on last year’s evaluations and experiences ..................... 9
7. Learning Objectives ......................................................................................................................... 9
8. Study Material ............................................................................................................................... 10
9. Form of Tuition ............................................................................................................................. 12
10. Assessment .................................................................................................................................... 13
1.2.1 Assessment Matrix ......................................................................................................... 13
1.2.2 Assessment Overview .................................................................................................... 13
11. Plagiarism ...................................................................................................................................... 14
1.3
What is plagiarism? ........................................................................................................... 14
1.4
What is regarded as plagiarism? ...................................................................................... 14
12. Study Load ..................................................................................................................................... 15
13. Detailed course schedule ............................................................................................................... 16
14. Appendix 1 LEcture session prep guide ........................................................................................ 21
1.4.1 Academic Lectures ......................................................................................................... 21
1.4.2 Practitioner Lectures ...................................................................................................... 23
1.4.3 Student Video Presentations ......................................................................................... 24
15. APPENDIX 2 PITCH PAPER & PAPER PROPOSAL ................................................................ 26
1.5
Overview ............................................................................................................................. 26
1.6
Structure ............................................................................................................................. 26
1.7
Style guide .......................................................................................................................... 27
1.8
Literature choice guide ...................................................................................................... 27
1.9
Evaluation criteria .............................................................................................................. 28
16. APPENDIX 3 Burning Business Quest (DRAGONS’ DEN WORKSHOP) ................................ 29
1.10
Two-minute pitch................................................................................................................ 29
1.11
Seven-minute pitch ............................................................................................................ 29
1.12
Evaluation criteria .............................................................................................................. 29
17. APPENDIX 4: FILE NAME CONVENTIONS ............................................................................ 31
18. APPENDIX 5: Randomizer Student Assignment BreakOUt discussions ..................................... 32
2. CODE OF CONDUCT
Based on the experience we gained in the previous editions we have chosen for a setup in which
we can leverage the benefits of combining offline and online (of course, if the actual measures
allow us to do so, if not we will switch to fully online again).
We are convinced that open communication best facilitates fruitful processes of learning. To
materialize on these benefits, we want to emphasize the following rules:
•
•
Other participants in online sessions know who is present and who they are talking to, so
in online spaces you are visible (camera turned ‘on’) as well as your name (name +
surname).
The basics of presence in online sessions are comparable to offline sessions, so you are
present on time, will join the full session, and only leave a session during the regular
breaks. For completeness: the online sessions are all mandatory, attendance will be
registered, so it makes sense we know your name ;-).
For completeness: we ask participants in this course also to behave as ‘academic citizens’, and
comply with the ‘code of conduct’ for the DBI program.
For completeness: the lectures will not be recorded.
4
3. COURSE DESCRIPTION STUDY GUIDE
Weblink to
course
description
online
Course Name
Course Code
Period
https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/Master/2022-2023/digital-business-andinnovation
Digital Business and Information Systems
E_BA_DBIS
4.1
Credits
6
Language
English
Course
Coordinator
Prof. dr. J.F.M. Feldberg
Teachers
Course
Objectives
Prof. dr. J.F.M. Feldberg
Prof. dr. Bart van den Hooff
Dr. Marijn Plomp
Bridging theory and practice (theory):
• Apply scientific theories, concepts and frameworks in the
organizational context.
• Reflect critically about the role of digital innovations and
information systems in contemporary organizational contexts.
Bridging theory and practice (application):
• Assess and analyze the deployment of digital innovations and
information systems as a basis for value creation and appropriation.
Professional / social skills:
• Elaborate a digital business concept and pitch it to business
audiences.
• Work in a self-managed team and assess one’s role and
contribution in the team context.
Most of the course matter will be dealt with in context of the question:
How can digital innovations and information systems (IS) contribute to
value creation? To answer this question this course will consider an
organization’s (actual) IS resources in context of digital trends.
Content
Today’s business managers must be able to address the implications of
digital innovations like social networking (e.g., Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, Instagram, and Clubhouse), blockchain technology,
internet of things, virtual reality, big data, and artificial intelligence on
business strategies, decision making, and business models.
5
Exemplary questions in this context are: Does IT matter? What are the core
systems of our digital strategy? How do we connect with the world? How
does the nature of decision making change due to digital innovations? How
to create and capture value through digital innovation?
This course is based on the premise that theory goes hand in hand with
practice. As such several business cases will be presented and
discussed, and business partners will actively participate in the
lectures.
Form of tuition
Lectures, Tutorials, Dragons’ Den Workshop
Assessment
Exam
Paper Assignment
Literature
Academic Papers, News and Journal Articles, Professional and Business
Journals
Entry
Requirements
Basic knowledge on digital innovation, information technology, business
Recommended models, and information systems.
knowledge
Basic courses on professional (presentation) skills.
Remarks
This course is only open for students in the Digital Business and
Innovation master’s programme.
You must bring your own laptop (device) to the classes and exam.
6
4. COURSE COORDINATOR AND LECTURERS
Course Coordinator and Main Lecturers:
Prof. dr. Frans Feldberg
Course Coordinator and lecturer
f.feldberg@vu.nl
Webpage: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fransfeldberg-2130654/
Prof. dr. Bart van den Hooff
Lecturer
b.j.vanden.hooff@vu.nl
Webpage:
https://www.kinresearch.nl/person/bart-vanden-hooff/
Dr. Marijn Plomp
Lecturer
m.g.a.plomp@vu.nl
Webpage:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marijnplomp
Project Team Supervisors:
Veronike Fikse
Emil Kwaaitaal
Steven Koppens
Jerry van Leeuwen
Arend Jan Nijhuis
Christiaan Quak
Maarten Toet
veronike.f.fikse@nl.abnamro.com
ekwaaitaal@deloitte.nl
Koppens.Steven@kpmg.nl
jvanleeuwen@sycommerce.com
arend-jan.nijhuis@nicm.nl
christiaan.quak@laka.co.uk
M.Toet@cmotions.nl
7
5. COMMUNICATION AND CONTACT OPPORTUNITIES
There are several channels used to provide you with the necessary information for this course:
• We will use Canvas as the regular communication channel for the course (planning,
content, assignments, lectures, submissions etc.). You are kindly requested to uniquely
use your VU student email address for all communication. Make sure you respect the
naming conventions (Appendix 4) when submitting your work.
• For questions about the team assignments, please get in touch with your project team
supervisor.
• You may discuss your more general or pressing issues with your course coordinator
before and after the lectures, or through email.
• Unless specified otherwise, Zoom will be used for the online lectures and meetings. Make
sure you signed up for Zoom timely.
6. PROMISE: WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS COURSE?
Most of the material we deal with in this course addresses the following question: How can digital
innovations and information systems (IS) contribute to value creation? To answer this question
this course will consider the organization’s information systems resources in the context of the
contemporary digital trends.
Today’s business managers must be able to address the implications of digital innovations like
social networking (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, ClubHouse and Pinterest), blockchain
technology, internet of things, big data, analytics and artificial intelligence on business strategies,
decision making, and business models.
Some exemplary questions in this context: Does IT matter? What are the core systems of our
digital strategy? How do we connect with the world? How to align digital innovation and business
strategy? How does the nature of decision making change due to digital innovations and artificial
intelligence? How to create and capture value through digital innovation?
This course is designed to get the students acquainted with the strategic issues regarding the
use of information systems (IS) in today’s increasingly digitalized businesses. Central to this
course is the elaboration of the role information technologies and digital innovations play in
achieving organizational objectives, whether they are deployed as core business resources, as
peripheral tools supporting core activities or as core business resources fueling business model
innovation. As a graduate course, this course also aims to develop the critical thinking of the
students, provide them with theoretical grounding, and encourage them to adopt an academic
attitude in their digital innovations and information systems thinking.
Two main design guidelines have shaped the design of this course:
1)
Student's self-motivation: We believe that as teachers, we are only one of the
participants in the course. Our primary goal throughout the course will be to act as
moderators during the discussions, and provide feedback to you when necessary.
Therefore, your active participation in the discussions, and serious preparation for the
presentations, play an essential role towards maintaining healthy group dynamics
and creating an ideal learning environment. Your presentations must provide enough
well-structured material to engage your fellow classmates, and enough critical
thinking to stoke up the debate. We are devolving the responsibility for maintaining
the quality of the class to your own hands, while monitoring it from the side lines. It is
assumed that you will study the mandatory course material before the class, so that
you can bring your meaningful and original contribution to the debates. Prior thinking
is essential to identifying the links between the theories and the phenomena, and
that is what we ask from you by exposing you to both theoretical frameworks and
phenomena-driven papers.
8
2)
1.1
Combination of theory and practice: In this course we insist that theory goes hand in
hand with practice and we intend to act upon this principle. Theories concerning
management of digital innovation and information systems will be discussed and
applied to selected business cases. As such several business cases will be presented
and discussed, and business partners will actively participate in the lectures.
PLACE WITHIN DBI CURRICULUM
This course is the entry course of the Digital Business & Innovation programme. Moreover, this
course must be passed in order to do the thesis.
1.2
CHANGES TO THE COURSE BASED ON LAST YEAR’S EVALUATIONS AND EXPERIENCES
•
To make sure all presenting teams stick to the presentation guidelines that are provided
in the syllabus (some student presentations were below average last year), we will put
more emphasis on the guidelines in the first lecture.
Combination of offline and online sessions, and the ‘hybrid’ format has been eliminated.
•
7. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
BRIDGING THEORY AND PRACTICE – KNOWLEDGE
●
●
Apply scientific theories, concepts and frameworks in the organizational context.
Reflect critically about the role of digital innovations and information systems in the
contemporary organizational contexts.
BRIDGING THEORY AND PRACTICE – APPLICATION
●
Assess and analyze the deployment of digital innovations and
information systems as a basis for value creation and appropriation.
PROFESSIONAL AND SOCIAL SKILLS
●
●
Elaborate a digital business concept and pitch it to both academic and
business audiences.
Work in a self-managed team and assess one’s role and contribution in
the team context.
9
8. STUDY MATERIAL
Academic lecture 1: Introduction to Digital Business & Innovation
• Carr, N. G. (2003). IT doesn't matter. Educause Review, 38, 24-38.
• Bharadwaj, A., El Sawy, O. A., Pavlou, P. A., & Venkatraman, N. V. (2013). Digital business
strategy: toward a next generation of insights. MIS Quarterly, 37(2).
• Lecture Note: R. Fichman (2012). Distinctive IT Characteristics: Implications for Digital
Innovation and Value Creation, Boston College.
• Ross, J. W., Beath, C. M., & Sebastian, I. M. (2017). How to Develop a Great Digital
Strategy. MIT Sloan Management Review, 58(2), 7.
• McKinsey & Company (2021, June 24). The top trends in tech.
• Schräge, M., Muttreja, V., & Kwan, A. (2022). How the Wrong KPIs Doom Digital
Transformation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 63(3), 35-40.
Supporting literature (not part of the mandatory course matter)
• Website: McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2022
• McKinsey & Company (June 2022), Value creation in the metaverse: the real business of
the virtual world. Chapter ‘In Brief’ (summary), pages 5 & 6.
Academic lecture 2: Technology-Centric View of IT in Business, Enterprise Systems,
Interorganizational Systems, and Platforms.
• Core Paper:
o Dhar, V., & Sundararajan, A. (2007). Information technologies in business: A
blueprint for education and research. Information Systems Research, 18(2), 125141. Paragraph 3 only. IT in Business: Conceptual Foundations (pages 127-132).
•
Discussion Papers:
o Enterprise Systems:
▪ Davenport, T. H. (1998). Putting the enterprise into the enterprise system.
Harvard Business Review, 76(4).
▪ Presentation paper: Ranganathan, C., & Brown, C. V. (2006). ERP
investments and the market value of firms: Toward an understanding of
influential ERP project variables. Information Systems Research, 17(2),
145-161.
o
Interorganizational Systems:
▪ Presentation paper: Johnston, H. R., & Vitale, M. R. (1988). Creating
competitive advantage with interorganizational information systems. MIS
Quarterly, 12(2), 153-165.
▪ Jernigan, S., Kiron, D., & Ransbotham, S. (2016). Data Sharing and
Analytics are Driving Success With IoT. MIT Sloan Management Review,
58(1).
o
Platforms:
▪ Van Alstyne, M. W., Parker, G. G., & Choudary, S. P. (2016). Pipelines,
platforms, and the new rules of strategy. Harvard Business Review, 94(4),
54-62.
Academic lecture 3: Business-IT Alignment and Organizational Agility
• Core Paper:
o Liang, H., Wang, N., Xue, Y., & Ge, S. (2017). Unraveling the alignment paradox:
how does business—IT alignment shape organizational agility? Information
Systems Research, 28(4), 863-879.
•
Discussion Papers:
10
o
o
Presentation paper: Zhou, J., Bi, G., Liu, H., Fang, Y., & Hua, Z. (2018).
Understanding employee competence, operational IS alignment, and
organizational agility–An ambidexterity perspective. Information & Management,
55(6), 695-708.
Presentation paper: Tiwana, A. & Konsynski, B. (2010) Complementarities
Between Organizational IT Architecture and Governance Structure. Information
Systems Research, 21(2), 288-304.
Academic lecture 4: The Nature of Decision Making
•
Core Paper:
o Hatch, M. J. (1997). Organization Theory (pp. 269–281). Oxford University Press.
(Chapter 9 – Organizational Decision Making)
•
Discussion Papers:
o Presentation paper: McAfee, A., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2012). Big data: the
management revolution. Harvard Business Review, 90(10), 60–6, 68, 128.
o Presentation paper: Luca, M., Kleinberg, J., & Mullainathan, S. (2016). Algorithms
need managers, too. Harvard Business Review, 94(1), 96–101.
o Evans, P. (2016). Thinking Outside The Blocks: A Strategic Perspective on
Blockchain and Digital Tokens (BCG Perspectives). The Boston Consulting Group.
Academic lecture 5: Data-Driven Business Model Innovation
• Core Paper:
o Günther, W. A., Mehrizi, M. H. R., Huysman, M., & Feldberg, F. (2017). Debating
big data: A literature review on realizing value from big data. The Journal of
Strategic Information Systems, 26(3), 191-209.
•
Discussion Papers:
o Mastering Data Projects:
▪ Presentation Paper: Wixom, B. H., & Watson, H. J. (2001). An empirical
investigation of the factors affecting data warehousing success. MIS
Quarterly, 25(1), 17-41.
▪ Bell, P. C. (2015). Sustaining an analytics advantage. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 56(3), 21.
o
Data-Driven Organizations
▪ Constantiou, I. D., & Kallinikos, J. (2015). New games, new rules: big data
and the changing context of strategy. Journal of Information Technology,
30(1), 44-57.
▪ Hagiu, A., & Wright, J. (2020). When data creates competitive advantage.
Harvard Business Review, 98(1), 94-101.
o
Data-Driven Business Model Innovation
▪ Presentation Paper: Woerner, S. L., & Wixom, B. H. (2015). Big data:
extending the business strategy toolbox. Journal of Information
Technology, 30(1), 60-62.
▪ Hartmann, P. M., Zaki, M., Feldmann, N., & Neely, A. (2014). Big data for
big business? A Taxonomy of Data-Driven Business Models Used by StartUp Firms. International Journal of Operations & Production Management,
36(10), 1382-1406.
▪ TEDxTalks. (2019, January 29). Prediction Machines: How artificial
intelligence can help us | Frans Feldberg | TEDxAlkmaar. YouTube.
11
9. FORM OF TUITION
This course consists of a series of 5 academic lectures, 5 practitioner lectures, a feedback
session, a Dragons’ Den workshop, and an examination preparation lecture.
The lectures (academic and practitioner) are aimed to stimulate your academic skills, and
familiarize you with new knowledge through presentations and discussions animated by the
students, the instructors, and the participating business consultant. Appendix 1 (Lecture Session
Prep Guide) presents a detailed overview of the setup of the lecture sessions.
The lectures aim to (a) extend and deepen your understanding of the literature, and (b) apply
concepts from the literature and the lectures to a business case. In the lectures students will
work on cases and questions similar to those featured on the exam.
The paper assignment feedback session is in week 5. In this session, each team will be assigned
a 20 minutes slot in which the team will receive feedback on their draft paper. The feedback
session is a mandatory part of the course. Because the teams can learn from the feedback
provided to other teams, the feedback sessions are so called ‘joint sessions’. All students are
supposed to attend the full session organized by the supervisor your team has been assigned to.
The Dragons’ Den Workshop will be an in-house workshop organized at Deloitte. See Appendix 3
(Dragons’ Den Workshop) for more details about this workshop. This workshop is a mandatory
part of the course.
12
10. ASSESSMENT
ASSESSMENT MATRIX
Weight
(%)
Bridging theory & practice (knowledge) learning
objective
● Apply scientific theories, concepts and
frameworks in the organizational context.
● Reflect critically about the role of digital
innovations and information systems in the
contemporary organizational contexts.
Bridging theory & practice (application) learning
objective
• Assess and analyse the deployment of digital
innovations and information systems as a
basis for value creation and appropriation.
Professional & social skills learning objective
● Elaborate a digital business concept and
pitch it to both academic and
business audiences.
● Work in a self-managed team and assess
one’s role and contribution in
the team context.
1.2.2
70 %
30 %
0%
Peer Evaluation
Professional feedback on the final
paper and pitch presentation (team
level only)
Assessment types
EXAM
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
PAPER
1.2.1
70%
30%
Team
Team
ASSESSMENT OVERVIEW
Your overall course grade is composed of components that are presented in the following table:
Format
Exam
Pitch Paper
Minimum Required
5.5
5.5
% Grade
70%
30%
Resit
Yes
Yes (Grade capped: 6.0)
You need a minimum overall grade of 5.50 to pass the course. Note that in case you fail any of
the minimum requirements (even if your course grade average in itself is sufficient), your course
grade will be registered as ‘NVD’ and you shall not pass.
Each team must write a paper in which a digital innovation -- a new digital product, service or
business process -- will be pitched (see Appendix 2 for additional details). A few examples of
successful pitch papers will be uploaded to Canvas.
13
If your team does not manage to obtain a minimum grade of 5.5 on the paper assignment, you
will be given a second opportunity. The revised paper must be submitted in Week 8 of the course
ultimately, and its grade will be capped at 6.0. In case of failure in the second attempt (grade
below 5.5), the course must be done over again the next year.
Although team presentations will not be graded, giving at least one team presentation and active
participation in the discussions are conditional requirements for the successful accomplishment
of this course.
You will receive peer evaluation regarding your teamwork from your colleagues during the
execution of the team assignments. Peer evaluations do not count as a part of your final grade
either, yet they will be a valuable resource for you to assess your social skills and how they come
across within the context of project team work.
The deadlines are strict. The instructors reserve the right to penalize the students or the groups
for their submission delays if they see fit. The paper evaluation sessions are mandatory, the
instructors reserve the right to penalize the students (subtract 2 points from the paper grade)
that miss the evaluation sessions.
The exam is ‘open book’. The examination regulations do not allow to bring electronic devices to
the exam other than the devices provided by the VU, but you are allowed to bring all the course
matter in printed version. It is also allowed to bring your own notes, summaries, lecture slides
(both ‘academic’ and ‘practitioner’).
All readings (readings, core papers, and discussion papers) presented in the detailed course
overview and the associated course clips are mandatory course matter.
11. PLAGIARISM
1.3
WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?
If you do not include proper references in your work, you could be accused of plagiarism: passing
off others' work, ideas or arguments as your own. Plagiarism is regarded as fraud and is taken
very seriously in the academic world. If you commit plagiarism during your studies, you could face
serious punishment including exclusion from a course or even expulsion from the university. For
academics, plagiarism can mean the end of their career.
1.4
WHAT IS REGARDED AS PLAGIARISM?
The following are clear examples of plagiarism:
▪ Handing in somebody else’s work as if it is your own.
▪ Copying passages, long or short, from a source without acknowledging it.
But the following also count as plagiarism:
▪ ‘Borrowing’ somebody else’s words or ideas without acknowledgement.
▪ Making just a few changes to a text, graph or diagram and then claiming it as your own.
▪ ‘Forgetting’ to put quotation marks around a literal quote.
▪ Including an incorrect or incomplete reference, so that the source cannot be traced.
▪ Not including a reference every time you draw upon a particular source; this is equivalent to
passing off part of the information used as your own work.
▪ Using so many words or ideas from a source that they make up the bulk of your paper – even
if you do credit the source!
(Source: University Library VU)
14
The university is very strict about the conduction of plagiarism. It can lead to exclusion of the
master program without graduating. For these reasons, every assignment is checked for
plagiarism with the help of software.
We often notice that students in some cases do not exactly know that they have plagiarized. As a
result, the university has developed an online course “How do I incorporate literature in my
reports?” for students to participate in. Please note that this information excludes the ability of
students to protest that they were uncertain about the fact that they plagiarized.
Please follow this link for further information:
12. STUDY LOAD
The estimated time students need for basic study activities in this course are:
Preparing the lectures and creating videos
72 hours
Attending lectures, workshops etc.
32 hours
Work on pitch paper
40 hours
Preparing the exam
22 hours
Taking the exam
2 hours
Total
168 hours
15
13. DETAILED COURSE SCHEDULE
Week
1
Date
Wednesday
Time
07-09
Format
Introduction
lecture
Teacher
Prof. dr. Frans Feldberg
Dr. Marijn Plomp
Theme
Course introduction
lecture
Introduction to Digital
Business & Information
Systems.
2
Friday
09-09
Sunday
11-09
Monday
12-09
Wednesday
14-09
ONLINE
Eeuwke Kamsteeg (Deloitte
Practitioner
Consulting;
lecture 1
ekamsteeg@deloitte.nl)
23:59 Deadline: Paper proposal submission
(Setup of the course with
Q&A. Enrollment for the
project teams and
presentation teams will
also be fixed during this
lecture)
Digital business and
innovation
Preparation
Study course manual
and if relevant,
formulate questions
about issues that need
explanation.
Read corresponding
articles (see chapter 8).
Watch keynote and
core paper clips.
Watch practitioner clip
Assignment (see
Canvas week 1)
11:59 Deadline for assigned teams: ‘Paper presentation video’ and slides submission (see also appendix
1)
Academic
Prof. dr. Frans Feldberg
Technology-Centric View
Read corresponding
lecture 2
of IT in Business,
articles (see chapter 8),
Enterprise Systems,
watch core paper clips,
Interorganizational
watch paper
Systems, and Platforms.
presentation video, and
prepare proposition to
defend in class (see
appendix 1)
16
Week
3
4
Date
Wednesday
14-09
Time
Thursday
15-09
Friday
16-09
Monday
19-09
Wednesday
21-09
Thursday
22-09
Friday
23-09
Monday
26-09
Format
Feedback
sessions
Teacher
Theme
Preparation
Feedback sessions with supervisors to discuss pitch paper proposal.
Your team’s supervisor will schedule the sessions and invite you for the
Zoom meeting via Canvas (mail).
15:00 Deadline for assigned teams: ‘Practitioner presentation video’ and slides submission (see also
appendix 1)
ONLINE
Suresha Gangadhara
Enterprise systems
Watch practitioner clip
Practitioner
and practitioner
lecture 2
(Deloitte Consulting;
presentation video,
SuGangadhara@deloitte.nl)
prepare discussion
statement (see
appendix 1).
11:59 Deadline for assigned teams: ‘Paper presentation video’ and slides submission (see also appendix
1)
Academic
Prof. dr. Bart van den Hooff
Business-IT Alignment
Read corresponding
lecture 3
and Organizational Agility articles (see chapter 8),
watch core paper clips,
watch paper
presentation video, and
prepare proposition to
defend in class (see
appendix 1)
15:00 Deadline for assigned teams: ‘Practitioner presentation video’ and slides submission (see also
appendix 1)
ONLINE
Rob de Maat
Service Architectures and Watch practitioner clip
Practitioner
(Deloitte Consulting;
Design Thinking.
and practitioner
lecture 3
rdemaat@deloitte.nl)
presentation video,
prepare discussion
statement (see
appendix 1).
11:59 Deadline for assigned teams: ‘Paper presentation video’ and slides submission (see also appendix
1)
17
Week
5
Date
Wednesday
28-09
Time
Thursday
29-09
Friday
30-09
Friday
30-09
Monday
03-10
Wednesday
05-10
Wednesday
05-10
Thursday
06-10
Format
Academic
lecture 4
Teacher
Dr. Marijn Plomp
Theme
The Trust Business and
The Nature of Decision
Making
Preparation
Read corresponding
articles (see chapter 8),
watch core paper clips,
watch paper
presentation video, and
prepare proposition to
defend in class (see
appendix 1)
15:00 Deadline for assigned teams: ‘Practitioner presentation video’ and slides submission (see also
appendix 1)
ONLINE
Tommie van der Bosch
Blockchain
Watch practitioner clip
Practitioner
(Deloitte Consulting;
and practitioner
lecture 4
Tvanderbosch@deloitte.nl)
presentation video,
prepare discussion
statement (see
appendix 1).
18:00 Deadline: Paper draft submission
11:59 Deadline for assigned teams: ‘Paper presentation video’ and slides submission (see also appendix
1)
Academic
Prof. dr. Frans Feldberg
Data-Driven Business
Read corresponding
lecture 5
Model Innovation
articles (see chapter 8),
watch core paper clips,
watch paper
presentation video, and
prepare proposition to
defend in class (see
appendix 1)
Feedback
Joint draft paper feedback session in 20-minute time slots (with other teams!)
session
15:00 Deadline for assigned teams: ‘Practitioner presentation video’ and slides submission (see also
appendix 1)
18
Week
6
Date
Friday
07-10
Time
Tuesday
11-10
Wednesday
12-10
Format
ONLINE
Practitioner
lecture 5
Teacher
Stefan van Duin
(Deloitte Consulting;
SvanDuin@deloitte.nl)
Theme
Business Analytics and
Data Science
Preparation
Watch practitioner clip
and practitioner
presentation video,
prepare discussion
statement (see
appendix 1).
Exam prep (Check the
relevant pages and
training exam on
Canvas.)
Prepare an answer to
the exercise and
training exam
questions. You must be
prepared to present
your answer in the
tutorial session (Use
PowerPoint and bring
the slides with you).
23:59 Deadline: Final Paper Submission
ONLINE
Examination
preparation
lecture
Prof. dr. Frans Feldberg
On answering these
questions, you must
apply theories,
concepts, frameworks,
etc. put forward in the
mandatory course
matter. It is up to you to
decide which articles
are most relevant to
use. Start your answer
with mentioning the
article(s) you based
your reasoning on.
Wednesday
12-10
23:59 Deadline: Executive Summary Submission
19
Week
8
XX
Date
Friday
14-10
Time
Format
Teacher
08:00 Pitch Paper Presentation Submission
Theme
Friday
14-10
09.00 Dragons’ Den Workshop/Burning Business Quest (BBQ)
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
TBA
Exam
All literature + lectures
Final feedback sessions (will be scheduled via Canvas after exam)
TBA
Preparation
Resit exam
20
14. APPENDIX 1 LECTURE SESSION PREP GUIDE
The academic lectures in week 2, 3, 4, and 5 will include three parts, all of which rely on the
students’ preparation for the course. The students are required to carefully study all the
mandatory course material before coming to the class.
You will have the chance to opt for one presentation or moderation topic of your choice during
the first introduction lecture.
Please make sure you check the topics in advance and make up your mind about your topic
preferences because in the first lecture you must choose for one team, either with a presentation
or a moderation role.
Assignment to presentation or moderation teams is based on declared interest in the topics for
that week and on a first-come, first-served basis (the number of teams may vary with the size of
the class).
Each student is member of one presentation or moderation team and presents or moderates a
discussion in one specific session. By the same token, each team has to present or moderate a
discussion only once, either in an academic lecture or a practitioner lecture.
1.4.1
ACADEMIC LECTURES
Part I
Part II
Part III
Discussion about and elaboration on
core paper.
Panel discussions.
General discussion and conclusion
(Students & Instructor)
15 minutes.
For each presentation paper (2
per lecture):
10 minutes
discussion moderated by
moderation team
+
10 minutes plenary discussion
10-15 minutes
Preparations
Studying all the literature for a specific lecture and watching the ‘core paper clips’ and ‘video
presentations’ of the presentation teams before the lectures is a prerequisite for successful
participation in the discussions. We also strongly recommend to study the core paper(s) before
the discussion papers in order to have a reference framework in mind. While reading, prepare
some questions and discussion points so that you can participate actively in the class discussion.
See below for additional preparations per part.
Part I
The ‘core paper clips’, and if applicable the ‘core paper interview clips’, will elaborate on the core
paper(s) that provide(s) the required framework for the student presentations and the class
discussions. The core paper is either a theory, review or classic piece that proposes a structured
conceptual framework to think about the phenomena that will be tackled by the students in their
presentations. To prepare for this part of the lecture you must:
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Study all the literature specified for the lecture.
Watch the core paper clip for the specific week.
Watch the core paper interview clip for the specific week (if available).
Prepare a proposition you must be able to defend in class.
Be prepared to answer the question: suppose you are a manager at organization X, what
would be your advice for this organization, given the key message of the core paper?
Organization X is not known in advance, and will be shared in the lecture.
At the beginning of the lecture students can ask questions about the core paper and the issues
addressed in the core paper clips (paper and interview clip).
After answering questions, the teacher will randomly ask students to share their proposition
and/or their advice (see 4 & 5 above).
Part II
To prepare for this part all students must watch all the video presentations that have been
assigned to the specific session, before the lecture.
Central to this part is a discussion, fueled by a panel consisting of the presentation team and the
moderation team. This part includes two subparts that are executed consecutively for each video
presentation, each subpart will be moderated by the moderation team associated with the topic.
Presentation team
For each lecture the presentation teams that are assigned to the specific lecture, prepare a video
in which each presents paper(s) from the mandatory course material (see detailed literature
overview where presentation papers are labeled as such).
Each presenting team must prepare a 6-minute (max!) video presentation about the presentation
article(s) that has been assigned to the team, and the phenomenon that it discusses. In this
video, the students are expected to do a balancing act: To present the content of the paper
swiftly while putting an analytic turn on the content by integrating the conceptual framework from
Part I (addressing the core paper). When preparing the video presentation, keep this key
question in mind: What does phenomenon X (the concept or theory discussed in the core
paper(s)) entail for our understanding of Y (covered in your discussion article(s))?
In your video you must explicitly elaborate on the application of the theories, concepts or
frameworks explained in the presentation article assigned to your team, to a business case. At
least one of the slides must be used for this purpose. It is up to the team to decide which
business case to select, you are free to use any organizational context (business case) you
consider relevant.
You may approach the phenomena from a societal or business perspective, and you may cover
them in a positivist or a critical manner. But make sure apart from presenting the authors’ ideas,
you reflect your own original thinking in your video presentation as well. Each presentation must
end with at least one statement (on a separate slide) that can give a direction to the class
discussion.
Deadline for submission ‘paper presentation video’ and the slides: Monday before the lecture
noon (11.59 AM) through both the assignments entry and the dedicated page in Canvas (see
also below 14.1.3).
Moderation team
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All students in the moderation team are also panel members (next to the presentation team
members). One member of the moderation team must fulfill the role of ‘moderator’ and actively
facilitate the panel discussion (Tip: you can find dozens of sources on the internet with valuable
tips on how to moderate panel discussions).
The moderation team must start the discussion through:
1. A reflection on how the presentation team connected with the core paper, then
2. elaborate on the discussion statement put forward by the presentation team,
3. together ‘synthesizing, in:
o 1 question for the presentation team, and
o 2 questions for the audience.
These questions must fuel a lively discussion of at least 10 minutes amongst the panelists,
followed by a plenary discussion with all students in class.
The moderator must actively involve the audience in the discussion.
All students must prepare themselves for the discussions by devising a strategy to stimulate
reactions from your colleagues.
Part III
The instructor will expand the debate to include all the papers before concluding the discussion.
1.4.2
PRACTITIONER LECTURES
These online lectures (Friday) will be co-organized by Deloitte Consulting. In this lecture the guest
speaker will elaborate on the relevant topics and literature for the specific week in context of
business cases and experiences. During the weeks 2, 3, 4, and 5 two student teams (number of
teams is dependent on the number of students in the course) will be responsible for launching a
discussion on a practice-oriented theme through a brief video presentation (6 minutes) in
collaboration with the guest speaker of that session. This will serve as a part of the intervention
of the guest speaker (from Deloitte). The guest speaker will communicate to the team the topic of
the discussion in the form of a research or case question one week in advance.
The setup of the practitioner lectures is as following:
Part I
Welcome and introduction
Part II
Breakout team discussions (point of departure is/are the
statement(s) put forward in the team’s video
presentation(s))
Plenary ‘wrap up’ discussion about the issues addressed in
the video presentations
Break
Q&A discussion (Students & Consultants & Instructor)
Wrap up
Part III
Part IV
Part V
5 minutes
Part I
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15 minutes
10 minutes
30 minutes
10 minutes
The topics will be introduced by the guest speaker in a ‘practitioner clip’. These clips must be
watched in advance to prepare for the lecture.
Each practitioner lecture student team (final number of teams will be dependent on the number
of students participating in the course) makes a 6-minute video presentation in which they
elaborate and answer the assignment set by the guest speaker. Guest speaker will communicate
the topic of the discussion in form of a case or a research question, one week in advance. Feel
free to get in touch with the guest speaker to discuss your approach, but we emphasize that it is
not the intention to make the guest speaker ‘the director of your video presentation’. In the end,
the guest speaker cannot spend significant time on your presentations, and will only respond in
outline to your proposals.
This video must end with a discussion statement aimed at fueling a lively discussion among
students in the breakout sessions (see section below for more details about this video).
Deadline for submission ‘practitioner presentation video’ and the slides: Thursday before the
lecture (3 pm) through both the assignments entry and the dedicated page in Canvas (see also
below 14.1.3).
Part II
To prepare for this part all students must watch the video presentations of the presentation
teams, that have been assigned to the specific session, before the lecture.
All students will be assigned to breakout teams to debate the discussion statement put forward
in the video presentations. Half of the breakout groups will discuss the statement of the first
presenting team, the other half the statement of the second team.
Part II
Students will rejoin the plenary lecture, the teacher and/or guest speaker will invite individual
students to summarize the breakout discussion, share its outline and highlights.
Part IV
A plenary ‘Questions & Answers (Q&A) discussion’ will follow after the break.
This will be a ‘free format’ Q&A discussion among all participants (guest speaker and students) in
which students are invited to ask questions, for example as a result of the ‘practitioner clip’, the
previous discussion, or a general interest in the lecture’s topic.
Part V
Wrap up.
1.4.3
STUDENT VIDEO PRESENTATIONS
Point of departure for the videos must be a PowerPoint presentation (maximum 5 slides, all
presentations must be in MS Office format (PowerPoint)).
It is up to the team do decide on the format of the video, which can range from ‘talking slides’ (a
video presentation that is no more than adding an oral explanation (voice over) to Powerpoint
slides) a full-fledged ‘DBIS student movie’. The Powerpoint slides must be integrated in the video.
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Given that the primary objective of the student presentation videos is to adequately fulfill the
abovementioned purposes, you are encouraged to use your creativity to do so.
All team members must equally contribute to the production of the video. It must be clear from
the video itself and the trailer of the video how each team member did.
Each team must create an online version of its video presentation (e.g. via Youtube, or Vimeo)
and share the link through the dedicated page in Canvas. You can use the ‘Edit’ feature of this
page to add the link.
Next to sharing the link to the online version of the video presentation, both the video and the
Powerpoint presentation used in your video must be uploaded through the relevant assignment
entry in Canvas within the deadline for this assignment.
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15. APPENDIX 2 PITCH PAPER & PAPER PROPOSAL
1.5
OVERVIEW
Each team must write a five-page document in which a digital innovation (new digital product,
service or business process) must be pitched. In this paper, the ‘why’, ‘what’, and ‘how’ of a
digital innovation must be described to convince business executives (organization, profit or nonprofit) to adopt and finance the innovation.
Examples of digital innovations are (topics in previous years):
● mobile apps to support salesforce automation
● virtual reality to support product presentation
● big data to enhance HRM planning
● blockchain technology to support legal binding agreements
● wearable device to support health care decisions
● social media for organizational learning
● augmented reality to mimic a festival experience
● artificial intelligence for a better job versus candidate match
Sound reasoning and substantiation of arguments are central to this paper. Your justification for
the relevance and the potential success of your digital innovation project must rely on your
theoretical understanding of the topic you are addressing. You will need to bring up at least one
theory, concept or relevant line of argument from the literature in information systems,
organization science or innovation management along with the proper citations to at least two
academic papers to back your arguments.
The shortness of this document must not be mistaken for easiness of the exercise. Your pitch
paper is supposed to be lean, succinct and dense on relevant arguments so that the reader can
access the gist of your idea easily and quickly. Keep in mind that your paper will be both graded
on its academic rigor and sound reasoning, and serve as a basis for the Dragon's Den selection.
To put it shortly, we are asking you to write a scientifically defendable executive summary!
In order to help you properly develop your ideas before the final paper submission, we accept
proposal submissions on the second week of the class. The proposal paper is a one-pager
describing your early-stage ideas and must follow the same rules as your final submission, except
for length limitations.
1.6
STRUCTURE
The document must at cover the following areas:
1. Introduction: Brief presentation of the digital innovation of choice put in its context of
deployment
2. Your arguments, including:
a. Why: Description of the problem to be solved and its relevance from a
practitioner's perspective
b. What: Detailed description of the digital innovation central to your paper
c. How: Logical justification for the processes through which your innovation helps
tackling the problem you described above
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3. Literature Overview: Your justification for the relevance and the potential success of your
digital innovation project must rely on your theoretical understanding of the topic you are
addressing. You will need to bring up at least one theory, concept or relevant line of
argument from the literature in information systems, organization science or innovation
management along with the proper citations to at least two academic papers.
For further inspiration on ‘Why, What and How’ pitches, we invite you to watch the following TED
talk: Simon Sinek - How great leaders inspire action.
In order to better understand how one can incorporate scientific reasoning into business ideas
we invite you to read some business cases, case studies and white papers published in both
academic and business outlets. While this may not be obvious at the first sight, many design and
evaluation principles used in development of hi-tech products rely on scientific theories and
models. For instance, many online platforms use controlled experiments to decide about design
alternatives and rely on theories of motivation developed in social psychology to foster user
engagement through gamification.
1.7
STYLE GUIDE
●
●
●
●
●
●
Style format: Times New Roman, font size 12 pts, Line spacing: 1.0.
Maximum number of pages for the body of the paper: 5. Full paper including references,
figures, diagrams and appendices maximum 7 pages.
Papers must be submitted in MS Word format.
Use page numbering and spelling correction.
Team details must be included in the header section of the paper.
References must be formatted according to the common APA style.
Note that failure to comply with the style guide in your pitch paper is taken seriously and may
negatively affect your grade.
1.8
LITERATURE CHOICE GUIDE
These core articles must be from rated academic journals. In order to make sure the literature
you are citing is considered of good-enough quality you can consult Scimago Journal & Country
Rank.
Note that the journal rating is not a direct assessment of the quality of the papers published in
the journal and you have to use your own judgement when picking a paper as reference. A good
starting point for paper quality assessment is the number of citations a paper has garnered on
Google Scholar.
In order to facilitate your work we have included a shorthand list of well-known IS journals below:
● Decision Support Systems (DSS)
● European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS)
● Information and Management (I&M)
● Information Systems Journal (ISJ)
● Information Systems Research (ISR)
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●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
International Journal of Electronic Commerce (IJEC)
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (JCMC)
Journal of Information technology (JIT)
Journal of Interactive Marketing (JIM)
Journal of Management Information Systems (JMIS)
Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS)
Management Science (MS)
MIS Quarterly (MISQ)
Organization Science (OS)
Articles published in the journals listed above or those journals with an Article Influence Score
(AI) above 0.40 as published on Eigenfactor website are deemed to be of high quality and high
relevance.
1.9
EVALUATION CRITERIA
The evaluation criteria for the final paper are:
● Sound reasoning
● Relevant use and application of scientific concepts and theories
● Sound logics and rigor in analysis and substantiation
● Idea development (clarity, consistency, coherence)
● Innovativeness
● Structure and readability
● Feasibility and viability
These evaluation criteria are not assessed individually, but taken together they contribute to the
final judgment of your paper.
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16. APPENDIX 3 BURNING BUSINESS QUEST (DRAGONS’ DEN WORKSHOP)
The Dragons’ Den workshop, also known as the Burning Business Quest (BBQ), will be a day-long
workshop at Deloitte Consulting (The Edge Building). The Dragons’ Den will be a pitch of sevenminute to a Deloitte Jury. The jury will judge all the pitches according to the criteria below and
decide which team performed best. But, participation is more important than just winning.
As there are too many teams we need to do a pre-selection. This selection will be done based on
an executive summary (maximum 250 words) of your paper that you will submit at the same time
as your finalized paper to Rob de Maat (rdemaat@deloitte.nl) and Esmee van Waalwijk van Doorn
(l evanwaalwijkvandoorn@deloitte.nl) . At the beginning of Dragons’ Den, all teams will be given
the opportunity to provide a two-minute pitch presentation on their ideas, convincing the jury to
hear them out in the full seven-minute pitch.
1.10 TWO-MINUTE PITCH
You should appoint one member of your team who will do the two-minute pitch to the jury in
which the pitch paper must be defended, with a clear emphasis on the digital innovation that is
going to be delivered. Based on the pitch papers and associated pitches, the Deloitte jury will
decide which six pitches are selected for a seven-minute pitch afterwards.
1.11 SEVEN-MINUTE PITCH
The six groups that will be selected for the seven-minute pitch will be given EXACTLY SEVEN
MINUTES to present their pitch to the jury, who will judge it on:
•
•
•
Content: The essence of the idea
Form: Aesthetics, professional attitude and ease, clarity
Bottom Line: Convinced to the point of asking for a follow-up meeting?
This seven minute pitch will be followed by a five-minute Q&A session with the jury, when the
representatives of Deloitte will question you on your pitch.
For the Deloitte workshop (final lecture) each team must be prepared to “sell” their innovation to
Deloitte. “Selling” the innovation will be done in a dragon den’s format. You will get seven
minutes to convince representatives of Deloitte Consulting that your pitch is the best. To support
your pitch you will have to make a short PowerPoint presentation that you will need to bring with
you to Deloitte on a USB stick. It is up to the team to decide who will actually do the presentation.
From our (Deloitte) perspective one presenter will do. Although pure theory do not typically belong
to sales pitches you must be able to underpin your pitch to the representatives of Deloitte in a
way that is understandable for practitioners.
1.12 EVALUATION CRITERIA
Whereas your paper will be evaluated according to criteria presented in Pitch Paper & Paper
Proposal (see appendix 2) by the instructors, the representatives of Deloitte will (amongst other
criteria) evaluate your pitch presentation on the following criteria:
•
Content:
o Is it convincing enough to invest in the digital innovation presented (sell your ideas), is
the offered solution attractive enough to set up a follow-on meeting?
o Is the problem that is being solved appropriately made clear?
o Has it sufficiently been made clear what the advantages are?
o How realistic (feasibility) is the proposed solution (time, people, success)?
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•
•
o How creative/original was the solution?
Form:
o Were the used presentation materials properly supporting the story?
o Was/were the presenter(s) on top of the story?
Bottom-line:
o Were the ideas presented convincingly?
o Are you willing to give suit in a follow-up meeting?
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17. APPENDIX 4: FILE NAME CONVENTIONS
The names of the files, including the weekly presentations, submitted to the instructors must
meet the following conventions:
Slot <EM/LM> W<week number>+T<team number>+<brief description>
e.g:
EM W2T1 presentation workshop part.ppt
Or
EM W4T4 Paper Electronic Markets.docx
Include team details on first page of ANY submission!
If you do not stick to these conventions, we are not able to determine team number and to review
your draft!
Files must be in Microsoft Word or Powerpoint format only.
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18. APPENDIX 5: RANDOMIZER STUDENT ASSIGNMENT BREAKOUT
DISCUSSIONS
Before students are assigned to breakout rooms the teacher communicates a number.
When the family names of students in the breakout room are sorted in alphabetical order
(ascending A->Z), the student ranked according to the number provided by the teacher will be the
one to start with the relevant assignment (e.g. share Its proposition).
For example:
Number provide by teacher: 5
1. Bentoumi
2. Engbersen
3. Hermans
4. Kuijer
5. Mattos
6. Mentasti
7. Ramos
8. Snel
9. Touhaf
10. Uwamahoro
Student Mattos will start with presenting the proposition.
Make sure you full name is visible in the online environments (e.g. Zoom).
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