Abstract:

The Internet of things increasingly gains importance, and the global pandemic forced lecturers all over the world to develop new strategies for knowledge sharing.

The aim of this research is two-folded:
(1) force knowledge-nuggets based teaching projects in our university and
(2) combine IT related topics with state of the art business topics.

Therefore, the following research question has been given to a group of master students to solve it on their own with support from supervisors and knowledge sharing done based on knowledge-nuggets: How can the Internet of Things Data (IoT) improve Customer Relationship Management (CRM)? The students are divided into six teams struggling with the whole methodology of expert interviews and interpretation and presentation of their results.

During the lectures and especially at the end presentations of the results, all supervisors were blown away by the high level of work done by all the teams of six student groups.

Results regarding part 1 of the aim:
The lecturers presented their knowledge in a knowledge-nuggets style, which is a combination of all needed multimedia supported knowledge inputs and can be done by the students on their pacing to keep the "stress" at a feasible level for each student. Students liked to work in this style, combined with some synchronous lectures in between to reflect and discuss the problem-solution process. Especially in these discussions, there was the benefit of different knowledge levels based on working with the knowledge-nuggets, a considerable advantage, because students who have already learned more can help others. So the students can learn a lot from each other and not only from the instructors. The results have been shown based on data evaluated by the individual feedback at the end of the course.

Results regarding part 2 of the aim:
The results demonstrate, on the one hand, that companies will be able to satisfy the customer's needs in a more precise way, on the other hand, it is possible to predict the customer's behavior by analyzing generated data. Focusing on a customer-centricity approach, new business models can be created. Consequently, the customer journey model has been assimilated and further developed. Also, the use of IoT technologies for marketing in the retail sector was confirmed. The retail industry can create a more comprehensive and improved ecosystem and enable bi-directional, real-time interactions with consumers inside and outside the store. Through the fact that most customers are permanently online via their smartphones, retailers have to consider this device as a touchpoint for all interactions. As a result, the location-based beacon technology is an option for retailers to interact with their customers directly when entering the store. Furthermore, due to the collection of IoT data, it is essential to implement a standardized CRM system. In this way, collected IoT data of the individual can be aggregated with already generated data from all other channels.

This research is limited by the number of feedbacks only by one lecture with 33 students to prove the positive impact of knowledge-nuggets. Still, it can be an identifier for implementation in additional courses and classes and evaluate again in the future.

Keywords:

Self-learning, research projects, knowledge-nuggets, IoT.