Zugl.: Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 2001

Proefschrift--Universiteit Utrecht, 1998. / Résumé en anglais et en allemand. Bibliogr. p. 361-384. Index.

Diss.--Universität Mannheim, 1995. / Bibliogr. p. 494-524. Index.

Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät III--Universität Regensburg, 1992. / Bibliogr. p. XV-XLVI. Index.

This dissertation explores the Internet of Things from three different perspectives for which three individual studies were conducted. The first study presents a business application within supply chain management. The second study addresses user acceptance of pervasive information systems, while the third study covers future prospects of the Internet of Things. The first study is about wireless sensor technologies and their possibilities for optimizing product quality in the cold chain. The processing of sensor data such as temperature information allows for the construction of novel issuing policies in distribution centers. The objective of the study was to investigate the possible economic potential of sensor-based issuing policies in a cold chain. By means of simulation, we analyzed a three-echelon supply chain model, including a manufacturer, a distribution center, and a retail store. Our analysis shows that sensor-based issuing policies bear the potential to become an effective complement to conventional issuing policies. However, the results also indicate that important trade-offs must be taken into account in the selection of a specific issuing policy. The second study deals with the increasing emergence of pervasive information systems and user acceptance. Based on the integration of the extended “Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology” (UTAUT2) and three pervasiveness constructs, we derived a comprehensive research model to account for pervasive information systems. Data collected from 346 participants in an online survey was analyzed to test the developed research model using structural equation modeling and taking into account multi-group and mediation analysis. The results confirm the applicability of the integrated UTAUT2 model to measure pervasiveness. The third study addresses future prospects of the Internet of Things within the retail industry. We employed a research framework to explore the macro- as well as microeconomic perspective. First, we developed future projections for the retail industry containing IoT aspects. Second, a two-round Delphi study with an expert panel of 15 participants was conducted to evaluate the projections. Third, we used scenario development to create scenarios of the most relevant projections evaluated by the participants. / Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht das „Internet der Dinge“ aus drei verschiedenen Perspektiven, wofür drei Studien durchgeführt wurden. Die erste Studie präsentiert eine kommerzielle Anwendung innerhalb des Supply Chain Managements. Die zweite Studie behandelt das Thema Nutzerakzeptanz im Kontext allgegenwärtiger Informationstechnologien, während sich die dritte Studie mit Zukunftsaussichten des Internets der Dinge im Einzelhandel befasst. Die erste Studie evaluiert die Möglichkeiten kabelloser Sensortechnologien zur Optimierung der Produktqualität verderblicher Güter in der Kühlkette. Dabei ermöglicht die Verarbeitung von Sensordaten, wie bspw. Temperaturinformationen, neuartige Ansätze bei sog. Verbrauchsfolgeverfahren in der Lagerhaltung im Verteilzentrum. Das Ziel der Studie ist die möglichen ökonomischen Potenziale sensorbasierter Verbrauchsfolgeverfahren in der Kühlkette zu untersuchen. Mittels Simulation wurde eine dreistufige Lieferkette, bestehend aus einem Hersteller, einem Verteilzentrum und einem Einzelhandelsgeschäft, analysiert. Die Analyse verdeutlicht, dass sensorbasierte Verbrauchsfolgeverfahren das Potenzial besitzen sich zu einer wirkungsvollen Ergänzung zu üblichen Verbrauchsfolgeverfahren zu entwickeln. Die Ergebnisse zeigen jedoch auch, dass wichtige Kompromisse bei der Auswahl spezifischer Verbrauchsfolgeverfahren zu berücksichtigen sind. Die zweite Studie behandelt das Thema Nutzerakzeptanz von sog. pervasiven Informationssystemen. Auf der Grundlage der Integration der erweiterten „Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology” (UTAUT2) und drei Konstrukten zu „Pervasiveness“, wurde ein umfassendes Forschungsmodell entwickelt um pervasiven Informationssytemen Rechnung zu tragen. Hierzu wurden Daten von 346 Teilnehmern einer Onlineumfrage gesammelt und analysiert, um das Forschungsmodell unter Verwendung von Strukturgleichungsmodellierung zu testen. Weitere Bestandteile der Analyse waren eine Mehrgruppen-Moderation und Mediation. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Anwendbarkeit des integrierten UTAUT2-Modells um die Nutzerakzeptanz pervasiver Informationssysteme zu messen. Die dritte Studie befasst sich mit den Zukunftsaussichten des Internets der Dinge im Einzelhandel. Vor dem Hintergrund makro- und mikroökonomischer Faktoren wurden zunächst Zukunftsprojektionen im Kontext des Internets der Dinge im Einzelhandel erstellt. Anschließend wurde eine zweistufige Delphi-Studie mit einer 15 Teilnehmer umfassenden Expertengruppe durchgeführt zur Bewertung der Projektionen. Im letzten Schritt stand die Szenarioentwicklung im Vordergrund, in der potenzielle Zukunftsszenarien aus den relevantesten Projektionen, basierend auf den Expertenmeinungen, entwickelt wurden.

The van der Waals forces, which are forces between neutral atoms and molecules, play an important role in physics (e.g. in phase transitions), chemistry (e.g. in chemical reactions) and biology (e.g. in determining properties of DNA). These forces are of quantum nature and it is long being conjectured and experimentally verified that they have universal behaviour at large separations: they are attractive and decay as the inverse sixth power of the pairwise distance between the atoms or molecules. In this thesis we prove the van der Waals law under the technical condition that ionization energies (energies of removing electrons) of atoms are larger than electron affinities (energies released when adding electrons). This condition is well justified experimentally as can be seen from the table, \newline \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline Atomic number & Element & Ionization energy (kcal/mol)& Electron affinity (kcal/mol) \\ \hline 1 & H & 313.5 & 17.3 \\ \hline 6 & C & 259.6 & 29 \\ \hline 8 & O & 314.0 & 34 \\ \hline 9 & F & 401.8 & 79.5 \\ \hline 16 & S & 238.9 & 47 \\ \hline 17 & Cl & 300.0 & 83.4 \\ \hline \end{tabular} \newline where we give ionization energies and electron affinities for a small sample of atoms, and is obvious from heuristic considerations (the attraction of an electron to a positive ion is much stronger than to a neutral atom), however it is not proved so far rigorously. We verify this condition for systems of hydrogen atoms. With an informal definition of the cohesive energy $W(y),\ y=(y_1,...,y_M)$ between $M$ atoms as the difference between the lowest (ground state) energy, $E(y)$, of the system of the atoms with their nuclei fixed at the positions $y_1,...,y_M$ and the sum, $\sum_{j=1}^M E_j$, of lowest (ground state) energies of the non-interacting atoms, we show that for $|y_i-y_j|,\ i,j \in \{1,...,M\}, i \neq j,$ large enough, $$W(y)=-\sum_{i<j}^{1,M} \frac{\sigma_{ij}}{|y_i-y_j|^6}+O(\sum_{i<j}^{1,M} \frac{1}{|y_i-y_j|^7})$$ where $\sigma_{ij}$ are in principle computable positive constants depending on the nature of the atoms $i$ and $j$.

The van der Waals forces, which are forces between neutral atoms and molecules, play an important role in physics (e.g. in phase transitions), chemistry (e.g. in chemical reactions) and biology (e.g. in determining properties of DNA). These forces are of quantum nature and it is long being conjectured and experimentally verified that they have universal behaviour at large separations: they are attractive and decay as the inverse sixth power of the pairwise distance between the atoms or molecules. In this thesis we prove the van der Waals law under the technical condition that ionization energies (energies of removing electrons) of atoms are larger than electron affinities (energies released when adding electrons). This condition is well justified experimentally as can be seen from the table, \newline \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline Atomic number & Element & Ionization energy (kcal/mol)& Electron affinity (kcal/mol) \\ \hline 1 & H & 313.5 & 17.3 \\ \hline 6 & C & 259.6 & 29 \\ \hline 8 & O & 314.0 & 34 \\ \hline 9 & F & 401.8 & 79.5 \\ \hline 16 & S & 238.9 & 47 \\ \hline 17 & Cl & 300.0 & 83.4 \\ \hline \end{tabular} \newline where we give ionization energies and electron affinities for a small sample of atoms, and is obvious from heuristic considerations (the attraction of an electron to a positive ion is much stronger than to a neutral atom), however it is not proved so far rigorously. We verify this condition for systems of hydrogen atoms. With an informal definition of the cohesive energy $W(y),\ y=(y_1,...,y_M)$ between $M$ atoms as the difference between the lowest (ground state) energy, $E(y)$, of the system of the atoms with their nuclei fixed at the positions $y_1,...,y_M$ and the sum, $\sum_{j=1}^M E_j$, of lowest (ground state) energies of the non-interacting atoms, we show that for $|y_i-y_j|,\ i,j \in \{1,...,M\}, i \neq j,$ large enough, $$W(y)=-\sum_{i<j}^{1,M} \frac{\sigma_{ij}}{|y_i-y_j|^6}+O(\sum_{i<j}^{1,M} \frac{1}{|y_i-y_j|^7})$$ where $\sigma_{ij}$ are in principle computable positive constants depending on the nature of the atoms $i$ and $j$.

Proefschrift--Faculteit der sociale wetenschapen--universiteit Leiden, 2000. / Bibliogr. p. 292-298.

Zugl.: Giessen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

Inaug.-diss.--Greifswald. / Lebenslauf. At head of title: German philologie. "Literaturverseichnis": p. [vii]-ix.