Curriculum Vitae:

Professional Experience

• Since September 2022: Research Assistant at the Chair of Information Systems and Software Engineering (Prof. Dr. Stefan Eicker) at the University of Duisburg-Essen
• May 2021 - August 2022: Research Aid at the Chair of Information Systems and Software Engineering (Prof. Dr. Stefan Eicker) at the University of Duisburg-Essen
• October 2018 - March 2022: Student Assistant Tutorial support of first-year students for the Mentoring at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen
• Januar 2018 - February 2021: Working Student at HSBC Germany

Education

• October 2019 - August 2022: Study of Business Information Systems (M. Sc.) at the University of Duisburg-Essen
  • Master Thesis: "Assuring Steel Quality with Artificial Intelligence - A Semantic Segmentation Approach"
• February 2021 - July 2021: Semester abroad at the Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon
• October 2016 - January 2020: Study of Business Information Systems (B. Sc.) at the University of Duisburg-Essen
  • Bachelor Thesis: "Enhancing Communication in Collaborative Multi-User Virtual Reality Environments"

Fields of Research:

• Generative AI, particularly the socio-technical implications for individuals and organizations
• Artificial intelligence, particulary machine learning and deep learning

Publications:

• Strunk, Jobin Alexander; Banh, Leonardo; Nissen, Anika; Strobel, Gero; Smolnik, Stefan: To Delegate or Not to Delegate? Factors Influencing Human-Agentic IS Interaction. In: AiS (Ed.): Proceedings of the 45th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Bangkok, Thailand 2024. CitationAbstractDetails

  The evolution of information systems (IS) in recent years, driven by advancements such as AI-based digital assistants and autonomous vehicles, has fundamentally changed human-IS interaction. This transformation extends beyond mere user interaction to encompass the emergence of agentic IS, challenging traditional notions of human supervision. It prompts a reevaluation of IS research, with a focus on IS delegation as a new theoretical lens. However, research remains nascent, particularly in understanding the factors influencing delegation decisions. We compiled 26 articles and derived six key delegation mechanisms and their influencing factors, using grounded theory and co-occurrence analysis. We investigate attributes of human and the agentic IS, as well as task attributes and the delegation level that are relevant to the delegation mechanisms. Our research provides a nuanced understanding of factors influencing delegation decisions to agentic IS. We call for research considering the yet underrepresented but crucial interdependencies with a research agenda.

• Wulfert, Tobias; Woroch, Robert; Strobel, Gero; Schoormann, Thorsten; Banh, Leonardo: E-commerce ecosystems as catalysts for sustainability: A multi-case analysis. In: Electronic Markets, Vol 34 (2024) No 58. doi:10.1007/s12525-024-00733-zCitationAbstractDetails

  Single organizations encounter intricate challenges in meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on their own and thus are increasingly concerned with forming ecosystems. This is also the case in the e-commerce domain. It is assumed that particularly focal actors of such ecosystems have the power to foster initiatives towards more sustainability. We conducted an embedded multi-case study with 135 initiatives collected from three types of e-commerce ecosystems to uncover what sustainability goals are addressed by different ecosystem participants. This paper’s analysis explores (1) what sustainability initiatives are reported from focal actors and differences depending on a specific type of ecosystem, (2) dependencies between SDGs within the initiatives, and (3) the degree of involvement of other ecosystem actors and how they contribute to certain SDGs. Our work synthesizes existing initiatives towards sustainable development to give orientation and impulses for practice and academia as well as outlines avenues for future research at the intersection of ecosystems and sustainability.

• Banh, Leonardo; Strobel, Gero: Tourism in the Era of Internet of Things: Design Principles for Smart Tourism. In: AIS (Ed.): Wirtschaftsinformatik 2024 Proceedings. Würzburg, Germany 2024. CitationAbstractDetails

  The tourism industry plays a crucial role in many countries and has suffered under the global events of the last years (e.g., COVID-19, economic recession) with a decline in visitors and economic contributions. Through digitalization efforts of cities and states, smart tourism destinations use emerging technologies like the Internet of Things and Smart Services to provide rich on-site experiences for visitors, hoping to increase their competitiveness and attract new tourists. By conducting a design science research project in collaboration with a German municipality, this paper aims to explore how digital assistants should be designed in the context of smart tourism. Based on expert interviews and a multi-case study of 37 tourism apps, we were able to develop twelve key design principles for smart tourism applications, evaluated through a prototypical instantiation, to create design knowledge for the digitalization of tourism.

• Strobel, Gero; Wulfert, Tobias; Banh, Leonardo: TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN: AN E-COMMERCE ECOSYSTEM AGENT-BASED SIMULATION. In: AIS (Ed.): Wirtschaftsinformatik 2024 Proceedings. Würzburg, Germany 2024. CitationAbstractDetails

  E-commerce is one of the most important sectors of the economy, with an expected global turnover of USD 7.4 trillion in 2024. Leading companies in the industry like Amazon and Alibaba leverage platform business models that orchestrate complex ecosystems of buyers and sellers. These ecosystems are characterized by globally intertwined networks of independent participants and multifaceted interactions, making their development hard to predict. We propose an agent-based simulation approach, following the three-step process of Haki et al. (2020), to predict the behavior of e-commerce ecosystems with a particular focus on the impact of premium subscription services. Simulation models offer the opportunity to tangibly visualize the effects of a participant's actions on the ecosystem level. Our simulation includes the key actors (i.e., buyer, seller, marketplace), their characteristics, and behaviors to draw conclusions about the evolution of the ecosystem and the strategic role of premium memberships in shaping these digital landscapes.

• Strobel, Gero; Banh, Leonardo: What Did the Doctor Say? Empowering Patient Comprehension with Generative AI. In: AIS (Ed.): ECIS 2024 Research Papers. Paphos, Cyprus 2024. Full textCitationAbstractDetails

  As global challenges, such as pandemics, population growth and widespread illnesses, continue to rise, healthcare systems are facing greater strain, resulting in a shortage of resources and increased demands for medical care. Effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients is essential for the provision of good services to prevent confusion and induced anxiety of patients, particularly when medical jargon is employed and not understood. Generative AI (GAI) presents a chance to transform healthcare communication by providing language processing capabilities that enhance patient-centered services. This paper examines how GAI-based conversational agents for explaining medical jargon in healthcare should be designed. We derived eleven design principles from a systematic literature review and evaluated them with nine clinical cardiological scenarios through a prototypical instantiation of an LLM-based conversational agent. The results provide insights for researchers and healthcare providers in form of prescriptive design knowledge to improve patient communication using GAI.

• Strobel, Gero; Banh, Leonardo; Möller, Frederik; Schoormann, Thorsten: Exploring Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Taxonomy and Types. In: Proceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Hawaii, USA 2024. Full textCitationAbstractDetails

  Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is a prevalent topic in recent research and business, seemingly taking the position of a disruptive technology that has the potential to significantly transform industries ranging from productivity (e.g., ChatGPT-4) to creativity (e.g., DALL-E). While the emerging scientific discussion on GAI covers a variety of fields and issues, such as privacy, accuracy, and application scenarios, this paper sheds light on the business side of GAI by investigating the morphologic nature of start-ups and incumbents leveraging GAI. Based on the structured analysis of 100 real-world instances, we report on a taxonomy of GAI applications and services that advances our practical understanding, strengthens the distinguishability, as well as adds clarity to the discourse of GAI potentials. We provide an initial framework and five types of GAI, namely Generator, Reimaginator, Synthesizer, Assistant, and Enabler, that are informed by the core characteristics of the technology paradigm.

• Banh, Leonardo; Strobel, Gero: Generative artificial intelligence. In: Electronic Markets, Vol 33 (2023) No 63. doi:10.1007/s12525-023-00680-1CitationAbstractDetails

  Recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled new paradigms of machine processing, shifting from data-driven, discriminative AI tasks toward sophisticated, creative tasks through generative AI. Leveraging deep generative models, generative AI is capable of producing novel and realistic content across a broad spectrum (e.g., texts, images, or programming code) for various domains based on basic user prompts. In this article, we offer a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of generative AI with its underpinning concepts and prospects. We provide a conceptual introduction to relevant terms and techniques, outline the inherent properties that constitute generative AI, and elaborate on the potentials and challenges. We underline the necessity for researchers and practitioners to comprehend the distinctive characteristics of generative artificial intelligence in order to harness its potential while mitigating its risks and to contribute to a principal understanding.

• Strobel, Gero; Schoormann, Thorsten; Banh, Leonardo; Möller, Frederik: Artificial Intelligence for Sign Language Translation – A Design Science Research Study. In: Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Vol 53 (2023) No 3. doi:10.17705/1CAIS.05303Full textCitationAbstractDetails

  Although our digitalized society is able to foster social inclusion and integration, there are still numerous communities having unequal opportunities. This is also the case with deaf people. About 750,000 deaf people only in the European Union and over 4 million people in the United States face daily challenges in terms of communication and participation, such as in leisure activities but more importantly in emergencies too. To provide equal environments and allow people with hearing handicaps to communicate in their native language, this paper presents an AI-based sign language translator. We adopted a transformer neural network capable of analyzing over 500 data points from a person’s gestures and face to translate sign language into text. We have designed a machine learning pipeline that enables the translator to evolve, build new datasets, and train sign language recognition models. As proof of concept, we instantiated a sign language interpreter for an emergency call with over 200 phrases. The overall goal is to support people with hearing inabilities by enabling them to participate in economic, social, political, and cultural life.

• Muschkiet, Michel; Wulfert, Tobias; Woroch, Robert; Strobel, Gero; Banh, Leonardo: Unleashing the digital building bricks - A smart service taxonomy for retail. In: Electronic Markets, Vol 2023 (2023) No 33. doi:10.1007/s12525-023-00666-zFull textCitationAbstractDetails

  The increasing online competition, associated changes in customer behaviors, and effects of the pandemic in recent years have led to increasing retail store closures. This development has given rise to a downward spiral in terms of a decreasing attractiveness of local shopping places and a further reduction of stores. Research has recognized that smart services can unleash the potential to compensate for the competitive disadvantages of physical retailers by combining tailored physical and digital offerings to enhance customer-oriented value creation. However, most approaches are limited to in-store services without addressing the wider shopping experience in retail surroundings. Therefore, this paper provides a classification framework for smart services in retail evaluated against 163 use cases, as well as six service archetypes. This work contributes to understanding relevant service design elements and proposes applying the idea of a holistic customer experience to service design in physical retail environments.

• Banh, Leonardo; Strobel, Gero: The Sound of Progress: Investigating the Representation of Artificial Intelligence in Music. In: AiS (Ed.): Wirtschaftsinformatik 2023 Proceedings. Paderborn, Germany 2023. Full textCitationAbstractDetails

  The role of artificial intelligence in daily life is constantly advancing and has become an important topic of discussion. With music and its lyrics being a vehicle to express topics of society, this paper investigates how artificial intelligence is perceived by musicians and reflected in their songs. By analyzing the lyrics of over 1,200 songs over three decades, this work applies sentiment analysis to extract polarities and emotions. The results provide insights into how musicians view and reflect the impact of artificial intelligence on society and how this is reflected in their song texts. The findings show an increase in songs mentioning artificial intelligence-related terms, with a trend of more songs implying negativity, such as anger. However, minor increases in positive emotions indicate musicians' ambivalent views on hopes and fear of artificial intelligence.

• Wulfert, Tobias; Woroch, Robert; Strobel, Gero; Schoormann, Thorsten; Banh, Leonardo: Unboxing the Role of E-Commerce Ecosystems to Address Grand Challenges. In: AIS (Ed.): ECIS 2023 Research Papers. Kristiansand, Norway 2023. Full textCitationAbstractDetails

  The modern world is confronted with grand challenges, such as those codified by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. As single organizations are often not capable of addressing a broad set of goals on their own, they are increasingly concerned with creating ecosystems. This is also the case in the domain of e-commerce. Owners of focal platforms in e-commerce ecosystems have the power to implement sustainability initiatives and therefore need to be equipped with an overview of possible initiatives and actionable guidance. To unbox how e-commerce ecosystem participants consider sustainability, we conducted a multi-case study with 99 initiatives collected from sustainability reports. We found that (1) sustainability initiatives particularly focus on reducing inequality and managing climate change as well as (2) manufacturers, sellers, and service providers are the most involved ecosystem participants. Based on our findings, we (3) synthesized six categories of sustainability initiatives as measurements.

Talks:

• Banh, Leonardo: TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN: AN E-COMMERCE ECOSYSTEM AGENT-BASED SIMULATION, 19. Internationale Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik, 18.09.2024, Würzburg, Germany. AbstractDetails

  E-commerce is one of the most important sectors of the economy, with an expected global turnover of USD 7.4 trillion in 2024. Leading companies in the industry like Amazon and Alibaba leverage platform business models that orchestrate complex ecosystems of buyers and sellers. These ecosystems are characterized by globally intertwined networks of independent participants and multifaceted interactions, making their development hard to predict. We propose an agent-based simulation approach, following the three-step process of Haki et al. (2020), to predict the behavior of e-commerce ecosystems with a particular focus on the impact of premium subscription services. Simulation models offer the opportunity to tangibly visualize the effects of a participant's actions on the ecosystem level. Our simulation includes the key actors (i.e., buyer, seller, marketplace), their characteristics, and behaviors to draw conclusions about the evolution of the ecosystem and the strategic role of premium memberships in shaping these digital landscapes.

• Banh, Leonardo: Tourism in the Era of Internet of Things: Design Principles for Smart Tourism, 19. Internationale Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik, 17.09.2024, Würzburg, Germany. AbstractDetails

  The tourism industry plays a crucial role in many countries and has suffered under the global events of the last years (e.g., COVID-19, economic recession) with a decline in visitors and economic contributions. Through digitalization efforts of cities and states, smart tourism destinations use emerging technologies like the Internet of Things and Smart Services to provide rich on-site experiences for visitors, hoping to increase their competitiveness and attract new tourists. By conducting a design science research project in collaboration with a German municipality, this paper aims to explore how digital assistants should be designed in the context of smart tourism. Based on expert interviews and a multi-case study of 37 tourism apps, we were able to develop twelve key design principles for smart tourism applications, evaluated through a prototypical instantiation, to create design knowledge for the digitalization of tourism.

• Banh, Leonardo: The Sound of Progress: Investigating the Representation of Artificial Intelligence in Music, 18. Internationale Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik, 19.09.2023, Paderborn, Germany. AbstractDetails

  The role of artificial intelligence in daily life is constantly advancing and has become an important topic of discussion. With music and its lyrics being a vehicle to express topics of society, this paper investigates how artificial intelligence is perceived by musicians and reflected in their songs. By analyzing the lyrics of over 1,200 songs over three decades, this work applies sentiment analysis to extract polarities and emotions. The results provide insights into how musicians view and reflect the impact of artificial intelligence on society and how this is reflected in their song texts. The findings show an increase in songs mentioning artificial intelligence-related terms, with a trend of more songs implying negativity, such as anger. However, minor increases in positive emotions indicate musicians' ambivalent views on hopes and fear of artificial intelligence.

Courses:

• Supervision of study projects (since WS 22/23)
• WISEM coordination (since SS 24)

Tutored Theses:

• Leveraging Generative AI to Empower Self-Learning in Higher Education: A Design Science Research Study (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, in progress)
• Generative AI meets HR: Die Rolle von Vertrauen und Akzeptanz beim Einsatz in Bewerbungsprozessen (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, in progress)
• Embracing Change: Scenarios, Attitudes, and Key Factors for Generative AI Integration in Human Resource Processes (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Advancing Behavioural Research in the Era of Generative AI: Employing Large Language Models-based Generative Agents to Simulate Human Behaviour (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Optimizing Learning Processes through Generative AI: An Affordance Theory Perspective (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Trust in Human-AI Collaboration: Analysis of Influencing Factors for AI Assistants in Tax Law (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Generative AI in digital communication: analysis of the risks, challenges and impact on companies and social media (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Harnessing Large Language Models in Conversational Recommender Systems: Towards a Conceptual Framework (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Strategies and challenges for employee sensitisation when implementing generative AI in HR (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Strategies and challenges for employee sensitisation when implementing generative AI in HR (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Generative AI in Business Process Management: Implications for the Transformation of Business Processes (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Machine Learning-Supported Process Automation of Transportation Management Systems - A Design Science Research Study (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• An Affordance Perspective on Generative AI in Enterprise Architecture (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Data-driven energy security: A qualitative study on predicting the volatility of renewable energies (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Automated ESG Assessment of Companies based on Sentiment Analysis of News Articles (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, 2024)
• Developing Design Principles for an AI-based Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Tool - A Design Science Research Study (Master Thesis Business Information Systems, 2023)
• Transformation Recruiting: Exploration of the Use of Generative AI in the Field of Recruitment (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems, 2023)
• Evaluating Possible Applications of Natural Language Generation in Online Marketing (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems, 2023)

Memberships:

• Alumni of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics at the University of Duisburg-Essen

Academic Duties:

• Deputy Member of the Board of the Institute of Computer Science and Information Systems (ICB) of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics (October 2022 - October 2023)
• (Advisory) member of the Appointment Committee for Business Administration for the succession of Prof. Dr. Nienhüser (November 2020 - September 2022)
• Member of the habilitation committee for Dr. Heiko Hoßfeld (January 2022 - September 2022)

Other Duties:

• Reviewer for the 18th Internationale Tagung der Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI) 2023
• Reviewer for the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) 2024 (2x)
• Reviewer for the 32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) 2024 (2x)
• Reviewer for the 19. Internationale Tagung der Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI) 2024 (3x)
• Reviewer for the 45th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) 2024 (2x)