Dilab

Studying the psychological motivations behind self-service analytics, the Self-Service Analytics team (SSA) has identified the unique psychological needs that drive SSA usage. These needs include autonomy, competence, relatedness, having a place, and self-realization. This SSA team also examined the relationship between these needs and popular SSA tools’ affordances to inform the development and adoption of SSA tools in the future.

Team members: Casiano Cabrera, Melarie Cardenas, and Lawson Hardrick III (he/him)

Redefining the limits of Open Innovation, Nan Su and Summer McGuckin conduct a systematic literature review on the downsides of openness. By examining the different models of open innovation from Open Source to Social Product Development, the team hopes to develop guidelines that businesses innovate more effectively.

Team members: Nan Su and Summer McGuckin

The Digital Entrepreneurs team strives to “profile” digital entrepreneurs based on their personality traits and the operational dimensions of digital entrepreneurship. By identifying the four key groups of digital entrepreneurs, visionaries, inventors, orchestrators, and networkers, the team offers an opportunity to understand, model, and predict their decision-making during value creation, value delivery, and value capture. Profiling digital entrepreneurs is an essential step toward improving entrepreneurial education and developing support systems for digital entrepreneurship.

Team members: Ivan Demetrio, Ortiz Sandoval, and Tehauaroga Tehiva

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced higher education institutions to rethink the current education system. The pandemic has revealed that greater value must be placed on the student’s self-regulated learning experiences rather than instructional practices. DiLab’s Digital Education team, led by Jeffrey Cardinez, is studying this shift using a connectivism-based approach and modeling the emerging education model as Education Value Networks. After comparing both the traditional and emerging models, the team plans to examine and document the benefits of investing in Education Value Networks in the future.

Team members: Jeffrey Cardinez and Michael Pesavento

Going above and beyond marketing, the CEM/CXM team, or Customer Experience Management team, focuses on customer equity’s direct and indirect effects by understanding how crucial customer information systems are in supporting customer experience management. The CEM team offers emerging models that capture the essence of customer equity. The proposed model consists of the hotel industry and its potential implications for the general service industry. 

Team Members: Jennifer Ly, Arsham Sanavi, and Marina Wright

Making medical errors, is the third leading cause of death in the United States, with 251,000 deaths annually. DiLab members, Guillermo Gonzalez and Brenda D are researching self-monitoring technologies to address this issue. As part of this project, they work with Dr. Salvador Gullo, the founder of Saftey4Me, to implement a smartphone-based Patient Safety Self-Monitoring program to prevent medical errors. By interviewing medical professionals, the team has identified different strategies to implement this program in the near future.

Team Members: Guillermo Gonzalez and Brenda D

Why is it that 84% of Digital Transformations are failing? Why do only half of all digital initiatives reach the values promised during their creation? Why do only 18% of companies rate their use of digital technology as “very effective”?  Why do businesses fail to scale digital innovations beyond early pilot work? 

At SDSU’s Digital Innovation Laboratory (DiLab), faculty, staff, and students work together to address these questions and many more like them. With help from about 30 SDSU undergraduate and graduate students, DiLab explores how digital technology can improve learning, support entrepreneurs, and transform businesses. Students are given the opportunity to engage in research on relevant fields, with a focus on knowledge generation and dissemination. Michael Pesavento, a graduate student at SDSU and DiLab contributor, called the experience “Rewarding. DiLab provides students practical experience at every level of research and scholarship.”

“We’re working on research projects related to information systems, technology design, and digital applications, with a focus on human-centered digital transformation. The technologies we study range from social software to extended reality,” said Kaveh Abhari, an SDSU management information systems professor and DiLab director. 

Abhari established the lab in March 2019 to provide students and faculty with a collaborative environment where they can exchange ideas and knowledge to support high-impact, interdisciplinary research projects that support and promote digital innovation. 

Studying How Humans Interact with Technology

Researchers at DiLab are most interested in how humans interact with technology in differing environments and contexts. Abhari elaborates, “We study how new technologies are designed, implemented, and adopted to create values in different contexts from personal to professional, from educational to entrepreneurial.” 

The group currently has a number of research projects in the works, including:

• Modeling human factors in digital transformation initiatives 
• Developing a framework for the next generation of virtual reality educational software programs 
• Assisting the U.S. Navy to develop programs to improve data literacy and the use of self-service analytics
• Creating a guide on how sharing economy platforms, such as Airbnb, can respond to service failures
• Examining the mixed-reality (XR) applications in architectural design
• Designing smart mentor bot for platforms supporting digital entrepreneurs
• Investigating how enterprise social network sites support innovation during the COVID-19 pandemic 
• Theorizing digital mindfulness to manage smartphone addiction and improve smartphone user productivity

Using Technology for the Right Reasons

“Human-centered, accessible, and inclusive technology design allows broader digital transformation that improves how we teach, learn, do business, and serve the community,” said Abhari. “Digital transformation starts with individuals—neither technology nor strategy. Digital media can play a significant role in paving the way for digital transformation by promoting digital literacy and digital mindfulness—how we use digital technology to make the right decision at the right time for the right cause.”