(funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy (StMWi), 01/2022-06/2023)

The aim of the AMI-AirShuttle project is to develop a holistic and scalable concept for the airport integration of manufacturer-neutral urban air mobility solutions. As part of this project, which is funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, partners from industry, business and science - including Munich and Nuremberg airports, Airbus, German Air Traffic Control and the universities KU, THI and TUM - are investigating the conditions that need to be created for the successful introduction of manned, electrified air taxis at commercial airports. In the sub-project ‘User Acceptance, Customer Experience and Transport Behaviour’, the DLM Chair is pursuing the overarching goal of a holistic investigation of the user experience of an airport shuttle flight. The focus of the research is on the requirements and expectations of potential users of these services. Based on the identification of key user determinants of airport shuttle flights using a holistic view of the customer journey, recommendations for action are derived for future service providers and stakeholders involved.

(funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure; funding reference: 01MM20012H; funding period 2021-2023)

With SAVeNoW, the joint project for the development of digital and virtual test fields in the context of automated and networked mobility is entering its second round. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt is working together with the Technical University of Ingolstadt, the Technical University of Munich, the University of Stuttgart and corporate partners such as Audi AG and various other engineering service providers on a sustainable simulation model of the city of Ingolstadt. The model is intended to form a basis for the optimisation of road safety, emission reduction, traffic efficiency and driving comfort. Together with other partners, the KU is working on the sub-project ‘Social participation and accompanying issues’. Among other things, it is investigating the willingness of citizens to provide personal data and analysing key issues relating to the effects of automated driving on people's well-being with the help of experimental studies. An interactive showroom for automated driving in Ingolstadt's pedestrian zone will serve as a platform for dialogue in order to obtain the citizens' perspective and consider the interactions of the issues addressed in the project on individuals and society. In addition, the KU is looking into the legal and economic feasibility of operating a virtual region model.

(funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure; funding period June - December 2019)

The project GABi deals with social aspects of Urban Air Mobility. Urban Air Mobility describes the expansion of urban transport systems into the third dimension: airspace. The project aims to identify relevant factors influencing the social acceptance of UAM and to develop approaches to increase acceptance by involving citizens and society. Among other things, the project will investigate how concrete use cases of UAM are evaluated, what expectations and concerns citizens have with regard to UAM, and how potential concerns can be addressed at an early stage. The research is accompanied and supported by the showroom for Urban Air Mobility in downtown Ingolstadt. This serves as a central platform for information and exchange with citizens. At the same time, the showroom serves to generate and increase citizens' interest in the topic of UAM and to discuss and evaluate exemplary application scenarios. The project GABi emerged from the Urban Air Mobility Initiative of the city of Ingolstadt and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure. Recipient of the funding is the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, which cooperates in the project with the city of Ingolstadt and the digital start-up center brigk.

(funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure; funding code: 16AVF2145E; funding period 2018-2020)

The chair is currently involved in a joint project funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, which aims to research aspects of functional and traffic safety of automated and networked vehicles. In addition to the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and the Technical University of Ingolstadt, Audi AG, the city of Ingolstadt and various engineering service providers are involved in the project. The aim of the project is to develop a virtual model of the Ingolstadt region that will serve as a basis for the development of automated and networked driving in an urban environment, taking into account social issues. The overall project includes different research foci in five subprojects. The KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt is working together with the Technical University Ingolstadt (THI) on the subproject "Social Aspects". The goals of this subproject include the identification of drivers and obstacles to the social and individual acceptance of automated and networked driving as well as the evaluation of exemplary use cases in the context of interactive studies. In this way, approaches for the successful and beneficial introduction of automated vehicles will be derived. Overall, the subproject will ensure the integration of the citizen's perspective in the design of the region model as well as in recommendations for action derived from it.

 (financial support through the cooperation funding of the Bavarian Research and Innovation Agency (BayIntAn); funding period 02/2017-09/2017)

Against the background of the CETA and TTIP trade agreements and the intensified exchange of goods and services between Canada, the USA and the EU, companies in Germany as well as in North America should be prepared for customer reactions in case of complaints. Since goods from American, Canadian and German companies are sold to the same consumers, an intercultural understanding of complaint management practices, customer needs and expectations must be developed. In order to avoid cost-intensive complaint processes, reputation-damaging customer behavior or even class actions, it is advisable to review and optimize the complaint management of the countries and companies involved in the trade agreements in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. The objective of the joint project is therefore to examine success factors for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of companies' complaint management in a trinational comparative study. In laboratory and field studies, the customer experience and conflict behavior in Canada, the USA and Germany will be analyzed and it will be determined whether and which country-specific measures companies should take in order to influence the post-complaint behavior of customers in a cost-effective, targeted and successful way.

Cooperation partners: Prof. Thomas L. Baker (University of Alabama), Prof. Yany Grégoire (HEC Montréal)

(supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG); grant number: BI 1763/1-1; Förderzeitraum 2014 – 2019)

Due to service heterogeneity and customer participation in the service delivery process, service failures are inevitable. To resolve these failures and restore customers, service providers initiate service recovery actions that determine not only customer satisfaction but also loyalty and repurchase intentions. Achieving positive post-recovery evaluations requires service providers to recognise just which factors influence those evaluations. For example, the impact of perceived justice or emotions on post-recovery evaluations has been widely examined; the relevance of customers’ co-production in recovery instead has been generally neglected. This gap frankly is astonishing, in that customers often must co-produce their own service recovery by providing information or performing tasks in the process. The scope of their contributions seemingly should have a determinant effect on their post-recovery evaluations. Therefore, this project aims to scrutinise the influence of co-production in recovery on customers’ post-recovery evaluations (e.g., satisfaction, word of mouth), in situations in which the service recovery is initiated by either the customer (i.e., reactive) or the organization (i.e., proactive). Moreover, this project seeks to identify personal and situational moderators of the underlying relationship. To do so the project entails both qualitative and quantitative empirical studies. 

(funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research; funding code: 01FL12002; funding period 2012-2015)

Increasing productivity opens up economic potential for future-oriented innovations and thus the long-term maintenance of the competitiveness of companies. However, a corporate policy geared exclusively to maximizing productivity would prevent the ability to innovate and the necessary flexibility to do so. This means here that productivity management should only be carried out in harmony and in a balanced way with other goals of corporate strategy. This, however, requires that the productivity parameters must be prepared in such a way that they can be adequately integrated into the management system of the company management alongside other target-relevant control parameters. Based on the objectives of the joint project and the problem characteristics described above, the planned R&D work should be based on three main conceptual and methodological approaches:

1. Process based productivity analysis
2. Productivity management in line with strategy
    through BSC (Balanced Scorecard)
3. Control loop based productivity management

Main working areas of PROMIDIS:

1. System analysis "productivity of industrial services
2. Business survey
3. Instruments for shaping the productivity of industrial services
4. Control instruments for the productivity of industrial services
5. Operational case studies: pilot implementation of improvement tools   
    the productivity of industrial services
6. Evaluation of the case studies
7. Qualification program
8. Guide "Productivity management of industrial services"
9. Project management

(funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research; funding code: 01FC08039; funding period 2008-2011)

Low birth rates and rising life expectancy are leading to demographic change in the industrialized nations. In Germany, too, the number of senior citizens is rising continuously. In 2020, more than half of the population will be over 50 years old. Current and future senior citizens differ from previous generations of seniors. They are physically more agile, travel a lot, enjoy their leisure time and are more willing to consume than their predecessor generation. Moreover, this "young" generation of seniors seems to be more tolerant and open-minded towards new technologies.

Within the framework of the MIDIS cooperation network, the Chair of ABWL and Dienstleistungsmanagenet, in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Christina Sichtmann (University of Vienna), is working on a sub-project on the topic of "Research into service-relevant needs of senior citizens and the likely acceptance of microsystem-based service innovations". Microsystems technology is generally understood as the combination of microelectronics with different technologies, materials and functions to miniaturized system solutions. The subproject investigates the service-relevant needs and life situations of these "young" seniors. Based on the analysis, concepts for corresponding innovative services will be developed. Subsequently, a quantitative study will examine the willingness of seniors to use microsystem-based service innovations and also test the market success of these concepts.