Task

During the semester you will be required to

research an organization in a specific industry, its challenges and how it addressed these by means of developing and/or introducing a digital innovation;
present defined interim results at defined dates (see timetable);
summarize your findings in a seminar paper (case research study);
receive and process feedback after each presentation;
listen to the presentations of your fellow students and give constructive feedback;
document your learning journey throughout the semester; and
reflect on and compare your case with the cases of at least two fellow students.

Paper

The seminar paper is composed of following elements (you can change order of chapters such as approach and solution if it supports to your story-line)

Case summary: A brief description of the case, the digital innovation and its impact on the organization and industry (i.e., abstract).
Introduction: the beginning of the case that grabs the reader and generates interest in reading further. It should stimulate interest or curiosity in the reader for what is to come by suggesting the main challenge that is addressed by the digital innovation.
Industry: here you characterize the industry and outline any information that is required or helpful for understanding the context of the innovation and the innovation process, e.g., relevant services or products, relevant frameworks like regulations, the primary factor that produces profit … portrait the industry in a way, that the problem statement can be comprehensively derived.
Company: provides a decent overview of the company (organization, respectively) including the most salient features about the business and challenges faced that are related to the innovation.
Problem: you outline and reflect the challenges which the digital innovation addresses (should address) and synthesize them into a concise problem statement.
Approach: covers how the organization has developed and implemented the digital innovation and, if data is available, what challenges needed to be tackled.
Solution: provides a rich description of the digital innovation, how it approaches the initially outlined problem statement and which effects it has generated on the organization (e.g., revenues) and the industry.
Discussion: you comment, provide analysis and identify theories, or connect concepts or learning that help explain the mechanisms and effects of the innovation.
Lessons learned: you should make at least one firm recommendation for practitioners dealing with innovation management in the industry and explain why you have made this recommendation.
Appendix: The appendices are mandatory but do NOT count towards the page limit:
- Appendix A — Methodology & sources: documents your primary data collection (e.g., interview protocol, survey instrument, observation notes)
- Appendix B — Process documentation: a learning diary that traces the evolution of your understanding — with references to lectures, interim presentations, feedback received, and other inputs that shaped the development of your case study
- Appendix C — Comparative reflection: documents your comparison with ≥2 peer cases, identifying contextual differences, commonalities, and transferable insights
- Appendix D — AI Declaration: documents your use of AI tools in preparing this paper

Industries

The case should focus on a digital innovation in one of the following industries

Healthcare
Manufacturing
Construction
Logistics/transportation
Retail
Professional services
Entertainment

Presentations

You will present your interim results repeatedly throughout the semester (optional)

Ideas (brief intro to two to three digital innovations)
GATE — assignment of the topics
Industry & company (characteristics & challenges)
Problem, approach and solution (development & implementation)
Discussion (theoretically grounded explanations and leassons learned)

For dates please see the schedule

Formal requirements

Seminar paper

Use the template offered here
The paper should be at least 8 pages long and must not exceed 12 pages
The case must be grounded in at least one primary data source (e.g., expert interview, survey, observation); the data collection must be documented in Appendix A
The appendices (A, B, C) are mandatory but do NOT count towards the page limit
An AI Declaration must be submitted separately
The paper must be uploaded as PDF (Moodle)

Presentations

Max. 3 minutes
Summary of the main points
At least one question you want to have feedback to
No formal requirements on the slides
Slides must be handed in as PDF (Moodle)

Evaluation criteria

Passing criteria

The following are threshold requirements. Deficiencies in these areas will result in a failing grade regardless of content quality.

The writing is clear, easy to read, and largely free of errors
All formal requirements are met (template, page limits, formatting)
Sources are properly cited and referenced
The learning journey is comprehensively documented
The case includes at least one documented primary data source

Grading criteria

The grade is determined by the following components and their respective weights. The passing criteria above must be met for the grading criteria to be applied.

Component	Weight	Key characteristics
Case study	50%	Compelling intro; industry well characterized; company and problem fully elaborated; DI, process and industry relations well outlined; theory-based discussion; actionable recommendations
Comparative reflection	20%	Meaningful comparison with ≥2 peer cases; contextual differences and commonalities identified; transferable insights derived
Process documentation	20%	Transparent evolution of understanding; reflection on feedback integration; key turning points identified
Data quality	10%	Primary data adds genuine depth beyond publicly available information; data collection is methodologically sound and well documented

Table 1: Grading criteria

An example for inspiration (not for copying)

Bonus points

You can earn bonus points.¹

The bonus points are assigned based on continuity and quality of your contributions to the exercises and discussions with our guest speakers.

The bonus points can improve your performance by up to two grade increments (up to .3).

A note on grades

It is unlikely that every student will receive a very good grade, i.e. deliver an outstanding performance - see the meaning of grades. Instead, it is to be expected that the grades will spread across the spectrum.

Grade	Meaning
`1` — very good	A truly outstanding achievement that (not only) shows no deficiencies in the criteria mentioned, but also gives both the supervisor and external assessors an excellent impression.
`2` — good	Work that exceeds the average requirements/performance and is easily recognizable and presentable to the outside world as a “good performance”.
Note	2.5 is the average of passed assessments, i.e., an “average performance”
`3` — satisfactory	A performance that achieves the desired goal “to a satisfactory extent”; however, deficiencies can be identified here and there.
`4` — sufficient	A performance that “still adequately satisfies” the requirements, but deviates from the expectations placed on it in several ways.
`5` — not sufficient	A performance that does not meet several of the criteria mentioned.

Literature

Footnotes

The bonus points are only taken into account when determining the module grade if it results in a better module grade and the original module grade is at least “4.0”. Participation in the bonus course is voluntary. For details, please see the general examination regulations of the HNU (APO).↩︎