case study related to technology

Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2021

Two cases about Hertz claimed top spots in 2021's Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies

Two cases on the uses of debt and equity at Hertz claimed top spots in the CRDT’s (Case Research and Development Team) 2021 top 40 review of cases.

Hertz (A) took the top spot. The case details the financial structure of the rental car company through the end of 2019. Hertz (B), which ranked third in CRDT’s list, describes the company’s struggles during the early part of the COVID pandemic and its eventual need to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

The success of the Hertz cases was unprecedented for the top 40 list. Usually, cases take a number of years to gain popularity, but the Hertz cases claimed top spots in their first year of release. Hertz (A) also became the first ‘cooked’ case to top the annual review, as all of the other winners had been web-based ‘raw’ cases.

Besides introducing students to the complicated financing required to maintain an enormous fleet of cars, the Hertz cases also expanded the diversity of case protagonists. Kathyrn Marinello was the CEO of Hertz during this period and the CFO, Jamere Jackson is black.

Sandwiched between the two Hertz cases, Coffee 2016, a perennial best seller, finished second. “Glory, Glory, Man United!” a case about an English football team’s IPO made a surprise move to number four.  Cases on search fund boards, the future of malls,  Norway’s Sovereign Wealth fund, Prodigy Finance, the Mayo Clinic, and Cadbury rounded out the top ten.

Other year-end data for 2021 showed:

• Online “raw” case usage remained steady as compared to 2020 with over 35K users from 170 countries and all 50 U.S. states interacting with 196 cases.
• Fifty four percent of raw case users came from outside the U.S..
• The Yale School of Management (SOM) case study directory pages received over 160K page views from 177 countries with approximately a third originating in India followed by the U.S. and the Philippines.
• Twenty-six of the cases in the list are raw cases.
• A third of the cases feature a woman protagonist.
• Orders for Yale SOM case studies increased by almost 50% compared to 2020.
• The top 40 cases were supervised by 19 different Yale SOM faculty members, several supervising multiple cases.

CRDT compiled the Top 40 list by combining data from its case store, Google Analytics, and other measures of interest and adoption.

All of this year’s Top 40 cases are available for purchase from the Yale Management Media store .

And the Top 40 cases studies of 2021 are:

1.   Hertz Global Holdings (A): Uses of Debt and Equity

2.   Coffee 2016

3.   Hertz Global Holdings (B): Uses of Debt and Equity 2020

4.   Glory, Glory Man United!

5.   Search Fund Company Boards: How CEOs Can Build Boards to Help Them Thrive

6.   The Future of Malls: Was Decline Inevitable?

7.   Strategy for Norway's Pension Fund Global

8.   Prodigy Finance

9.   Design at Mayo

10. Cadbury

11. City Hospital Emergency Room

13. Volkswagen

14. Marina Bay Sands

15. Shake Shack IPO

16. Mastercard

17. Netflix

18. Ant Financial

19. AXA: Creating the New CR Metrics

20. IBM Corporate Service Corps

21. Business Leadership in South Africa's 1994 Reforms

22. Alternative Meat Industry

23. Children's Premier

24. Khalil Tawil and Umi (A)

25. Palm Oil 2016

26. Teach For All: Designing a Global Network

27. What's Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

28. Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

30. Project Sammaan

31. Commonfund ESG

32. Polaroid

33. Connecticut Green Bank 2018: After the Raid

34. FieldFresh Foods

35. The Alibaba Group

36. 360 State Street: Real Options

37. Herman Miller

38. AgBiome

39. Nathan Cummings Foundation

40. Toyota 2010

How six companies are using technology and data to transform themselves

The next normal: The recovery will be digital

A study referenced in the popular magazine Psychology Today concluded that it takes an average of 66 days for a behavior to become automatic. If that’s true, that’s good news for business leaders who have spent the past five months running their companies in ways they never could have imagined. The COVID-19 pandemic is a full-stop on business as usual and a launching pad for organizations to become virtual, digital-centric, and agile—and to do it all at lightning-fast speed.

Now, as leaders look ahead to the next year and beyond, they’re asking: How do we keep this momentum going? How do we take the best of what we’ve learned and put into practice throughout the pandemic, and make sure it’s woven into everything we do going forward? “Business leaders are saying that they’ve accomplished in 10 days what used to take them 10 months,” says Kate Smaje, a senior partner and global co-leader of McKinsey Digital . “That kind of speed is what’s unleashing a wave of innovation unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

“The crisis has forced every company into a massive experiment in how to be more nimble, flexible, and fast.” Kate Smaje, senior partner, McKinsey & Company

That realization is coming not a moment too soon. Even before the global health crisis hit, 92 percent of company leaders surveyed by McKinsey thought that their business model would not remain viable at the rates of digitization at that time. The pandemic just put that whole scenario on steroids. The companies that are leading the way out of this crisis, the ones that will grab market share and set the tone and tempo for others, are the ones first out of the gate. “The fundamental reality is that the accelerating speed of digital means that we are increasingly living in a winner-take-all world,” Smaje says. “But simply going faster isn’t the answer. Rather, winning companies are investing in the tech, data, processes, and people to enable speed through better decisions and faster course corrections based on what they learn.”

Large incumbents who are winning the digital transformation battle get lots of things right. But McKinsey research has highlighted a few elements that really stand out:

• Digital speed. Leading companies just operate faster, from reviewing strategies to allocating resources. For example, they reallocate talent and capital four times more quickly than their peers.
• Ready to reinvent. While businesses need to maintain the profitable elements of their business, business as usual is a dangerous posture. Leading businesses are investing as much in upgrading the core of their business as they are in innovation, often by harnessing technology.
• All in. These companies aren’t just making decisions faster; the decisions themselves are bolder. Two of the most important areas where this kind of commitment shines through are major acquisitions (leaders spend three times more than their peers) and capital bets (leaders spend two times what their peers do).
• Data-driven decisions. “The road to recovery is paved with data,” Smaje says. Data is providing the fuel to power better and faster decisions. High-performing organizations are three times more likely than others to say their data and analytics initiatives have contributed at least 20 percent to EBIT (from 2016–19).
• Customer followers. Being “customer centric” is well established. But competing pressures and priorities mean that the customer can often be sidelined. Top companies that sustain a comprehensive focus on the customer (in addition to operational and IT improvements) can generate economic gains ranging from 20 to 50 percent of the cost base.

The companies you’re going to meet here are adopting and deploying these digital strategies and approaches at warp speed. Aside from moving thousands of employees from the office, call center, and factory floor to home overnight, they’re using these technologies to rejigger supply chains, stand up entirely new e-commerce channels, and leverage AI and predictive analytics to unearth smarter and more sustainable ways to operate.

I have clients saying that they’ve accomplished in 10 days what used to take them 10 months. Kate Smaje, senior partner, McKinsey & Company

Speed of digital

Most people don’t think of real estate as a particularly tech-savvy sector, but RXR Realty is proving that assumption wrong. Even before the pandemic hit, the New York City–based commercial and residential real estate developer began investing in the digital capabilities that would set it apart from competitors. “Historically, real estate has been a very transactional business,” explains Scott Rechler, CEO of RXR. “We felt that by leveraging our digital skills, we could create a unique and personalized experience for our customers similar to what they’re used to in other aspects of their lives.”

Prior to the global health crisis, RXR had established a digital lab . The company now has more than 100 data scientists, designers, and engineers across the organization working on digital initiatives. The investment in those capabilities—an app that enables move scheduling, deliveries, dog walking, and rent payments on the residential side, and real-time analytics on heating, cooling, and floor space optimization for tenants on the commercial side—allowed RXR to pivot quickly once the pandemic hit. Suddenly, physical distancing and the need for contactless interactions became paramount for RXR’s tenants.

Today, this team is working around the clock to put in place the health and safety protocols that allow tenants to feel safe as they return to the office. Its platform—RxWell—includes a new mobile app that provides information about air quality and occupancy levels of a building, cleaning status, food delivery options, and shift times for worker arrivals. Employees have their temperatures taken via thermal scanners when they enter a building, and heat maps are available online that show how full a restroom or conference room is at any given time. “The investments we made in our digital capabilities before the pandemic are why we’re able to give people peace of mind now as they begin to return to work,” Rechler says.

Reinventing yourself

The exponential growth in digitization coupled with consumer dissatisfaction with traditional brick-and-mortar banking has been driving the launch of fintechs with amazing speed over the past decade. That fact wasn’t lost on investment banking giant Goldman Sachs, which launched Marcus by Goldman Sachs in 2016. Marcus, the firm’s digital consumer business is, as global head Harit Talwar likes to describe it, “a 150-year-old startup that allows people to take control of their financial lives from their phone.” Over the past four years, this digital-first business has grown deposits to $92 billion and $7 billion in lending balances through a combination of organic growth, acquisitions, and partnerships with the likes of Apple and Amazon. Marcus has millions of customers in the United States and United Kingdom.

A digital-first philosophy, Talwar says, means that decisions on new products and services happen quickly. For instance, when the pandemic hit, Marcus realized that some of its customers were going to need assistance. The team decided to allow folks to defer payments on loans and credit cards for several months, without accruing interest. “The real news is not that we did this, but that we took just 72 hours from the time we realized customers needed help to when we rolled it out,” Talwar says. “We were able to do this because of our agile digital technology model.”

For Indonesian mining company Petrosea, the stakes involved in digital transformation were nothing less than survival. Industry changes, increased regulatory requirements, and society’s pushback on mining’s environmental footprint had culminated in what President Director Hanifa Indradjaya calls “an existential threat” for the company. “We’re not the biggest player in the industry, so that left us quite vulnerable,” he says. “If we were to survive, the status quo was not an option.”

In 2018, the company embarked on a three-pronged approach that addressed diversification away from coal, digitization, and decarbonization of its operations. At its Tabang project site, located in a remote area of East Kalimantan, Indonesia, the company employed a suite of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI) , smart sensors, and machine learning. The sensors enable predictive maintenance of its fleets of trucks, allowing the company to use fewer trucks and address breakdowns before they happen.

To move away from coal and toward copper, nickel, gold, and lithium—the minerals that are required as electrification of developing countries continues—the company is developing a suite of AI-enabled digital technologies to find these metals faster and more efficiently. Addressing its considerable reskilling needs—the majority of Tabang’s workers have no more than a high school education—resulted in the development of a mobile app with popular gamification elements, ensuring that employees would stay engaged and complete their training. The upshot: within six months, Tabang became one of the company’s most profitable operations by reducing costs and increasing production. “Technology enabled us to innovate our business model and remain relevant,” Indradjaya says. “A digital mindset now percolates through every aspect of the company.”

Data-driven decisions

Freeport-McMoRan is combining the power of AI and the institutional knowledge  of its veteran engineers and metallurgists to take its operations to another level. Harry “Red” Conger, chief operating officer of the Phoenix-based company, says real-time data is allowing Freeport to lower operating costs, stand more resilient in tough economic climates (and when commodity prices are falling) and make faster decisions. “A learn-fast culture means we put things into action,” he says. “We don’t sit around thinking about it.”

Case in point: in 2018, Freeport was looking to add capacity at one of its more efficient copper mines—the sprawling complex in Bagdad, Arizona. A $200 million expansion plan, it figured, would enable the company to extract more copper from the site. But a few months later, copper prices dropped—and so, too, was the expensive expansion plan.

Quickly, the company figured out another way. Rather than a huge capital outlay, Freeport began building out an AI model that would allow it to wring more productivity out of the Bagdad site. Decades of mining data—what Conger calls “recipes”—had always dictated the mining process, including how machines and other equipment were run. Data scientists were now being brought in to challenge those long-standing processes.

“Our engineers thought that it was blasphemy that data scientists, who don’t know anything about metallurgy, were proposing that they knew how to run the plant better than they did,” Conger says. But what the AI data showed was that some of the historical recipes were limiting what Freeport was getting out of the Bagdad plant. “The AI model was telling us how much faster the equipment could be run and its maximum capacity,” he adds. By analyzing every aspect of the mining process, the AI models were showing what was possible.

The engineers and metallurgists worked hand in hand with the data scientists. Over the next few months, they began to trust more of the AI recommendations on how to optimize the Bagdad plant. Today, the mine’s processing rate is 10 percent higher than it’s ever been, Conger says, and this same agile AI model is being used at eight of the company’s other mines, including one in Peru that has five times the capacity of Bagdad. Says Conger: “I have people tell me this is the only way they want to work.”

A follow-the-customer mindset

One of the biggest transformations that’s occurred throughout the pandemic is how customers shop. Store closings pushed millions of consumers online, many for the first time. Adapting to this shift quickly and seamlessly became the order of the day for so many retailers the world over. Among them: Levi Strauss and Majid Al Futtaim Retail.

As a company that’s been around for more than 100 years, Levi Strauss knows how to pace itself. But the pandemic threw into overdrive initiatives that were planned out for later this year and beyond. Chief Financial Officer Harmit Singh says the San Francisco–based apparel company was ready. Investments in digital technologies, including AI and predictive analytics, before the pandemic hit allowed Levi’s to react quickly and decisively as consumers switched to e-commerce channels in droves.

To meet demand, the company began fulfilling online orders not just with merchandise in fulfillment centers but from its stores. Prior to the health crisis, Singh says it would have taken weeks or months to work out the logistics of such a move, but as the pandemic rolled across the country, Levi’s was able to accomplish the shift in a matter of days. It quickly launched curbside pickup at about 80 percent of its roughly 200 US-based stores. And while it launched its mobile app before the appearance of COVID-19, the company has leveraged it in creative ways to connect with consumers during the pandemic. “It was important for us to enhance our engagement and stay connected with customers who were at home,” he says.

Even before the global health crisis hit, 92 percent of company leaders surveyed by McKinsey thought that their business model would not remain viable at the rates of digitization at that time.

Last year, Levi’s began making investments in AI and data in order to get a better handle on when and how to run promotions. A campaign that ran in May throughout Europe was launched using information gleaned from an AI model and wound up driving sales that were five times higher than in 2019. “AI gives us the ability to quickly transform data and facts into action,” Singh says. “We’re using this intelligence alongside our own consumer expertise and judgment to drive better results.”

Majid Al Futtaim, the Dubai-based conglomerate that operates the Carrefour grocery chain in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, was building its digital muscle long before COVID-19. It decided back in 2015 that it needed to be as prominent online as it is in its 315 brick-and-mortar stores across 16 countries, says Hani Weiss, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Retail. The company was making progress, but Weiss says there was little urgency to move any faster.

Then the pandemic hit. Online grocery orders for the company exploded, and they are now 400 percent higher than what they were in 2019. “The pandemic pushed us to accelerate our digital transformation,” Weiss says. “We are implementing in the coming 18 months things we originally said we wanted to achieve in five years.”

To accommodate increased online shopping demand, the company quickly converted some physical stores to fulfillment centers. When data showed that more capacity was needed, logistics managers quickly arranged to have a 54,000-square-foot online fulfillment center tent erected and operational in five weeks. Complete with rooms for frozen and chilled food, the facility stocks more than 8,000 items and is now handling 3,000 online orders a day, making it the latest and largest of 75 fulfillment centers launched this year.

Weiss says the company expanded delivery services through initiatives such as Click and Collect, redesigned its app to make it easier for customers to use, and launched contactless payment options such as Mobile Scan and Go in its stores, which allow customers to scan items on, and pay with, their smartphones. It also launched an online marketplace with 420,000 new products from other retailers whose stores were closed during the lockdown, enabling them to continue to sell their products online.

“No matter how our customers want to shop, we can be there for them,” Weiss says. “We developed this agility through the pandemic, and I want to keep it as we go forward.”

The road ahead will certainly have challenges, these leaders acknowledge. But there’s also a tremendous amount of hope because of the doors that a digital-first strategy can open. “The companies that are winning aren’t making incremental improvements,” Smaje says. “They’re harnessing technology to reimagine how business runs and committing resources at sufficient scale to make sure the change sticks.”

Go behind the scenes and get more insights with “ Kate Smaje: Why businesses must act faster than ever on digitization ” from our New at McKinsey blog.

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Case study on adoption of new technology for innovation: Perspective of institutional and corporate entrepreneurship

Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

ISSN : 2398-7812

Article publication date: 7 August 2017

This paper aims at investigating the role of institutional entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship to cope with firm’ impasses by adoption of the new technology ahead of other firms. Also, this paper elucidates the importance of own specific institutional and corporate entrepreneurship created from firm’s norm.

Design/methodology/approach

The utilized research frame is as follows: first, perspective of studies on institutional and corporate entrepreneurship are performed using prior literature and preliminary references; second, analytical research frame was proposed; finally, phase-based cases are conducted so as to identify research objective.

Kumho Tire was the first tire manufacturer in the world to exploit the utilization of radio-frequency identification for passenger carâ’s tire. Kumho Tire takes great satisfaction in lots of failures to develop the cutting edge technology using advanced information and communication technology cultivated by heterogeneous institution and corporate entrepreneurship.

Originality/value

The firm concentrated its resources into building the organization’s communication process and enhancing the quality of its human resources from the early stages of their birth so as to create distinguishable corporate entrepreneurship.

• Corporate entrepreneurship
• Institutional entrepreneurship

Han, J. and Park, C.-m. (2017), "Case study on adoption of new technology for innovation: Perspective of institutional and corporate entrepreneurship", Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship , Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 144-158. https://doi.org/10.1108/APJIE-08-2017-031

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Junghee Han and Chang-min Park.

Published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial & non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

Without the entrepreneur, invention and new knowledge possibly have lain dormant in the memory of persons or in the pages of literature. There is a Korean saying, “Even if the beads are too much, they become treasure after sewn”. This implies importance of entrepreneurship. In general, innovativeness and risk-taking are associated with entrepreneurial activity and, more importantly, are considered to be important attributes that impact the implementation of new knowledge pursuing.

Implementation of cutting edge technology ahead of other firms is an important mechanism for firms to achieve competitive advantage ( Capon et al. , 1990 ; D’Aveni, 1994 ). Certainly, new product innovation continues to play a vital role in competitive business environment and is considered to be a key driver of firm performance, especially as a significant form of corporate entrepreneurship ( Srivastava and Lee, 2005 ). Corporate entrepreneurship is critical success factor for a firm’s survival, profitability and growth ( Phan et al. , 2009 ).

The first-mover has identified innovativeness and risk-taking as important attributes of first movers. Lumpkin and Dess (1996) argued that proactiveness is a key entrepreneurial characteristic related to new technology adoption and product. This study aims to investigate the importance of corporate and institutional entrepreneurship through analyzing the K Tire’s first adaptation of Radio-frequency identification (RFID) among the world tire manufactures. Also, this paper can contribute to start ups’ readiness for cultivating of corporate and institutional entrepreneurship from initial stage to grow and survive.

K Tire is the Korean company that, for the first time in the world, applied RFID to manufacturing passenger vehicle tires in 2013. Through such efforts, the company has built an innovation model that utilizes ICTs. The adoption of the technology distinguishes K Tire from other competitors, which usually rely on bar codes. None of the global tire manufacturers have applied the RFID technology to passenger vehicle tires. K Tire’s decision to apply RFID to passenger vehicle tires for the first time in the global tire industry, despite the uncertainties associated with the adoption of innovative technologies, is being lauded as a successful case of innovation. In the global tire market, K Tire belongs to the second tier, rather than the leader group consisting of manufacturers with large market shares. Then, what led K Tire to apply RFID technology to the innovation of its manufacturing process? A company that adopts innovative technologies ahead of others, even if the company is a latecomer, demonstrates its distinguishing characteristics in terms of innovation. As such, this study was motivated by the following questions. With regard to the factors that facilitate innovation, first, what kind of the corporate and institutional situations that make a company more pursue innovation? Second, what are the technological situations? Third, how do the environmental situations affect innovation? A case study offers the benefit of a closer insight into the entrepreneurship frame of a specific company. This study has its frame work rooted in corporate entrepreneurship ( Guth and Ginsberg, 1990 ; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000 ) and institutional entrepreneurship ( Battilana, 2006 ; Fligstein, 1997 ; Rojas, 2010 ). As mentioned, we utilized qualitative research method ( Yin, 2008 ). This paper is structured as follows. Section two presents the literature review, and section three present the methodology and a research case. Four and five presents discussion and conclusions and implications, respectively.

2. Theoretical review and analysis model

RFID technology is to be considered as not high technology; however, it is an entirely cutting edged skills when combined with automotive tire manufacturing. To examine why and how the firm behaves like the first movers, taking incomparable high risks to achieve aims unlike others, we review three kinds of prior literature. As firms move from stage to stage, they have to revamp innovative capabilities to survive and ceaseless stimulate growth.

2.1 Nature of corporate entrepreneurship

Before reviewing the corporate entrepreneurship, it is needed to understand what entrepreneurship is. To more understand the role that entrepreneurship plays in modern economy, one need refer to insights given by Schumpeter (1942) or Kirzner (1997) . Schumpeter suggests that entrepreneurship is an engine of economic growth by utilization of new technologies. He also insists potential for serving to discipline firms in their struggle to survive gale of creative destruction. While Schumper argued principle of entrepreneurship, Kirzner explains the importance of opportunities. The disruptions generated by creative destruction are exploited by individuals who are alert enough to exploit the opportunities that arise ( Kirzner, 1997 ; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000 ).

Commonly all these perspectives on entrepreneurship is an appreciation that the emergence of novelty is not an easy or predictable process. Based on literature review, we note that entrepreneurship is heterogeneous interests and seek “something new” associated with novel outcomes. Considering the literature review, we can observe that entrepreneurship is the belief in individual autonomy and discretion, and a mindset that locates agency in individuals for creating new activities ( Meyer et al. ,1994 ; Jepperson and Meyer, 2001 ).

the firm’s commitment to innovation (including creation and introduction of products, emphasis on R&D investments and commitment to patenting);

the firm’s venturing activities, such as entry into new business fields by sponsoring new ventures and creating new businesses; and

strategic renewal efforts aimed at revitalizing the firm’s ability to compete.

developing innovation an organizational tool;

allowing the employees to propose ideas; and

encouraging and nurturing the new knowledge ( Hisrich, 1986 ; Kuratko, 2007 ).

Consistent with the above stream of research, our paper focuses on a firm’s new adaptation of RFID as a significant form of corporate entrepreneurial activity. Thus, CE refers to the activities a firm undertakes to stimulate innovation and encourage calculated risk taking throughout its operations. Considering prior literature reviews, we propose that corporate entrepreneurship is the process by which individuals inside the organization pursuing opportunities without regards to the resources they control.

If a firm has corporate entrepreneurship, innovation (i.e. transformation of the existing firm, the birth of new business organization and innovation) happens. In sum, corporate entrepreneurship plays a role to pursue to be a first mover from a latecomer by encompassing the three phenomena.

2.2 Institution and institutional entrepreneurship

Most literature regarding entrepreneurship deals with the attribute of individual behavior. More recently, scholars have attended to the wider ecosystem that serves to reinforce risk-taking behavior. Institution and institutional entrepreneurship is one way to look at ecosystem that how individuals and groups attempt to try to become entrepreneurial activities and innovation.

Each organization has original norm and intangible rules. According to the suggestion by Scott (1995) , institutions constrain behavior as a result of processes associated with institutional pillars. The question how actors within the organizations become motivated and enabled to transform the taken-for-granted structures has attracted substantial attention for institutionalist. To understand why some firms are more likely to seek innovation activities despite numerous difficulties and obstacles, we should take look at the institutional entrepreneurship.

the regulative, which induces worker’s action through coercion and formal sanction;

the normative, which induces worker’s action through norms of acceptability and ethics; and

the cognitive, which induces worker’s action through categories and frames by which actors know and interpret their world.

North (1990) defines institutions as the humanly devised constraints that structure human action. Actors within some organization with sufficient resources have intend to look at them an opportunity to realize interests that they value highly ( DiMaggio, 1988 ).

It opened institutional arguments to ideas from the co-evolving entrepreneurship literature ( Aldrich and Fiol, 1994 ; Aldrich and Martinez, 2001 ). The core argument of the institutional entrepreneurship is mechanisms enabling force to motivate for actors to act difficult task based on norm, culture and shared value. The innovation, adopting RFID, a technology not verified in terms of its effectiveness for tires, can be influenced by the institution of the society.

A firm is the organizations. An organization is situated within an institution that has social and economic norms. Opportunity is important for entrepreneurship. The concept of institutional entrepreneurship refer to the activities of worker or actor who have new opportunity to realize interest that they values highly ( DiMaggio, 1988 ). DiMaggio (1988) argues that opportunity for institutional entrepreneurship will be “seen” and “exploited” by within workers and not others depending on their resources and interests respectively.

Despite that ambiguity for success was given, opportunity and motivation for entrepreneurs to act strategically, shape emerging institutional arrangements or standards to their interests ( Fligstein and Mara-Drita, 1996 ; Garud et al. , 2002 ; Hargadon and Douglas, 2001 ; Maguire et al. , 2004 ).

Resource related to opportunity within institutional entrepreneurship include formal or informal authority and power ( Battilana, 2006 ; Rojas, 2010 ). Maguire et al. (2004) suggest legitimacy as an important ingredient related to opportunity for institutional entrepreneurship. Some scholars suggest opportunity resources for institutional entrepreneurship as various aspects. For instance, Marquire and Hardy (2009) show that knowledge and expertise is more crucial resources. Social capital, including market leadership and social network, is importance resource related to opportunity ( Garud et al. , 2002 ; Lawrence et al. , 2005 ; Townley, 2002 ). From a sociological perspective, change associated with entrepreneurship implies deviations from some norm ( Garud and Karnøe, 2003 ).

Institutional entrepreneurship is therefore a concept that reintroduces agency, interests and power into institutional analyses of organizations. Based on the previous discussion, this study defines institution as three processes of network activity; coercion and formal sanction, normative and cognitive, to acquire the external knowledge from adopting common goals and rules inside an organization. It would be an interesting approach to look into a specific company to see whether it is proactive towards adopting ICTs (e.g. RFID) and innovation on the basis of such theoretical background.

2.3. Theoretical analysis frame

Companies innovate themselves in response to the challenges of the ever-changing markets and technologies, so as to ensure their survival and growth ( Tushman and Anderson, 1986 ; Tidd and Bessant, 2009 ; Teece, 2014 ). As illustrated above, to achieve the purpose of this study, the researcher provides the following frames of analyses based on the theoretical background discussed above ( Figure 1 ).

3. Case study

3.1 methodology.

It is a highly complicated and tough task to analyze the long process of innovation at a company. In this paper, we used analytical approach rather than the problem-oriented method because the case is examined to find and understand what has happened and why. It is not necessary to identify problems or suggest solutions. Namely, this paper analyzes that “why K Tire becomes a first mover from a late comer through first adoption of RFID technology for automotive tire manufacture with regards to process and production innovations”.

To study the organizational characteristics such as corporate entrepreneurship, institutional entrepreneurship, innovation process of companies, the qualitative case study is the suitable method. This is because a case study is a useful method when verifying or expanding well-known theories or challenging a specific theory ( Yin, 2008 ). This study seeks to state the frame of analysis established, based on previously established theories through a single case. K Tire was selected as the sample because it is the first global tire manufacturer, first mover to achieve innovation by developing and applying RFID.

The data for the case study were collected as follows. First, this study was conducted from April 2015 to the end of December 2015. Additional expanded data also were collected from September 12 to November 22, 2016, to pursue the goal of this paper. Coauthor worked for K Tire for more than 30 year, and currently serves as the CEO of an affiliate company. As such, we had the most hands-on knowledge and directed data in the process of adoption RFID. This makes this case study a form of participant observation ( Yin, 2008 ). To secure data on institutional entrepreneurship, in-depth interviews were conducted with the vice president of K Tire. The required data were secured using e-mail, and the researchers accepted the interviewees’ demand to keep certain sensitive matters confidential. The interviewees agreed to record the interview sessions. In this way, a 20-min interview data were secured for each interviewee. In addition, apart from the internal data of the subject company, other objective data were obtained by investigating various literatures published through the press.

3.2 Company overview

In September 1960, K Tire was established in South Korea as the name of Samyang Tire. In that time, the domestic automobile industry in Korea was at a primitive stage, as were auto motive parts industries like the tire industry. K Tire products 20 tires a day, depending on manual labor because of our backward technology and shortage of facilities.

The growth of K Tire was astonishment. Despite the 1974 oil shock and difficulties in procuring raw materials, K Tire managed to achieve remarkable growth. In 1976, K Tire became the leader in the tire sector and was listed on the Korea Stock Exchange. Songjung plant II was added in 1977. Receiving the grand prize of the Korea Quality Control Award in 1979, K Tire sharpened its corporate image with the public. The turmoil of political instability and feverish democratization in the 1980s worsened the business environment. K Tire also underwent labor-management struggles but succeeded in straightening out one issue after another. In the meantime, the company chalked up a total output of 50 million tires, broke ground for its Koksung plant and completed its proving ground in preparation for a new takeoff.

In the 1990s, K Tire expanded its research capability and founded technical research centers in the USA and the United Kingdom to establish a global R&D network. It also concentrated its capabilities in securing the foundation as a global brand, by building world-class R&D capabilities and production systems. Even in the 2000s, the company maintained its growth as a global company through continued R&D efforts by securing its production and quality capabilities, supplying tires for new models to Mercedes, Benz, Volkswagen and other global auto manufacturers.

3.3 Implementation of radio-frequency identification technology

RFID is radio-frequency identification technology to recognize stored information by using a magnetic carrier wave. RFID tags can be either passive, active or battery-assisted passive (BAP). An active tag has an on-board battery and periodically transmits its ID signal. A BAP has a small battery on board and is activated when in the presence of an RFID reader. A passive tag is cheaper and smaller because it has no battery; instead, the tag uses the radio energy transmitted by the reader. However, to operate a passive tag, it must be illuminated with a power level roughly a thousand times stronger than for signal transmission. That makes a difference in interference and in exposure to radiation.

an integrated circuit for storing and processing information, modulating and demodulating a radio frequency signal, collecting DC power from the incident reader signal, and other specialized functions; and

an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal.

capable of recognizing information without contact;

capable of recognizing information regardless of the direction;

capable of reading and saving a large amount of data;

requires less time to recognize information;

can be designed or manufactured in accordance with the system or environmental requirements;

capable of recognizing data unaffected by contamination or the environment;

not easily damaged and cheaper to maintain, compared with the bar code system; and

tags are reusable.

3.3.1 Phase 1. Background of exploitation of radio-frequency identification (2005-2010).

Despite rapid growth of K Tire since 1960, K Tire ranked at the 13th place in the global market (around 2 per cent of the global market share) as of 2012. To enlarge global market share is desperate homework. K Tire was indispensable to develop the discriminated technologies. When bar code system commonly used by the competitors, and the industry leaders, K Tire had a decision for adoption of RFID technology instead of bar code system for tires as a first mover strategy instead of a late comer with regard to manufacture tires for personal vehicle. In fact, K Tire met two kinds of hardship. Among the top 20, the second-tier companies with market shares of 1-2 per cent are immersed in fiercer competitions to advance their ranks. The fierceness of the competition is reflected in the fact that of the companies ranked between the 11th and 20th place, only two maintained their rank from 2013.

With the demand for stricter product quality control and manufacture history tracking expanding among the auto manufacturers, tire manufacturers have come to face the need to change their way of production and logistics management. Furthermore, a tire manufacturer cannot survive if it does not properly respond to the ever stricter and exacting demand for safe passenger vehicle tires of higher quality from customers and auto manufacturers. As mentioned above, K Tire became one of the top 10 companies in the global markets, recording fast growth until the early 2000. During this period, K Tire drew the attention of the global markets with a series of new technologies and innovative technologies through active R&D efforts. Of those new products, innovative products – such as ultra-high-performance tires – led the global markets and spurred the company’s growth. However, into the 2010s, the propriety of the UHP tire technology was gradually lost, and the effect of the innovation grew weaker as the global leading companies stepped forward to take the reign in the markets. Subsequently, K Tire suffered from difficulties across its businesses, owing to the failure to develop follow-up innovative products or market-leading products, as well as the aggressive activities by the company’s hardline labor union. Such difficulties pushed K Tire down to the 13th position in 2014, which sparked the dire need to bring about innovative changes within the company.

3.3.2 Phase 2. Ceaseless endeavor and its failure (2011-2012).

It needs to be lightweight : An RFID tag attached inside a vehicle may adversely affect the weight balance of the tires. A heavier tag has greater adverse impact on the tire performance. Therefore, a tag needs to be as light as possible.

It needs to be durable : Passenger vehicle tires are exposed to extensive bending and stretching, as well as high levels of momentum, which may damage a tag, particularly causing damage to or even loss of the antenna section.

It needs to maintain adhesiveness : Tags are attached on the inner surface, which increase the possibility of the tags falling off from the surface while the vehicle is in motion.

It needs to be resistant to high temperature and high pressure : While going through the tire manufacture process, a tag is exposed to a high temperature of around 200°C and high pressure of around 30 bars. Therefore, a tag should maintain its physical integrity and function at such high pressure and temperature.

It needs to be less costly : A passenger vehicle tire is smaller, and therefore cheaper than truck/bus tires. As a result, an RFID tag places are greater burden on the production cost.

Uncountable tag prototypes, were applied to around 200 test tires in South Korea for actual driving tests. Around 150 prototypes were sent to extremely hot regions overseas for actual driving tests. However, the driving tests revealed damage to the antenna sections of the tags embedded in tires, as the tires reached the end of their wear life. Also, there was separation of the embedded tags from the rubber layers. This confirmed the risk of tire separation, resulting in the failure of the tag development attempt.

3.3.3 Phase 3. Success of adoption RFID (2013-2014).

Despite the numerous difficulties and failures in the course of development, the company ultimately emerged successful, owing to its institutional entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship the government’s support. Owing to the government-led support project, K Tire resumed its RFID development efforts in 2011. This time, the company discarded the idea of the embedded-type tag, which was attempted during the first development. Instead, the company turned to attached-type tag. The initial stages were marked with numerous failures: the size of a tag was large at 20 × 70 mm, which had adverse impact on the rotation balance of the tires, and the attached area was too large, causing the attached sections to fall off as the tire stretched and bent. That was when all personnel from the technical, manufacturing, and logistics department participated in creating ideas to resolve the tag size and adhesiveness issues. Through cooperation across the different departments and repeated tests, K Tire successfully developed its RFID tag by coming up with new methods to minimize the tag size to its current size (9 × 45 mm), maintain adhesiveness and lower the tag price. Finally, K Tire was success the adoption RFID.

3.3.4 Phase 4. Establishment of the manufacture, logistics and marketing tracking system.

Whenever subtle and problematic innovation difficulties arise, every worker and board member moves forward through networking and knowledge sharing within intra and external.

While a bar code is only capable of storing the information on the nationality, manufacturer and category of a product, an RFID tag is capable of storing a far wider scope of information: nationality, manufacturer, category, manufacturing date, machines used, lot number, size, color, quantity, date and place of delivery and recipient. In addition, while the data stored in a bar code cannot be revised or expanded once the code is generated, an RFID tag allows for revisions, additions and removal of data. As for the recognition capability, a bar code recognizes 95per cent of the data at the maximum temperature of 70°C. An RFID tag, on the other hand, recognizes 99.9 per cent of the data at 120°C.

The manufacture and transportation information during the semi-finished product process before the shaping process is stored in the RFID tags, which is attached to the delivery equipment to be provided to the MLMTS;

Logistics Products released from the manufacture process are stored in the warehouses, to be released and transported again to logistics centers inside and outside of South Korea. The RFID tags record the warehousing information, as the products are stored into the warehouses, as well as the release information as the products are released. The information is instantly delivered to the MLMTS;

As a marketing, the RFID tags record the warehousing information of the products supplied and received by sales branches from the logistics centers, as well as the sales information of the products sold to consumers. The information is instantly delivered to the MLMTS; and

As a role of integrative Server, MLM Integrative Server manages the overall information transmitted from the infrastructures for each section (production information, inventory status and release information, product position and inventory information, consumer sales information, etc.).

The MLMTS provides the company with various systemic functions to integrate and manage such information: foolproof against manufacture process errors, manufacture history and quality tracking for each individual product, warehousing/releasing and inventory status control for each process, product position control between processes, real-time warehouse monitoring, release control and history information tracking across products of different sizes, as well as link/control of sales and customer information. To consumers, the system provides convenience services by providing production and quality information of the products, provision of the product history through full tracking in the case of a claim, as well as a tire pressure monitoring system:

“South korea’s K Tire Co. Inc. has begun applying radio-frequency identification (RFID) system tags on: half-finished” tire since June 16. We are now using an IoT based production and distribution integrated management system to apply RFID system on our “half-finished products” the tire maker said, claiming this is a world-first in the industry. The technology will enable K Tire to manage products more efficiently than its competitors, according to the company. RFID allows access to information about a product’s location, storage and release history, as well as its inventory management (London, 22, 2015 Tire Business).

4. Discussions

Originally, aims of RFID adoption for passenger car “half-finished product” is to chase the front runners, Hankook Tire in Korea including global leading companies like Bridgestone, Michaelin and Goodyear. In particular, Hankook Tire, established in 1941 has dominated domestic passenger tire market by using the first mover’s advantage. As a late comer, K Tire needs distinguishable innovation strategy which is RFID adoption for passenger car’s tire, “half-finished product” to overcome shortage of number of distribution channels. Adoption of RFID technology for passenger car’s tire has been known as infeasible methodologies according to explanation by Changmin Park, vice-CTO (chief technology officer) until K Tire’s success.

We lensed success factors as three perspectives; institutional entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship and innovation. First, as a corporate entrepreneurship perspective, adopting innovative technologies having uncertainties accompanies by a certain risk of failure. Corporate entrepreneurship refers to firm’s effort that inculcate and promote innovation and risk taking throughout its operations ( Burgelman, 1983 ; Guth and Ginsberg, 1990 ). K Tire’s success was made possible by overcome the uncountable difficulties based on shared value and norms (e.g. Fligstein and Mara-Drita, 1996 ; Garud et al. , 2002 ; Hargadon and Douglas, 2001 ; Maguire et al. , 2004 ).

An unsuccessful attempt at developing innovative technologies causes direct loss, as well as loss of the opportunity costs. This is why many companies try to avoid risks by adopting or following the leading companies’ technologies or the dominant technologies. Stimulating corporate entrepreneurship requires firms to acquire and use new knowledge to exploit emerging opportunities. This knowledge could be obtained by joining alliances, selectively hiring key personnel, changing the composition or decision-making processes of a company’s board of directors or investing in R&D activities. When the firm uses multiple sources of knowledge ( Branzei and Vertinsky, 2006 ; Thornhill, 2006 ), some of these sources may complement one another, while others may substitute each other ( Zahra and George, 2002 ). Boards also provide managers with appropriate incentives that better align their interests with those of the firm. Given the findings, K Tire seeks new knowledge from external organizations through its discriminative corporate entrepreneurship.

When adopting the RFID system for its passenger vehicle tires, K Tire also had to develop new RFID tags suitable for the specific type of tire. The company’s capabilities were limited by the surrounding conditions, which prevented the application of existing tire RFID tag technologies, such as certain issues with the tire manufacturing process, the characteristic of its tires and the price of RFID tags per tire. Taking risks and confronting challenges are made from board member’s accountability. From the findings, we find that entrepreneurship leadership can be encouraged in case of within the accountability frame work.

Despite its status as a second-tier company, K Tire attempted to adopt the RFID system to its passenger vehicle tires, a feat not achieved even by the leading companies. Thus, the company ultimately built and settled the system through numerous trials and errors. Such success was made possible by the entrepreneurship of K Tire’s management, who took the risk of failure inherent in adopting innovative technologies and confronting challenges head on.

Second, institutional entrepreneurship not only involves the “capacity to imagine alternative possibilities”, it also requires the ability “to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment” if existing institutions are to be transformed ( Emirbayer and Mische, 1998 ). New technologies, the technical infrastructure, network activities to acquire the new knowledge, learning capabilities, creating a new organization such as Pioneer Lab and new rules to create new technologies are the features. To qualify as institutional entrepreneurs, individuals must break with existing rules and practices associated with the dominant institutional logic(s) and institutionalize the alternative rules, practices or logics they are championing ( Garud and Karnøe, 2003 ; Battilana, 2006 ). K Tire established new organization, “Special lab” to obtain the know technology and information as CEO’s direct sub-committees. Institutional entrepreneurship arise when actors, through their filed position, recognize the opportunity circumstance so called “norms” ( Battilana et al. , 2009 ). To make up the deficit of technologies for RFID, knowledge stream among workers is more needed. Destruction of hierarch ranking system is proxy of the institutional entrepreneurship. Also, K Tire has peculiar norms. Namely, if one requires the further study such as degree course or non-degree course education services, grant systems operated via short screen process. Third, as innovation perspectives, before adopting the RFID system, the majority of K Tire’s researchers insisted that the company use the bar code technology, which had been widely used by the competitors. Such decision was predicated on the prediction that RFID technology would see wider use in the future, as well as the expected effect coming from taking the leading position, with regard to the technology.

Finally, K Tire’s adoption of the RFID technology cannot be understood without government support. The South Korean government has been implementing the “Verification and Dissemination Project for New u-IT Technologies” since 2008. Owing to policy support, K Tire can provide worker with educational service including oversea universities.

5. Conclusions and implications

To cope with various technological impasses, K Tire demonstrated the importance of institutional and corporate entrepreneurship. What a firm pursues more positive act for innovation is a research question.

Unlike firms, K Tire has strongly emphasized IT technology since establishment in 1960. To be promotion, every worker should get certification of IT sectors after recruiting. This has become the firm’s norm. This norm was spontaneously embedded for firm’s culture. K Tire has sought new ICT technology become a first mover. This norm can galvanize to take risk to catch up the first movers in view of institutional entrepreneurship.

That can be cultivated both by corporate entrepreneurship, referred to the activities a firm undertakes to stimulate innovation and encourage calculated risk taking throughout its operations within accountabilities and institutional entrepreneurship, referred to create its own peculiar norm. Contribution of our paper shows both importance of board members of directors in cultivating corporate entrepreneurship and importance of norm and rules in inducing institutional entrepreneurship.

In conclusion, many of them were skeptical about adopting RFID for its passenger vehicle tires at a time when even the global market and technology leaders were not risking such innovation, citing reasons such as risk of failure and development costs. However, enthusiasm and entrepreneurship across the organization towards technical innovation was achieved through the experience of developing leading technologies, as well as the resolve of the company’s management and its institutional entrepreneurship, which resulted in the company’s decision to adopt the RFID technology for small tires, a technology with unverified effects that had not been widely used in the markets. Introduction of new organization which “Special lab” is compelling example of institutional entrepreneurship. Also, to pursue RFID technology, board members unanimously agree to make new organization in the middle of failing and unpredictable success. This decision was possible since K Tire’s cultivated norm which was to boost ICT technologies. In addition, at that time, board of director’s behavior can be explained by corporate entrepreneurship.

From the findings, this paper also suggests importance of firms’ visions or culture from startup stage because they can become a peculiar norm and become firm’s institutional entrepreneurship. In much contemporary research, professionals and experts are identified as key institutional entrepreneurs, who rely on their legitimated claim to authoritative knowledge or particular issue domains. This case study shows that authoritative knowledge by using their peculiar norm, and culture as well as corporate entrepreneurship.

This paper has some limitations. Despite the fact that paper shows various fruitful findings, this study is not free from that our findings are limited to a single exploratory case study. Overcoming such limitation requires securing more samples, including the group of companies that attempt unprecedented innovations across various industries. In this paper, we can’t release all findings through in-depth interview and face-to-face meetings because of promise for preventing the secret tissues.

Nevertheless, the contribution of this study lies in that it shows the importance of corporate entrepreneurship and institutional entrepreneurship for firm’s innovative capabilities to grow ceaselessly.

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Acknowledgements

 This work was supported by 2017 Hongik University Research Fund.

Corresponding author

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The study of science has played a pivotal role in the development of the human species. Scientific inquiry has advanced all facets of understanding of both human and biophysical systems, including medicine, astrophysics, war, and ecology. Science focuses on empirical studies to gain knowledge ( Morrison et al., 2008 ). The concept of truth in the positivist philosophy of science is often seen as one without the taint of the subjective, which seeks truth through objectivity and logical empiricisms ( Lincoln and Guba, 1985 ; Morrison et al., 2008 ). Though the positivist paradigm is still present in the scientific community, others have adopted research paradigms more suited to their field of study, including the postpositivist philosophy of science ( Lincoln and Guba, 1985 ). This paradigm attempts to rectify the problems of the positivist paradigm by recognizing an absence of a single, shared reality. Therefore, the scientific method has gone through many incarnations (i.e., inductive, deductive, and retroductive reasoning) to the now widely accepted hypothetico-deductive method, the scientific approach developed by Karl Popper (1902–1994) which includes hypothesis development, usually through the process of retroduction, and hypothesis testing to determine if it can be falsified ( Morrison et al., 2008 ). With an ever more rigorous approach to conducting research, scientific findings are more difficult to dispute by those outside a specific area of knowledge and are therefore given higher value in decision-making processes. This tendency toward trust of expert knowledge by outsiders does not, however, eliminate political debate or general speculation of scientific findings ( Cox, 2006 ), using climate change and COVID-19 as two unfortunate examples.

Science as a multifaceted institution consisting of various fields and approaches is not monolithic, but is sometimes treated as such (e.g., not recognizing disciplinary boundaries or the presence of different research paradigms). Furthermore, it is spoken in tandem with other disciplines such as technology, engineering, and math, hence the common usage of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) to describe fields of similar thought and structure. While a generalized public might have vague conceptualizations of science, the scientific process and the various fields included, studies have shown that levels of scientific knowledge on a variety of topics differ ( Takahashi and Tandoc, 2016 ). Interdisciplinary fields such as science and technology studies as well as science and environmental communication face the problem of translating the ever evolving research and states of knowledge to diverse audiences, some of which might question scientific findings because of value systems, politics or worldviews ( Cann and Raymond, 2018 ). Science, including climate change science, calls for action upon what is a problem with anthropogenic causes. This science is the harbinger of change through policy and personal action, carrying the baggage of chances and gains as well as risks and threats on local and global level ( Dunlap and McCright, 2011 ; Cann and Raymond, 2018 ). Hence, such scientific findings are called into question.

While science communicators struggle to break down the intricacies of scientific thought and research for the public, some sectors of society feel “left out” by science communication and not a part of scientific discussions ( Dawson, 2019 ; Humm et al., 2020 ). As Humm et al. (2020) state, “Science communication only reaches certain segments of society. Various underserved audiences are detached from it and feel left out, which is a challenge for democratic societies that build on informed participation in deliberative processes” (p. 164). Attempts to rectify this include increased efforts in research dissemination, outreach, and public participation. Organizations such as the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the ninth European Research and Innovation Framework ( Horizon Europe Strategic Plan, 2021 ), and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research have attempted to bolster actions around science communication in the hopes of greater social impact (U.S. National Science Foundation, (n.d.); Wissenschaftsbaromenter, 2020 ; Handlungsperspektiven, 2021 ).

In an attempt to meet these challenges head on, university curriculums are putting forth classes that are designed to teach and give practice to students communicating about science, technology, and environments ( Rose et al., 2020 ). Traditionally, researchers and students in science-based disciplines focus on writing according to scientific requirements and styles ( Martinez-Conde, 2016 ). Writing for the public is not part of most science education programs ( Brownell et al., 2013 ) and understandable so, regarding academic career-paths that are highly specialized, competitive, and based on peer-appreciation, not publicity. However, communicating effectively with and conveying scientific findings to the public is obviously a major challenge for political systems based on deliberation, participation, and democratic processes. Communication about climate change, risk assessment for new technologies such as artificial intelligence, and COVID-19 (e.g., Honora et al., 2022 ) are examples for this challenge. Thus, efforts have been made worldwide and in a broad variety of formats to train science students to engage with non-scientific audiences and communicate more actively and effectively ( Mercer-Mapstone and Kuchel, 2015 ; Baram-Tsabari and Lewenstein, 2017 ). But despite these efforts, a recent experimental assessment of science communication formats indicates that even well-developed and proliferated trainings do not match expectations, suggesting that “trainees need more repetition putting what they have learned cognitively into practice” and “require more opportunities to apply their conceptual knowledge to a greater diversity of communication tasks” ( Rubega et al., 2020 , 25).

Rubega et al. (2020) suggestions as well as Kappel and Holmen's screening and evaluation of science communication aims ( Kappel and Holmen, 2019 ) indicate that one-time trainings and the provision of tool boxes do not suffice to make public communication of science and technology part of researcher's routine. The overarching goal of the international editorial board as classroom-format was to allow students to experience the challenges and opportunities of writing for laypersons and to encourage them to perceive it not as additional demand, but as integral part of their professional and academic work. In detail, objectives regarding students' development of communication competencies included: (1) introducing undergraduate students to standard processes of science writing and journalism including a possibility for “real” publication; (2) forming interdisciplinary (technical writing and environmental science) and intercultural (US-based and Germany-based) teams in times of restricted mobility; (3) gathering experiences in communicating to intercultural audiences and motivating students to continue their efforts in publicly accessible science communication beyond the course. In addition (4), we included objectives toward organizational and curriculum development.

Case Study Description

Program description.

The “techtalkers”-editorial department as an international classroom-format was part of the pilot phase of the “UAS7 Virtual Academy”, whose objective is to bring together students from the seven leading German Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS7) and from the State University of New York, USA, in joint teaching experiences. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual teaching was used to collaborate, teach, and provide students with an international learning experience. The overall goal of the Virtual Academy was to lay the foundations for future digital collaboration formats. Modules within the Academy covered a broad range from six academic disciplines, including Business Administration, Agricultural Sciences and Landscape Architecture, and Computer Sciences.

All courses were facilitated by a shared Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Design Framework and instructor coaching sessions. Courses were integrated in existing programs and curricula of the participating universities. Thus, organizational and administrative hurdles were significantly reduced. Students received credits and grades from their home universities. Entry barriers were reduced, as they enrolled themselves using familiar systems.

Teaching Technology

We took advantage of an existing blog ( techtalkers.hm.edu ) that uses Wordpress as a Content Management System (CMS). The blog was established as both a framework for professional training for students of science writing and technical communication and as a medium for publication for young scientists and science authors at HM.

Zoom was used for the editorial meetings and Miro-board for creative sessions. As both universities are using different platforms for class activities and collaboration (ESF: Blackboard; HM: Moodle), Google-tools were chosen to collaborate. This decision was based on the self-organization efforts and individual consent of the participating students. These platforms do not fulfill legal and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements and hence are supplementary. All relevant class materials were also available on the official platforms. GDPR obligations—such as information about procedures and conditions associated with publication and a declaration of what students wanted to happen with their login and data entered into the CMS in English and German—have been satisfied.

Student Demographics

Participating students were either from or currently living in the United States or Germany. The experience included 41 students from ESF (from two mandatory undergraduate level classes) and 7 HM students in a mixed elective undergraduate/graduate class. ESF students were mainly from the Department of Environmental Studies, a department that focuses on environmental issues and their societal impacts, including communication. The HM students have a background in technical communication, a program with a very broad spectrum of subjects from Data Sciences, Engineering to Photography, Video Production, and Journalistic Writing.

US-based students outnumbered Germany-based participants. Therefore, only three publishing teams were composed as balanced international teams ( Table 1 ). Two publishing teams and the managing team consisted only of US-based students. The managing team was supported by a Germany-based undergraduate assistant for the CMS, for web-administration and search engine optimization (SEO). Thus, only publishing teams 1 and 2 worked and functioned as truly intercultural groups. Two teams displayed a pronounced minority. The single Germany-based student in publishing team 3 was at the same level as the US-based students regarding experience and study phase, whilst the German student assistant in the managing team had previous experience working with the platform and a solid background in web-administration and SEO. Hence, publishing team 4 and 5 might be seen as control-groups compared to the other teams.

Table 1 . Team structure and composition.

Interaction Model

In this experimental setup, US- and Germany-based students worked together in synchronous sessions twice a week and additionally in self-organized asynchronous teams over 5 weeks. This intensive course structure reflects the limited overlap of teaching periods at ESF and HM due to the different academic calendar systems (trimester vs. semester).

Each of the five publishing teams consisted of two editors, two illustrators, and four authors. The sixth team took responsibility for process management, workflow, technical support, and assisted the authors in SEO ( Table 1 ). All teams engaged in shared class activities, including the initial discussions about possible topics, the development of the publication plan, introduction to the usage of the CMS, or trouble-shooting interventions. Each synchronous session started with an editorial meeting for all. The main objective of these meetings was to introduce students to the procedures and structures of a collaborative working editorial department. In-between, students worked in their teams, supported by the instructors, who joined the teams and provided feedback to texts and illustrations.

To reach the objectives of this study, three colleagues from Munich University of Applied Sciences (HM) and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) co-taught an online, international experience on science, technology, and environmental journalism with students from Germany and the United States. Students from ESF and HM formed an editorial department for a blog on science, technology, and environmental topics ( techtalkers.hm.edu ). This experience took place in spring 2021, during the height of the pandemic. The editorial department introduced in this case study set out to engage students in the Environmental Studies program at ESF and students specialized in stakeholder-oriented communication at HM in science and technology communication for diverse, but mainly non-academic audiences. During this 5-week experience, students wrote, illustrated, and edited texts for the blog Tech Talkers.

The texts and illustrations produced during this collaboration and the instructor's observations during the collaboration, create the data material for this study. A qualitative analysis of the 40 drafted articles (8 per team) and 14 finally published blog posts (text + artwork) were conducted through close reading of the texts by the instructors/authors of this study. Instructors met after each synchronous session and reflected students' interaction in class, in breakout-rooms, and the outcomes of self-regulated team work. The sum of these qualitative observations was discussed with the entire research team to come to common conclusions.

The authors also engaged in observation of the themes, issues and questions occurring during the 5-week collaboration. These observations were also discussed as a research team, and common conclusions were made.

Observations

General observations.

The collaboration let students creatively cover issues that they were passionate about. The international teamwork, with an illustrator and a writer working as a team, shone light on the different perception one could have on issues. The writers worked to explain what they had in mind for the article and what illustrations would go well with it. The illustrators were investigating options for visually representing what the writer had in mind. The editors, acting as conductors orchestrating teamwork, kept an eye on deadlines and work ready for publication. The open call for contributions resulted in opinion pieces, scientific texts, and critical articles.

We observed that writing for an international audience required students to think about what is common knowledge “here” and what people elsewhere might not understand. For US students, this meant avoiding commonly used abbreviations without explaining them, avoiding slang, and backtracking to explain the significance of issues covered. Germany-based students, being in the minority, had to overcome their inhibitions to talk and discuss in English and their insecurities to assess team members and cultural subtleties. For example, one German writer stated: “First of all, I am shy and do feel uncertain speaking English. This often stops me from talking. Additionally, I had problems to size-up my team colleagues. A lot of trends come from the US. So, I was afraid to come up with ideas that the others might already have known for a long time and that may even be already obsolete.” Related to that, we observed surprisingly that the US-based students had more of a precautionary risk perception, whereas Germany-based students were more enthusiastic. All in all, these experiences led students to gain a more nuanced perspective on things.

Cross Pollination in the Choice of Topics

The coming together of students from different universities, cultures, and backgrounds provided a fertile soil where diverse perspectives cross pollinated each other and influenced the thought process as well as the end product. During the topic brainstorming session, students in the German class chose topics—like electromobility, crypto currencies, and Formula 1—that were rather technical in nature, whereas students from the US wanted to focus on topics—ocean deoxygenation and hypoxia, community land planning, and light pollution—that had a stronger environmental and social justice perspective. Given that the students worked in mixed teams, some foci changed in nature. One example for this was a Germany-based student who wanted to write about crypto currency from a technical perspective: which graphic cards are best suited for crypto mining, are they affordable, is it possible to mine successfully with a private PC? Through team discussions this morphed into an article about the heavy energy use that crypto currency mining requires. This experience, we think, clearly widened the students' horizons.

Critics vs. Enthusiasts

Students also influenced and sometimes completely changed the focus of an article through their collaboration. One such example was a student who was interested in writing about Formula 1. A true sports enthusiast, the student focused strongly on the decisive importance of the pit stall crew. The published article however turned into a piece focusing on the environmental damage that this sport causes. Another observation was that Germany-based students seemed to have a more optimistic stance on their topics, whereas the US-based students had a more pessimistic outlook. This was obvious for example in the several articles US-based students wanted to write about water access, how to correctly recycle, and about a highway in Syracuse, NY that causes social justice issues in the city. US-based students' strong focus on environment and justice issues inspired one Germany-based student and fashionista to research and write about the environmental issues of fast fashion and detriments that are not mentioned on the clothing tag.

Communication Styles

Students' writing strengths took different shapes. Germany-based students had great knowledge of how to write for a general audience, whereas the US-based students were great at a more scientific writing style. ESF students focused on scientific research and data for their articles, whilst students from Munich often started with a screening of current debates. One Germany-based student pointed this out in the final reflection: “I have been very surprised to learn how the US-based students wrote their articles. I think they wrote in a very sophisticated style, very differently from what I am used to reading in journalistic writing.” Since texts published on the blog need to speak to a wide audience but be scientifically sound, the texts needed to balance these two writing styles. Through the team set-up, the end results met in the middle of these two styles and managed to strike a balance providing texts that are easily understood, correct as regards content, supported by evidence, and citing science. Another aspect is the use of terminology and abbreviations, e.g., some of the US-based students took knowledge about agencies and current topics in the United States for granted. One student expressed: “Again, this idea that people from Germany and other countries may not know about topics that are prevalent in the United States helped to change my worldview.“ On the other hand, Germany-based students sometimes overestimated the technical knowledge of possible readers. Both groups took the opportunity to practice explaining background information and to make seemingly self-evident contexts explicit.

There were several lessons learned during this collaboration. One important point is that someone cannot just take one class on science communication to become an effective communicator of scientific information. We argue that we need to encourage a cultural shift in academia (and teaching) to strengthen the culture of science communication and offer more options in its practice. Students (and scientists in general) do not only need to learn about the tools to communicate science, science communication also needs to become part of their identity ( Baram-Tsabari and Lewenstein, 2017 ). We compare this to when scientists also call themselves advocates or activists. Scientists (and students) need to more often identify as science communicators, not only to an academic audience.

Case Study Limitations

This case study and the experience itself were too short; 5 weeks was not enough. The actual impact of the texts produced would need to be put in a broader context to enable studying how they diverge or converge with other science communication, in e.g., legacy mass media. Experimental designs could observe the effect these texts have on their audiences. For example, the attitude of students toward science communication for diverse audiences could be compared before and after the experience. To investigate whether reflecting on the interests and needs of laymen became a new habit, students should be re-approached in later phases of their studies and their career.

Lessons Learned

The objectives of this joint teaching and learning experience were to (1) develop students' competencies in the communication of science and technology through practicing the conceptualization and production of online texts; (2) offer an intercultural experience in times of restricted mobility that at the same time reflects current structures of collaborative work; and (3) to gather experience in communicating to intercultural audiences with diverse educational backgrounds. We also sought to (4) lay the foundations for future digital collaboration between our institutions. In this respect, we found six learning outcomes particularly important:

Time Allotment

The time span of 5 weeks was too short to allow for learning, implementing, and setting in practice the complex structure and processes needed. The tight timeline limited the leeway for more intense exchange between students, the development of shared interests, topics, socializing, and creating connections. Perhaps contra-intuitive at first glance, we decided to spend even more time on socializing and fun activities (“ice breakers”) in the first meetings, even against students' explicit wish to “hit the ground running.”

Group Size and Composition

In this case, 48 students were a much too large group for three professors. To make an intensive intercultural course like this work, the student-teacher ratio should not extend 10:1. The distribution of Germany- vs. US-based students was uneven as the US group was much larger. This too decreased the international exchange experience for some students. One US-based student expressed: “Although my group did not consist of any German students, the two German staff I worked with were amazing and very helpful.” Another student said: “As I did not get a chance to work with any students from Germany, I would like to explore actually being able to work with them; I feel that working with other students from another country would help to broaden my perspectives on the environment.”

Self-Organization

Due to their diverging academic backgrounds, students from Germany and from the United States had very different experiences with self-organized workflows. Whereas, the students from Munich have been trained in project management and already run through at least three self-organized projects, students from Syracuse had to do their first steps in project management whilst running a rather complex, intercultural project. Thus, self-organizing an agile publication setup, preparing own publications (texts and illustrations), and fulfilling legal requirements (for example regarding GDPR obligations) seemed to be overwhelming at first. One US-based student expressed: “It felt like the German students were a little more cautious of the deadlines given, whereas the American students were more lax considering the situation.” Against this background, it is important to make sure that the managing and coordinating team consists of students from both programs. However, in the second half of the experience, processes and routines had been developed and established well.

Role Requirements

We experienced students needing detailed instructions about the roles they were filling, especially some editors who were unsure about their role. Some editors and illustrators might have underestimated the intense work that fell on this role. Functions, expectations, and team dependencies need to be explained in detail before choosing their roles. For example, as the objective of the blog is to produce professionally adequate articles, including illustrations of quality, illustrators need a certain level of experience, at least basic knowledge of graphic design or photography, and familiarity with standard software applications.

Peer Feedback

Pivotal for the experience was extensive peer feedback: Editors provided feedback for authors and illustrators; authors and illustrators conversed about the convergence of text and image; the SEO-expert gave advice about how to make the pieces traceable for search engines and accessible and appealing for human readers. Especially at the beginning of the course, students were quite hesitant to provide “real” feedback and tended to leave it to the instructors. It is important to make clear that constructive peer feedback will lead to better grades for both the writer/illustrator and editor. Essentially, the less instructors have to intervene, the better the grade.

Intercultural Experience

What some teams might have experienced as struggles (e.g., understanding things differently or having a different perspective on things, such as bitcoin mining), we saw as something very positive and a learning experience on multiple levels. Students learned how to put into words a concept or idea to an international partner and juggled different time zones and deadlines. Unanimously, students from the US and from Germany mentioned that this class shifted the way they think about something.

We plan to offer this course again and to create other course offerings using the same US-Germany collaboration. At the undergraduate level, we will continue to offer the described experience, but modify the timeline to fit the overlapping time between the semesters. On graduate level, we are planning another course that will continue to train students in communicating science, this will be targeted more at scientists (students working on their MA, MS, and Ph.D. theses), needing to communicate their work to diverse audiences. We think this additional offer will help address the issue that a one-time course is not enough, and will aid in creating an academic culture around science communication, especially public science communication of scientists' own work. With these two different offerings we will also address the issue of mixing students with different academic maturity in one class.

The issues “group sizes” and “composition” will be addressed in future offerings to ensure crosspollination can take place in all groups. The described control-group setup made a strong argument for how different the experiences were for students in international vs. national teams. We will focus stronger on guiding students in language (e.g., the use of slang) by adding more opportunities to get to know each other in a non-strict class environment. We plan to ask permission to contact students after some time to inquire about if and how the collaboration sustainably changed their perspectives on issues and scientific writing.

Data Availability Statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Author Contributions

AK, SK, and AF-P: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, visualization, writing—original draft, supervision, and project administration. AK: funding acquisition. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

The UAS7 Virtual Academy was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the DAAD-administered IVAC program (P44—Projekt-ID: 57564133).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: science communication, technology communication, environmental communication, intercultural training, undergraduate training, graduate training, blogging

Citation: van Kempen A, Kristiansen S and Feldpausch-Parker AM (2022) Communicating Science, Technology, and Environmental Issues: A Case Study of an Intercultural Learning Experience. Front. Commun. 7:805397. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2022.805397

Received: 30 October 2021; Accepted: 20 April 2022; Published: 13 May 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 van Kempen, Kristiansen and Feldpausch-Parker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Anke van Kempen, anke.van_kempen@hm.edu

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Top 10 artificial intelligence case studies: recap and future trends

The far-reaching consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the high odds of recession have driven organizations to realize the potential of automation for business continuity. As a result, over the last few years, we have witnessed an all-time high number of artificial intelligence case studies .

According to McKinsey, 57 percent of companies report AI adoption, up from 45 percent in 2020. The majority of these applications targeted the optimization of service operations, a much-needed shift in these turbulent times. Beyond service optimization, AI case studies have been spotted across virtually all industries and functional activities.

Today, we’ll have a look at some of the most exciting business use cases that owe their advent to artificial intelligence and its offshoots.

What is the business value of artificial intelligence?

According to PwC, AI development can rack in an additional $15.7 trillion of the global economic value by 2030. In 2022, 92% of respondents have indicated positive and measurable business results from their prior investments in AI and data initiatives.

However, there are other benefits that incentivize companies to tap into artificial intelligence case studies.

Reduced costs

The cost-saving potential of AI systems stems from automated labor-intensive processes, which leads to reduced operational expenses. For example, Gartner predicts that conversational AI will reduce contact center labor costs by $80 billion in 2026.

Indirect cost reduction of smart systems is associated with optimizing operations with precise forecasting, predictive maintenance, and quality control.

Amplified decision-making

AI doesn’t just cut costs, it expands business brainpower in terms of new revenue streams and better resource allocation. Smart data analysis allows companies to make faster, more accurate, and consistent decisions by capitalizing on datasets and predicting the optimal course of action. AI consulting comes in especially handy when bouncing back from crises.

Source: Unsplash

Lower risks

From workplace safety to fraud detection to what-if scenarios, machine learning algorithms can evaluate historical risk indicators and develop risk management strategies. Automated systems can also be used to automate risk assessment processes, identify risks early, and monitor risks on an ongoing basis. Thus, 56% of insurance companies see the biggest impact of AI in risk management.

Better business resilience

Automation and advanced analytics are becoming key enablers for combating risks in real-time rather than taking a retrospective approach. As 81% of CEOs predict a recession in the coming years, companies can protect their core by predicting transition risks, closing supply and demand gaps, and optimizing resources – based on artificial intelligence strategy .

Top 10 AI case studies: from analytics to pose tracking

Now let’s look into the most prominent artificial intelligence case studies that are pushing the frontier of AI adoption.

Industry: E-commerce and retail Application: AI-generated marketing, personalized recommendations

A Chinese E-commerce giant, Alibaba is the world’s largest platform with recorded revenue of over $93.5 billion in Chinese online sales. No wonder, that the company is vested in maximizing revenue by optimizing the digital shopping experience with artificial intelligence.

Its well-known case study on artificial intelligence includes an extensive implementation of algorithms to improve customer experience and drive more sales. Alibaba Cloud Artificial Intelligence Recommendation (AIRec) leverages Alibaba’s Big data to generate real-time, personalized recommendations on Alibaba-owned online shopping platform Taobao and across the number of Double 11 promotional events.

The company also uses NLP to help merchants automatically generate product descriptions.

Mayo Clinic

Industry: healthcare Application: medical data analytics

Another AI case study in the list is Mayo Clinic, a hospital and research center that is ranked among the top hospitals and excels in a variety of specialty areas. Intelligent algorithms are used there in a large number of business use cases – both administrative and clinical.

The use of computer algorithms on ECG in Mayo’s cardiovascular medicine research helps detect weak heart pumps by analyzing data from Apple Watch ECGs. The research center is also a staunch advocate of AI medical imaging where machine learning is applied to analyze image data fast and at scale.

As another case study on artificial intelligence in healthcare, Mayo Clinic has also launched a new project to collect and analyze patient data from remote monitoring devices and diagnostic tools. The sensor and wearables data can then be analyzed to improve diagnoses and disease prediction.

Deutsche Bank

Industry: banking Application: fraud detection

Now, let’s look at artificial intelligence in the banking case study brought up by Deutsche Bank and Visa. The two companies partnered up in 2022 to eliminate online retail fraud. Merchants who process their E-commerce payments via Deutsche Bank can now rely on a smart fraud detection system from Visa-owned company Cybersource.

Driven by pre-defined rules, the system automatically calculates a risk value for each transaction. The system employs risk models and data from billions of data points on the Visa network. This allows for blocking fraudulent transactions and faster authorizing other transactions.

Industry: E-commerce Application: supply and demand prediction

Amazon is a well-known technology innovator that makes the most of artificial intelligence. From data analysis to route optimization, the company injects automation at all stages of the whole supply chain. Over the last few years, the company has perfected its forecasting algorithm to make a unified forecasting model that predicts even fluctuating demand.

Let’s look at its AI in E-commerce case study. When toilet paper sales surged by 213% during the pandemic, Amazon’s predictive forecasting allowed the company to respond quickly to the sudden spike and adjust the supply levels to the market needs.

Blue River Technology

Industry: agriculture Application: computer vision

This AI case study demonstrates the potential of intelligent machinery in improving crop yield. Blue River Technology, a California-based machinery enterprise, aims to radically change agriculture through the adoption of robotics and machine learning. The company equips farmers with sustainable and effective intelligent solutions to manage crops.

Their company’s flagship product, See & Spray, relies on computer vision, machine learning, and advanced robotic technology to distinguish between crops and weeds. The machine then delivers a targeted spray to weeds. According to the company, this innovation can reduce herbicide use by up to 80 percent.

Industry: automotive Application: voice recognition

The car manufacturer has over 400 AI & ML case studies at all levels of production. According to the company, these technologies play an essential role in the production of new vehicles and augment automated driving with advanced, natural experience.

In particular, voice recognition allows drivers to adjust the in-car settings such as climate and driving mode, or even choose the preferred song. BMW owners can also use the voice command to ask the car about its performance status, get guidance on specific vehicle functions, and input a destination.

Industry: media and entertainment Application: emotion recognition

Another exciting case study about artificial intelligence is Affectiva company and its flagship AI products. The company conceived a new technological dimension of Artificial Emotional Intelligence, named Emotion AI. This application allows publishers to optimize content and media spending based on the customers’ emotional responses.

Emotion AI is fuelled by a combination of computer vision and deep learning to discern nuanced emotions and cognitive states by analyzing facial movement.

Industry: manufacturing Application: process optimization

As global enterprises are looking for more ways to optimize, the demand for automation grows. Siemens’ collaboration with Google is a prominent case study on the application of artificial intelligence in factory automation. The manufacturer has teamed up with Google to drive up shop floor productivity with edge analytics.

The expected results are to be achieved via computer vision, cloud-based analytics, and AI algorithms. Optimization will most likely leverage the connection of Google’s data cloud with Siemens’ Digital Industries Factory Automation tools. This will allow companies to unify their factory data and run cloud-based analytics and AI at scale.

Industry: manufacturing Application: semiconductor development

Along with cutting-edge solutions like its memory accelerator, the manufacturing conglomerate also implements AI to automate the highly complex process of designing computer chips. A prominent artificial intelligence case study is Samsung using Synopsys AI software to design its Exynos chips. The latter are used in smartphones, including branded handsets and other gadgets.

Industry: manufacturing Application: predictive maintenance

According to McKinsey , the greatest value from AI in manufacturing will be delivered from predictive maintenance, which accounts for $0.5-$0.7 trillion in value worldwide. The snack food manufacturer and PepsiCo’s subsidiary, Frito-Lay, has followed suit.

The company has a long track record of using predictive maintenance to enhance production and reduce equipment costs. Paired with sensors, this case study of artificial intelligence helped the company reduce planned downtime and add 4,000 hours a year of manufacturing capacity.

Looking over horizon: Technology trends for 2023-2024

Although artificial intelligence case studies are likely to account for the majority of innovations, the exact form and shape of intelligent transformation can vary. Below, you will find the likely successors of AI technologies in the coming years.

Advanced connectivity

Advanced connectivity refers to the various ways in which devices can connect and share data. It includes technologies like 5G, the Internet of Things, edge computing, wireless low-power networks, and other innovations that facilitate seamless and fast data sharing.

The global IoT connectivity imperative has been driven by cellular IoT (2G, 3G, 4G, and now 5G) as well as LPWA over the last five years. Growing usage of medical IoT, IoT-enabled manufacturing, and autonomous vehicles have been among the greatest market enablers so far.

Web 3.0 is the new iteration of the Internet that aims to make the digital space more user-centered and enables users to have full control over their data. The concept is premised on a combination of technologies, including blockchain, semantic web, immersive technology, and others.

Metaverse generally refers to an integrated network of virtual worlds accessed through a browser or headset. The technology is powered by a combination of virtual and augmented reality.

Edge computing

Edge computing takes cloud data processing to a new level and focuses on delivering services from the edge of the network. The technology will enable faster local AI data analytics and allow smart systems to deliver on performance and keep costs down. Edge computing will also back up autonomous behavior for Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Industries already incorporate devices with edge computing, including smart speakers, sensors, actuators, and other hardware.

Augmented analytics

Powered by ML and natural language technologies, augmented analytics takes an extra step to help companies glean insights from complex data volumes. Augmented analytics also relies on extensive automation capabilities that streamline routine manual tasks across the data analytics lifecycle, reduce the time needed to build ML models, and democratize analytics.

Large-sized organizations often rely on augmented analytics when scaling their analytics program to new users to accelerate the onboarding process. Leading BI suites such as Power BI, Qlik, Tableau, and others have a full range of augmented analytics capabilities.

Engineered decision intelligence

The field of decision intelligence is a new area of AI that combines the scientific method with human judgment to make better decisions. In other words, it’s a way to use machine intelligence to make decisions more effectively and efficiently in complex scenarios.

Today, decision intelligence assists companies in identifying risks and frauds, improving sales and marketing as well as enhancing supply chains. For example, Mastercard employs technology to increase approvals for genuine transactions.

Data Fabric

Being a holistic data strategy, data fabric leverages people and technology to bridge the knowledge-sharing gap within data estates. Data fabric is based on an integrated architecture for managing information with full and flexible access to data.

The technology also revolves around Big data and AI approaches that help companies establish elastic data management workflows.

Quantum computing

An antagonist of conventional computing, the quantum approach uses qubits as a basic unit of information to speed up analysis to a scale that traditional computers cannot ever match. The speed of processing translates into potential benefits of analyzing large datasets – faster and at finer levels.

Hyperautomation

This concept makes the most of intelligent technologies to help companies achieve end-to-end automation by combining AI-fuelled tools with Robotic Process Automation. Hyperautomation strives to streamline every task executed by business users through ever-evolving automated pathways that learn from data.

Thanks to a powerful duo of artificial intelligence and RPA, the hyperautomated architecture can handle undocumented procedures that depend on unstructured data inputs – something that has never been possible.

Turning a crisis into an opportunity with AI

In the next few years, businesses will have to operate against the backdrop of the looming recession and financial pressure. The only way of standing firmly on the ground is to save resources, which usually leaves just two options: layoffs or resource optimization.

While the first option is a moot point, resource optimization is a time-tested method to battle uncertainty. And there’s no technology like artificial intelligence that can better audit, identify, validate, and execute the optimal transition strategy for virtually any industry. From better marketing messages to voice-controlled vehicles, AI adds a new dimension to your traditional business operations.

AI technology to combat recession

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Telehealth and Mobile Health: Case Study for Understanding and Anticipating Emerging Science and Technology

Introduction

This case study was developed as one of a set of three studies, focusing on somewhat mature but rapidly evolving technologies. These case studies are intended to draw out lessons for the development of a cross-sectoral governance framework for emerging technologies in health and medicine. The focus of the case studies is the governance ecosystem in the United States, though where appropriate, the international landscape is included to provide context. Each of these case studies:

• describes how governance of the technology has developed within and across sectors and how it has succeeded, created challenges, or fallen down;
• outlines ethical, legal, and social issues that arise within and across sectors;
• considers a multitude of factors (market incentives, intellectual property, etc.) that shape the evolution of emerging technologies; and
• identifies key stakeholders.

Each case study begins with two short vignettes designed to highlight and make concrete a subset of the ethical issues raised by the case (see Box 1 and Box 2 ). These vignettes are not intended to be comprehensive but rather to provide a sense of the kinds of ethical issues being raised today by the technology in question.

The cases are structured by a set of guiding questions, outlined subsequently. These questions are followed by the historical context for the case to allow for clearer understanding of the trajectory and impact of the technology over time, and the current status (status quo) of the technology. The bulk of the case consists of a cross-sectoral analysis organized according to the following sectors: academia, health care/nonprofit, government, private sector, and volunteer/consumer. Of note, no system of dividing up the world will be perfect—there will inevitably be overlap and imperfect fits. For example, “government” could be broken into many categories, including international, national, tribal, sovereign, regional, state, city, civilian, or military. The sectoral analysis is further organized into the following domains: science and technology, governance and enforcement, affordability and reimbursement, private companies, and social and ethical considerations. Following the cross-sectoral analysis is a broad, nonsectoral list of additional questions regarding the ethical and societal implications raised by the technology.

The next section of the case is designed to broaden the lens beyond the history and current status of the technology at the center of the case. The “Beyond” section highlights additional technologies in the broad area the focal technology occupies (e.g., neurotechnology), as well as facilitating technologies that can expand the capacity or reach of the focal technology. The “Visioning” section is designed to stretch the imagination to envision the future development of the technology (and society), highlighting potential hopes and fears for one possible evolutionary trajectory that a governance framework should take into account.

Finally, lessons learned from the case are identified—including both the core case and the visioning exercise. These lessons will be used, along with the cases themselves, to help inform the development of a cross-sectoral governance framework, intended to be shaped and guided by a set of overarching principles. This governance framework will be created by a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/creating-a-framework-for-emerging-science-technology-and-innovation-in-health-and-medicine).

Case Study: Telehealth

As far back as the Civil War, the United States has used electronic means (in this early example, telegraphs) to communicate patient health information. After a long, slow ramp-up, there has been steady evolution and growth in electronic health data and communication since 1990, pulled by advances in technology and pushed by changes in regulation.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March 2020, three broad trends were under way in the evolution of telehealth: first, a shift in application from efforts to expand health care access that motivated early use to the use of telehealth to control costs; second, the expansion of telehealth use from the context of acute care to the management of chronic conditions; and third, a transition of the site of care from health care institutions to patients’ homes and mobile devices (Dorsey and Topol, 2016). The recent exponential increase in mobile health applications and physical distancing requirements that accompanied the pandemic have dramatically accelerated the evolution and adoption of telehealth (Olla and Shimskey, 2014).

It is important to note that “telehealth” and “mobile health (mHealth)” do not have consensus definitions, nor do many other terms used in this space, such as “electronic health (eHealth),” “telemedicine,” and “digital health” (HealthIT.gov, 2019; Doarn et al., 2014; WHO, 2010). From a regulatory perspective, definitions are important because countries and states must describe what they do and do not regulate and how (Hashiguchi, 2020). In the United States, telehealth is generally the umbrella term covering telemedicine (defined as provider-based medical care at a distance); telemedicine within medical specialties such as telepsychiatry, telestroke, and teledermatology; and mHealth (initially used to describe care provision through text messaging, but now includes the use of wearable and ambient sensors, mobile apps, social media, and location-tracking technology in service of health and wellness) (APAa, 2020; Sim, 2019; CMS, 2011).

One widely used definition of telemedicine—the component of telehealth with the longest history—is from the World Health Organization (WHO), which defines it as, “The delivery of health care services, where distance is a critical factor, by all health care professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of health care providers, all in the interest of advancing the health of individuals and their communities” (WHO, 2010).

In Norway, an early adopter and regulator of telemedicine, “telemedicine” is defined by law as “the use of videoconferencing to perform an outpatient consultation, examination, or treatment at a distance” (Zanaboni et al., 2014). In South Africa, by contrast, telemedicine is defined not by statute but by the Health Professions Council of South Africa as “using electronic communications, information technology or other electronic means between a health care practitioner in one location and a health care practitioner in another location for the purpose of facilitating, improving and enhancing clinical, educational and scientific health care and research” (HPCSA, 2020).

Telehealth can include everything from medical websites (e.g., the Mayo Clinic, WebMD) to remotely controlled surgical robots. Telehealth can also be categorized into groups of technologies, including interactive telemedicine (including video visits and electronic consults between providers), telemonitoring, store-and-forward technology (the collection and use of non-urgent medical information), and mHealth.

Early applications of telehealth were designed to expand access, and in fact, telehealth has been critical (if not entirely successful) in this regard. There are, of course, long-standing and persistent concerns about the number and geographic distribution of health care providers, and telehealth has improved access to those in remote and historically underserved populations in states such as Alaska and Texas, as well as for those in the military (e.g., those at sea or in a combat zone), prisons, and astronauts (NRHA, n.d.). Telehealth has also expanded access to language interpreters and specialists for patients with rare disease.

Telehealth, as it is traditionally construed, offers significant benefits, but it also raises a number of concerns. These concerns pertain to the use of telehealth in and of itself and the ways in which availability has been exponentially and almost instantaneously expanded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in recent years by mHealth. One broad issue, at least in the United States prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, is the shift mentioned previously from a focus on the use of telehealth to expand access to health care to the use of this technology to cut health care costs (Dorsey and Topol, 2016). In addition, and despite the dramatic expansion in telehealth, many of those most in need remain without access to high-quality health care (Park et al., 2018). On the individual level, telehealth raises concerns not only about privacy, both due to the site of care and the transmission, storage, and sharing of data, but also about both concrete and intangible losses related to physical distancing from the care relationship and ‘the healing touch’ (Bauer, 2001).

Guiding Questions

(derived from global neuroethics summit delegates, 2018; mathews, 2017).

The following guiding questions were used to frame and develop this case study.

• Historical context: What are the key scientific antecedents and ethics touchstones?
• Status quo: What are the key questions, research areas, and products/applications today?
• Cross-sectoral footprint: Which individuals, groups, and institutions have an interest or role in emerging biomedical technology?
• Ethical and societal implications: What is morally at stake? What are the sources of ethical controversy? Does this technology or application raise different and unique equity concerns?

Additional guiding questions to consider include the following:

• Key assumptions around technology: What are the key assumptions of both the scientists around the technology and the other stakeholders that may impede communication and understanding or illuminate attitudes?
• International context and relevant international comparisons: How are the technology and associated ethics and governance landscape evolving internationally?
• Legal and regulatory landscape: What are the laws and policies that currently apply, and what are the holes or challenges in current oversight?
• Social goals of the research: What are the goals that are oriented toward improving the human condition? Are there other goals?

Historical Context

What are the key scientific antecedents and ethics touchstones.

Despite its association for most people with the last decade or even just with the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth was first employed in the United States more than 100 years ago—one of the first health-related telephone calls was described in 1874 (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018). In 1905, the first “telecardiogram” was recorded and sent by telephone wire from a laboratory to a hospital (IOM, 2012). By the 1920s, Norwegian providers began giving medical advice to clinics on ships over radio, a use that quickly spread to other parts of the world (Ryu, 2010).

Over time, technology and applications expanded to include transmission of images and video. Teleradiology has been used for more than 60 years in the United States, with some of the first radiologic images transmitted by telephone between West Chester, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1948 (Gershon-Cohen and Cooley, 1950). Similar use in Canada soon followed.

The first use of interactive video in health care communications in the United States likely occurred at the University of Nebraska in 1959, through the transmission of neurological exams (Wittson and Benschoter, 1972). In an early and famous use of telemedicine, Norfolk State Hospital employees provided psychiatric consultations for the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute in the 1950s and 1960s (IOM, 1996). Wireless transfers of electrocardiogram and X-rays became prominent around this time as well (IOM, 1996).

In collaboration with the state of Arizona, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) advanced satellite-based telemedicine in order to provide future care to astronauts, while also benefiting the Papago Indians in Arizona through a demonstration project called the STARPAHC (Space Technology Applied to Rural Papago Advanced Health Care) project (Freiburger et al., 2007). During the 1970s, the use of this technology spread to other parts of the United States, serving remote and historically underserved communities, such as those in Alaska (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018). However, without private-sector investment, such projects were not sustainable, leaving the populations they were designed help without the capacity to maintain the expanded access (Greene, 2020).

Following slow growth in the 1980s, the 1990s saw a great expansion of telehealth use and services through the development of statewide telemedicine projects, passage of state and federal legislation making telemedicine services reimbursable, and increasing affordability of telemedicine (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018). The hub-and-spoke model emerged in which multiple distant care sites were connected to a larger specialty health center. These programs were often funded through legislative appropriations or grants and focused on increasing outpatient access to specialty care (particularly for patients in remote or historically underserved areas) and provision of continuing provider education. Many health systems, which have traditionally operated as competitors, formed telehealth alliances, such as the New Mexico American Telemedicine Association, in order to decrease barriers to health care (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018).

Research on the efficacy of telehealth also dramatically increased in the 1990s. Publications from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and Kaiser Permanente added to the telehealth evidence base and suggested that home telehealth may benefit some patients (Darkins, 2014; Johnston et al., 2000). Telehealth also became more common in correctional facilities due to the costs and significant risks in transporting patients to physically see health care providers (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018).

Throughout the early 2000s, telemedicine platforms multiplied across states (every state had a platform by 2010) and around the world (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018). The Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act, enacted in 2001, lowered barriers to telehealth in a number of ways, including requiring payment parity (equivalent payment for in-person and telemedicine visits) by Medicare, requiring Medicare to pay a $24 facility fee payment to the originating site for each telehealth visit, and expanding the range of telehealth services covered under Medicare (Gilman and Stensland, 2013; 106th Congress, 1999). In addition, Teladoc Health, now the world’s largest telemedicine company, was launched in 2002 (Teladoc Health, 2022).

Inpatient and emergency care telehealth services then started to become more common. teleICU care increased and began to incorporate interactive video conferencing and smart alarms in intensive care units (ICUs) (Lilly et al., 2011). The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) led the way in adapting telehealth to care for patients with chronic health conditions (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018).

In 2008, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act further expanded both covered services and eligible providers, including community mental health centers (Gilman and Stensland, 2013). As internet speed and affordability improved, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) provided grants to expand broadband to rural areas, further increasing the number of Americans who could access telehealth. In addition, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 helped expand telehealth services, with a focus on disaster preparedness (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018). The Office for the Advancement of Telehealth, within Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), helped start state clinical telehealth networks and funded telehealth research (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018).

By 2010, 11 states (California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas) had mandated that insurance payers cover telemedicine services (although each state’s rules varied) (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018). In addition, 36 states covered telehealth services under Medicaid (CCHP, 2018). In 2011, CMS approved proxy credentialing of providers for telehealth services, greatly decreasing barriers to access. Although some state Medicaid programs began to reimburse for more telehealth services, there was tremendous variation across states (Nesbitt and Katz-Bell, 2018). In 2016, 48 states and Washington, DC, reimbursed for live video telemedicine services, and 19 reimbursed for remote patient monitoring (CCHP, 2021). However, despite significant improvements in access for many, telehealth has increasingly received more attention from venture capital than from the sort of government and nonprofit actors that might deliver on the original promise of telehealth for the expansion of health care access to low-income and rural populations (Greene, 2020).

By 2016, 46 percent of health care providers reported using multiple forms of telehealth technology in practice (HIMSS Analytics, 2016). At this time, the top seven diagnoses for Medicare beneficiaries receiving telehealth services were related to mental health (CMS, 2018). In 2020, 85.8 percent of Americans had access to the internet, suggesting that a greater proportion of people in the United States might be able to access telehealth services (Johnson, 2022). However, access to the internet is far from the only barrier to accessing telehealth, while it is a major barrier—others include language barriers between patients and providers, digital literacy, and access to equipment (more on this subsequently) (Park et al., 2018).

What are the key questions, research areas, and products or applications today?

Telehealth and telemedicine occupy a rapidly evolving evidence development and regulatory space. While the literature on telehealth effectiveness is limited, it is expanding rapidly. A 2019 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) evidence review included 106 studies of telehealth effectiveness (Seehusen and Azrak, 2019). While evidence was insufficient or low for many specialties, moderate strength of evidence was found for telehealth effectiveness in wound care, psychiatric care, and chronic disease management. Furthermore, patient satisfaction with telehealth services has been consistently found to be high (Orlando et al., 2019; Kruse et al., 2017).

International regulation of telemedicine varies widely. In contrast to other areas of complex regulation, there have been to date no generally applicable treaties governing telemedicine or attempts at legally harmonizing the practice across jurisdictions. This even includes an absence of general laws across countries that are otherwise bound together by supranational organizations like the European Union (EU) (Callens, 2010). Where specific regulations do exist governing telemedicine apart from traditional medicine, almost all countries broadly regulate telemedicine on a national or supranational level in contrast the United States’ federalist (i.e., subnational) approach. Exceptions to this general observation include countries with similarly robust federalist structures like Spain, Australia, Canada, and, to a lesser extent, Germany, which, like the United States, allows subnational jurisdictions to implement their own regulations governing telemedicine (Hashiguchi, 2020). Countries that have specific broad, national legislation implementing a permissive approach to telemedicine include the Netherlands, Finland, Iceland, and Norway (Hashiguchi, 2020). Hungary stands, to date, as a major exception among countries with explicit telemedicine policy, with national legislation restricting (rather than permitting) the practice of telemedicine beyond what would be afforded absent the law (Hashiguchi, 2020).

In the United States, telehealth options for Medicare Advantage patients expanded in January 2020 with the enactment of the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act, which removed requirements with respect to the originating (patient) and distant (physician) sites, allowing patients to access telehealth services from home (Contreras et al., 2020). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. federal government has relaxed many telehealth regulations and increased telehealth funding. The number of telemedicine visits dramatically increased across the country during the pandemic (Mehrotra et al., 2020). The CMS 1135 waiver and the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, enacted in March 2020, expanded telehealth benefits for Medicare Advantage patients to patients with standard Medicare by removing requirements that patients be physically located within a health care facility in order to participate in telemedicine (116th Congress, 2020; CMS, 2020). CMS also established equivalent reimbursement (parity) for video telemedicine visits and traditional in-person visits (CMS, 2020). Furthermore, the HHS Office for Civil Rights relaxed the enforcement of software-based violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), enabling flexibility in platforms through which telemedicine is delivered, as huge amounts of health care shifted to telemedicine in a matter of days following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic (HHS, 2020).

Medicaid has always allowed states the flexibility to reimburse telemedicine visits in whatever way they deemed best, and although many states already required private health insurance and Medicaid plans to cover telehealth, many more expanded these policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (APAb, 2022). Some states also relaxed state-specific licensure requirements, allowing providers to conduct telehealth (and teletherapy) services more easily across state lines, although as the pandemic wanes in the United States, states have begun rolling back such measures (PSYPACT, n.d.; Richardson et al., 2022).

Relaxed requirements and reduced barriers to access do not necessarily mean uniform increased utilization, however. A 2018 study found that from 2013 to 2016, though overall telehealth use increased dramatically, this increased use was largely driven by higher-income populations and younger Medicare beneficiaries (Park et al., 2018). Telehealth was less likely to be used by Medicaid beneficiaries and low-income and rural populations, even in states with less restrictive state telehealth policies (Park et al., 2018).

mHealth is much newer than telehealth, and its evidence base is smaller, but it is rapidly growing, seeing $8.1 billion in investments in 2018, aided tremendously by the high-powered computers the vast majority of us carry on our persons, the smartphone, which is designed to track our motion and position in three-dimensional space (Day and Zweig, 2019). mHealth app and device developers have taken advantage of this capacity to turn smartphones into fall detectors, spirometers, heart-rate sensors, and much more, not only expanding diagnostic and treatment options but also generating new kinds of health data and evidence (Sim, 2019). The Apple Health app can combine data collected from the iPhone or Apple watch with a consumer/patient’s electronic health record. The lucrative segment of mHealth focused on concierge care for those with means does expand access to care, but not in the way originally envisioned in the 1970s (Greene, 2020).

Apps specific to COVID-19 have also proliferated in the mHealth space. A survey of iOS and Android apps available between April 27 and May 2, 2020, identified 114 COVID-related apps, 84 (74%) of which were categorized as either health and well-being/fitness or medicine apps. About half of all apps were developed by regional or national governments, and all but one was free (Collado-Borrell et al., 2020).

As alluded to previously, access to the full range of telehealth services is dependent on access to high-speed internet (“broadband”), although it is important to note that a great deal of telehealth still happens by phone. According to the 2018 American Communities Survey (ACS), 18 million U.S. households lacked access to broadband, 60 percent of which had household incomes below $35,000/year (Siefer and Callahan, 2020). Additionally, the substantial racial disparities present in access to broadband can exacerbate racial disparities in use of telehealth (Singh et al., 2020). Internationally, it has been suggested that a 10 percent increase in internet access yields 1–2 percent increase in GDP (DeLaTorre, 2022). Policies aiming to address the “digital divide” are often targeted at building internet infrastructure in rural areas, but many Americans who lack access to broadband actually live in urban regions and are simply unable to afford all but the slowest internet speeds—a fact that has been made clear by stories of children and parents doing their schooling and jobs from the parking lots of public libraries and fast food restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic (Greene, 2020; Kang, 2020). More inclusive efforts to close the digital divide have emerged, particularly in response to the growing need for broadband in the era of COVID-19. The HEROES Act, a COVID-19 relief bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May 2020, included significant funding to help low-income households pay for broadband and acquire internet-capable devices, as well as funding to expand broadband access to urban health care providers left out of previous efforts to reach rural providers, though it did not receive a vote in the Senate (116th Congress, 2020; Cochrane, 2020). Versions of many of these provisions were maintained in the $900 billion stimulus bill that was signed into law in December 2020 (Montague, 2020).

Currently, the regulation of telehealth in the United States is at a major inflection point. The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered the way that health care is sought and provided, and it is unlikely that the practice of medicine will return to the pre-COVID-19 status quo after the pandemic recedes. The rapid expansion in use of, and reimbursement for, telehealth services in the face of a global pandemic has accelerated the shift from traditional in-person medicine to a normalization of telemedicine. Similarly, the use of (largely non-evidence-based) health and wellness apps, as well as apps that enable digital contact tracing, has expanded over the course of the pandemic. How these products will be used and regulated in a post-COVID-19 world remains to be seen (Figueroa and Aguilera, 2020; JHU, 2020; Lagasse, 2020).

Cross-Sectoral Footprint

The cross-sectoral analysis is structured according to sectors (academia, health care, private sector, government, and volunteer/consumer—see Figure 1 ) and domains (science and technology, governance and enforcement, end-user affordability and insurance reimbursement [affordability and reimbursement], private companies, and social and ethical considerations). The sectors described subsequently are intended to be sufficiently broad to encompass a number of individuals, groups, and institutions that have an interest or role in telehealth. Health care is the primary nonprofit actor of interest, and so in this structure, ‘health care’ has replaced ‘nonprofit’, though other nonprofit actors may have a role in this and other emerging technologies, and, of course, not all health care institutions are nonprofits.

Today, many telehealth technologies are researched, developed, and promoted by a scientific-industrial complex largely driven by market-oriented goals. The development of various components of telehealth may be altered by differing IP regimes. This larger ecosystem is also embedded in a broad geopolitical context, in which the political and the economic are deeply intertwined, shaping national and regional investment and regulation. The political economy of emerging technologies involves and affects not only global markets and regulatory systems across different levels of government but also non-state actors and international governance bodies. Individuals and societies subsequently adopt emerging technologies, adjusting their own values, attitudes, and norms as necessary, even as these technologies begin to shape the environments where they are deployed or adopted. Furthermore, individual and collective interests may change as the “hype cycle” of an emerging technology evolves (Gartner, n.d.). Stakeholders in this process may include researchers, technologists, business firms and industry associations, government officials, civil society groups, worker safety groups, privacy advocates, and environmental protection groups, as well as economic and social justice-focused stakeholders (Marchant et al., 2014).

This intricate ecosystem of stakeholders and interests may be further complicated by the simultaneous introduction of other technologies and platforms with different constellations of ethical issues, modes of governance, and political economy contexts. In contrast to the development of therapeutics or, to a lesser extent, medical devices, the development of telehealth technologies and platforms has not appeared to be controlled by the availability of intellectual property (McGowan et al., 2012). Subsequently, this ecosystem is disaggregated and organized for ease of presentation. This section will address both telehealth and mHealth but will endeavor to address telehealth first and then mHealth in the subsections. It is important to keep in mind that there are entanglements and feedback loops between and among the different sectors, such that pulling on a single thread in one sector often affects multiple areas and actors across the broader ecosystem.

Cross-Sectoral Analysis

For the purposes of this case study, the primary actors within the academic sector interested are those engaging in cost-effectiveness, comparative effectiveness, health services, basic and translational device, and mHealth research; and scholars working in bioethics.

Science and technology: Research on telemedicine has been conducted for decades, primarily focusing on effectiveness and cost relative to traditional in-person care (Torre-Diez et al., 2015). While the literature on telehealth effectiveness is limited, it is expanding rapidly. A 2019 AHRQ evidence review included 106 studies of telehealth effectiveness (Seehusen and Azrak, 2019). While evidence was insufficient or low for many specialties, moderate strength of evidence was found for telehealth effectiveness in wound care, psychiatric care, and chronic disease management. Furthermore, patient satisfaction with telehealth services has been consistently found to be high (Orlando et al., 2019). The evidence base for the use of telehealth and wellness apps (mHealth) is small, and more research is needed, particularly on the effects these technologies may have on reducing or exacerbating existing health disparities.

Governance and enforcement: Within the research context, governance is primarily through institutional human subject research review boards and research ethics boards, research funding bodies, academic publication standards, and scientific and professional societies (i.e., self-regulation).

Affordability and reimbursement: N/A

Private companies: N/A

Social and ethical considerations: There has been some academic research on social factors related to telehealth adoption and use, as well as ethical issues associated with telehealth adoption. There are related, growing literatures on the privacy and other implications of persistent data collection, big data, digital phenotyping, and so forth, with direct relevance to mHealth.

Health Care

Given the focus of CESTI on health and medicine, for the purpose of this case study, the primary actors within the nonprofit sector are those involved in health care.

Science and technology: As noted previously, research on efficacy across specialties is ongoing but limited.

Governance and enforcement: Health care systems are the main hubs for telemedicine. Their use of these technologies is subject to HIPAA regulation, as well as the licensing requirements of the state in which they operate. Proposals related to licensing for practicing across state lines could potentially change the reach of health systems (e.g., a proposal that licensing requirements only apply for the location of the telemedicine provider would enable a provider in a health system located in only one state to reach patients across the country) (Lee et al., 2020).

Physicians are governed by their respective state licensing boards. In general—and with the exception of psychiatry—state licensing boards do not grant their physicians blanket permissions or prohibitions to practice telemedicine, requiring only (again, in general) that physicians provide their patients “competent care” (APAb, 2022).

Professional bodies have also developed position papers regarding telehealth, including in the context of the pandemic (AHA, 2020). In Europe, there are cross-sectoral committees that include academics, industry/technology representatives, and regulators; similarly cross-sectoral committees were established in the United States to address the COVID-19 pandemic (NIH, 2020). These committees could potentially serve as a model for coordination of cross-sectoral governance of emerging technologies.

Affordability and reimbursement: The United States’ multimodal payer system makes reimbursement and payment for medical services in the United States difficult to summarize. Federally organized public payers (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid, the VHA) are largely governed by federal law, while strictures on state-level public and private payers are governed by state law. Each payer—including administrative agencies—sets different rates and schedules for each service, including those pertaining to telemedicine. Beyond this, states may have additional laws in place governing which services must be covered by private insurers.

Parity in reimbursement between in-person and telemedicine-based services remains an issue, and laws in some states require insurers to reimburse telemedicine visits at the same rate as in-person visits. From a health system perspective, this might make telemedicine an attractive option, as it is often less expensive to provide relative to traditional face-to-face care, though state medical boards have often required an in-person consultation before allowing for telehealth services (Lee et al., 2020). Furthermore, the traditional reimbursement model does not incentivize physicians to use telemedicine because they get paid more for in-person services and procedures (Goldberg et al., 2022). There are also basic questions related to implementation of telemedicine more broadly: What are the clinical workflows for telehealth care? How can physicians/health systems leverage and utilize remote monitoring effectively? How does data flow into the health system? Should these data be integrated with the medical record, and if so, how? Who is responsible for understanding and analyzing a potentially near-real-time stream of patient data? What are the shared expectations and liability concerns around these new platforms?

Private companies: Health care institutions partner with private companies that provide many enabling technologies for telehealth, including telemedicine care delivery platforms, monitoring and management technologies, mHealth apps, and more. While some of these technologies may be protected by trade secrets (e.g., confidential algorithms), few are robustly protected by patents given the difficulties in patenting software applications (Price, 2015). Furthermore, there have been calls for more rigorous testing of many of these technologies for clinical effectiveness (Sim, 2019).

Social and ethical considerations: While health data in the United States is regulated by HIPAA, there is no blanket data privacy law (104th Congress, 1996). Data privacy, like medical consent, is largely an issue of contract and tort. Data privacy is arguably the principal international issue concerning telemedicine regulation. Most significantly, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides a robust set of rights to individuals’ “personal data,” that is, “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person” (European Parliament, 2016). This includes the right to forbid its collection; to demand a third party destroy it; and, if electronic, to download it where it resides. Health data, specifically, receives further protections under the GDPR (although there are public health exceptions). The GDPR’s reach is not only cabined within the European Union but extends to anywhere in the world where the processing of European citizens’ data occurs. Penalties for noncompliance can be stiff (European Parliament, 2016). While other countries invested in telemedicine—including Colombia, Costa Rica, and Peru—have data privacy laws, the GDPR seems unique in its global reach and effect on data transmission practices.

In most countries, patient consent for telemedicine tracks with each respective country’s model for other forms of health care delivery. For example, where delivery operates at the physician level, patients’ consent typically is obtained through their physicians. Notable exceptions include Japan and Greece, which require explicit consent from patients before physicians can conduct treatment through telemedicine (Hashiguchi, 2020).

Physicians, particularly in subspecialties conducive to telemedicine (e.g., dermatology and psychiatry) may have workforce concerns as restrictions on cross-jurisdictional medical practice are relaxed. Providers may resist lowering licensing barriers as this could allow for competition from other states’ telehealth services (IOM, 2012).

As mentioned previously, the digital divide has significant equity implications for telehealth access, in addition to other challenges, including language barriers between patients and providers, digital literacy, and access to necessary equipment (Park et al., 2018). There are special issues related to safety, efficacy, and privacy/data security when mHealth devices/toys are used in the treatment of children (Comscore, 2014).

Private Sector

For the purposes of this case study, the primary actors within the private sector are digital health platform providers, startups, and app developers.

Science and technology: Telehealth startups are currently targeting large, self-insured employers with strong incentives to keep costs low (Dorsey and Topol, 2016). mHealth apps have been developed for a wide array of purposes, including tracking fertility and exercise; diabetes management; medication adherence; treating depression, anxiety, and traumatic brain injury; and preventing suicide.

Governance and enforcement: Many companies in the telemedicine space offer services designed to help physicians do their jobs and so fall under the umbrella of “physician practice,” which is not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Telemedicine platforms used by health systems are subject to stronger scrutiny, but in the interest of expanding access to telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, the HHS Office for Civil Rights has “waived penalties for HIPAA violations against health care providers that serve patients through everyday communications technologies” during the public health emergency (HHS, 2020). There are thousands of health- and wellness-focused apps available for smartphones, some of which make dubious or unproven claims about their effectiveness. In addition to a shallow evidence base about the effectiveness of many health and wellness apps, they also raise significant privacy concerns because they are not all governed by the same privacy laws (like HIPAA) that protect sensitive patient information in traditional care settings (Singer, 2019). While some companies may be required or choose to engage third-party compliance services to monitor their data security, this is not a legal requirement for all.

The FDA’s Digital Health Software Precertification (Pre-Cert) Program has piloted new ways of regulating software-based medical devices, but this regulatory innovation has faced pushback from the U.S. Congress, suggesting that such innovation will be challenging (FDA, 2021; Warren et al., 2018).

Affordability and reimbursement: As described in more detail subsequently, states can and have mandated that commercial insurance plans offer parity for telemedicine visits (Yang, 2016). Historically, concern about medical liability has been a persistent barrier to the broader adoption of telemedicine (WHO, 2010). The United States, which has a robust medical practice tort system, appears to assign liability in much the same way for errors in telemedicine as it does for traditional practice. There is frequently lack of clarity about who should pay for mHealth technology, in particular when prescribed by a physician. Many mHealth apps are free or low-cost to download, though the safety and efficacy of many of these apps are unclear, and there are significant associated data privacy concerns.

As noted previously, an explicit goal of telehealth has long been expanded access in rural and remote areas. There are a number of companies that seek to address barriers to health and health care beyond geographic barriers and are focused squarely on improving equity in health care, such as ConsejoSano (SameSky Health), Hazel Health, and CareMessage (CareMessage, n.d., Hazel, n.d.; SameSky Health, n.d.).

At the same time, another major driver of telehealth is lowering the cost of health care. Insurers are motivated by the low cost of telehealth compared to the high cost of in-person care and self-insured employers also highly motivated to reduce costs and maintain a healthy workforce.

Private companies: One assessment of digital health startups highlighted 150 companies that had collectively raised more than $20 billion, and which had among them established partnerships with the American Heart Association, Sanofi, Cigna, Mount Sinai Health System, Mercy Health, and Arizona Care Network, demonstrating tremendous interest and growth in this space (CBInsights, 2021). Apple has partnered with both Aetna and the government of Singapore to incentivize individuals to engage in health-promoting behaviors. Fitbit has a similar partnership with United Health (Aetna, n.d.; Elegant, 2020; Gurdus, 2017).

Social and ethical considerations: Significant concerns about privacy, transparency, and accountability with regard to the algorithms and data generation by commercial devices and apps. As noted previously, there have been calls for more rigorous testing of many of these technologies for clinical effectiveness (Sim, 2019). The is often a wide range of third parties involved in telehealth delivery, some of which will be outside the “covered entity” and be governed by different (or few) rules (Gerke et al., 2020). Equity concerns are raised by algorithms trained on the healthy, well-off, and White.

For the purposes of this case study, the primary actors within the government sector are both the federal government and the states, which play critical gatekeeping (or facilitating) roles in the development and evolution of telehealth.

Science and technology: As noted previously, NASA and the VA have been leaders in telehealth research and development. The federal government also partners with tribal governments to administer the Indian Health Service (IHS), which provides care to American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) people across the country. Telemedicine is particularly important to the work of the IHS due to the rurality of many AI/AN communities, which has led to innovation in telehealth systems (Hays et al., 2014). The IHS also has a Telebehavioral Health Center of Excellence, which offers behavioral health care and mental health care through multiple telehealth modalities (IHS, n.d.).

Governance and enforcement: U.S. federal and state governments have significant interests in the governance of telehealth. Prime among these is their interest in requiring public and private insurers to provide reimbursement for telemedicine services. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS has waived reimbursement requirements that patients be physically located within a health center when receiving telemedicine services, making it possible for millions to access care safely from their homes. Every state has different reimbursement requirements for their state Medicaid plan, and states also have the power to control reimbursement parity for commercial insurance, which has led to the development of essentially 50 different reimbursement policies across the country.

As noted, the VA has been a leader in telehealth adoption and implementation, as they retain significant control over telemedicine and telehealth offered within the VHA, including control over licensure requirements and copay amounts (CRS, 2019). Since 2012, the VA secretary has had the ability to waive copays for telemedicine provided to veterans in their homes, and VA-employed providers can practice telemedicine across state lines with any patients within the VHA (CRS, 2019).

Another key role for the government is the protection of protected health information (PHI)—personally identifiable information that relates to a medical condition, the provision of care, or payment—which is regulated via HIPAA (104th Congress, 1996). HIPAA establishes restrictions on the dissemination of PHI by “covered entities”—providers, plans, clearinghouses, or business—without the express consent of the patient.

HIPAA is of particular concern in telemedicine because PHI is necessarily generated in telemonitoring and store-and-forward technologies. In addition, the nature of telemedicine is such that users of telemonitoring and store-and-forward technologies are almost certainly “covered entities” under the statute, that is, providers, businesses, or health care plans. In addition, HIPAA demands extra precautions from covered entities for most telemedicine applications under the HIPAA Security Rule, a regulation promulgated by HHS that concerns electronic PHI (CFR, 2011). Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HIPAA Security Rule limited the types of platforms that could be used for the transmission of electronic PHI. In March 2020, the HHS Office for Civil Rights issued a Notification of Enforcement Discretion indicating that providers who engage in telemedicine using non-public-facing communication technologies in good faith will not be subject to penalties for noncompliance with HIPAA rules (HHS, 2021).

With respect to medical devices used in telemedicine, these are typically regulated at the federal level by the FDA (94th Congress, 1976). For example, the Da Vinci Xi Surgical System, a robotic surgical assistant and a form of interactive telemedicine, is regulated by the FDA as a Class II device (Stevenson, 2017).

Telemedicine encompasses devices in all three risk classes, from a WiFi-enabled digital pulse oximeter (Class I) to remotely controlled continuous glucose monitoring systems (Class III). In some instances, FDA considers software to constitute a medical device (FDA, 2017).

Affordability and reimbursement: See the previous discussion of reimbursement. Various national efforts to expand internet access have been key to the expansion of telehealth access, and will continue to be critical moving forward, as advanced technologies demand higher bandwidth.

Social and ethical considerations: Ethical issues raised by telehealth in the government sector include disparities in telehealth (and broadband) access, fiduciary duties of health care providers, privacy, equity, and workforce concerns.

Volunteer/Consumer

For the purposes of this case study, the primary actors within the volunteer/consumer sector are patients and consumers accessing telehealth, including mHealth. It is important to keep in mind that many members of “the public” nationally and internationally never have the opportunity to be patients or consumers of emerging technologies, and so do not show up in the following analysis. These members of the public may nonetheless be affected by the development, deployment, and use of such technologies, and those impacts should be taken into account.

Science and technology: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, mHealth apps may have been most people’s primary experience with telehealth, as many of these apps are free or low-cost to download for iOS and Android phones (Friedman et al., 2022). There is little data available on the safety and efficacy of many of these apps.

Governance and enforcement: Currently, there is little regulatory enforcement of many mHealth apps, though a number of mHealth devices have received FDA clearance.

Affordability and reimbursement: As noted previously, insurance coverage for telehealth has expanded dramatically in recent years, and particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. mHealth apps are free or low-cost to download, though they require that the consumer have a smartphone and internet access.

Private companies: These include mHealth app developers and companies like Apple and FitBit, offering direct-to-consumer health and wellness applications outside health care institutions and employee-sponsored wellness programs.

Social and ethical considerations: Potential drivers include adult children caring for aging parents at a distance, seeking the capacity to both monitor their parents’ health and safety and communicate with their parents’ health care providers; concerns about equity regarding access if Apple continues to expand in the mHealth space and Android continues to lag (more than half of U.S. smartphone owners have Androids, and Android users have a lower average income than iPhone users); and concerns about the use of mHealth devices/toys with children in regard to safety, efficacy, and privacy/data security (Comscore, 2014).

Ethical and Societal Implications

What is morally at stake what are the sources of ethical controversy does this technology/application raise different and unique equity concerns.

In outlining the concerns of the authors in terms of the use of this technology, we considered the following ethical dimensions, as outlined in the recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report A Framework for Addressing Ethical Dimensions of Emerging and Innovative Biomedical Technologies: A Synthesis of Relevant National Academies Reports (NASEM, 2019).

• Promote societal value
• Minimize negative societal impact
• Protect the interests of research participants
• Advance the interests of patients
• Maximize scientific rigor and data quality
• Engage relevant communities
• Ensure oversight and accountability
• Recognize appropriate government and policy roles

It is important to keep in mind that different uses of this technology in different populations and contexts will raise different constellations of issues. For example, telephone-based telehealth can be very different than video- or app-based telehealth, with different implications when used to serve urban, high-income adults versus rural, low-income children. Some of the specific concerns might include the following (Nittari et al., 2020):

• Is the quality of care delivered via any given telehealth platform of comparable quality to in-person care? What is gained? What is lost?
• How does a focus on efficiency or cost savings affect compassion/patient welfare? (Jacobs, 2019)
• How is continuity of care affected by communication gaps or barriers between providers at a distance, the patient, a physically present clinical care team, mHealth applications, and documentation in the medical record?
• Are there risks to safety associated with virtual physical exams and treatment?
• What is the effect on the physician–patient relationship and the establishment of trust in the absence of any physical interaction?
• What are the risks to patient privacy and confidentiality, particularly in mHealth, and how can they be mitigated?
• What kind of access to and control over data produced by mHealth devices do patients/consumers have?
• What are the proprietary interests over domains of fragmented patient data and how do they affect care?
• How can governance address the blurring boundary between personal medical data, public health data, and monetized consumer data?
• What ought the requirements be for content and documentation of informed consent for telehealth as a mode of care, and within telehealth, for example, for the transmission and processing of health data?
• How should countries regulate telemedicine when telemedicine services and patients are split across jurisdictions? When the operation of devices is split across jurisdictions?
• How will the changing global political climate likely affect the regulation of telemedicine?
• What are the issues raised by telemedicine across state and national borders, including both ethical (e.g., lack of cultural awareness or familiarity) and legal (e.g., cross-jurisdictional credentialing, regulation, liability)?
• What is the level of reliability and fidelity of data transmitted from mHealth devices?
• Who, how, and with what permissions can various actors access, store, and use the vast amounts of data generated by various telehealth interactions?
• How transparent and accountable are the algorithms used by commercial telehealth devices/apps, as well as the data collection, storage, and use by telehealth companies?
• Which entities involved in telehealth are outside the “covered entity” for the purposes of HIPAA, and how do they collect, store, and use patient data?
• Will a shift to telehealth increase or decrease the isolation and quality of life of historically underserved and marginalized populations, including the elderly, and others with visual, hearing, or cognitive impairments? What about caregivers managing a dependent’s telehealth participation?

Beyond Telehealth

mHealth “is at the swirling confluence of remote sensing, consumer-facing personal technologies, and artificial intelligence (AI)” (Sim, 2019). Currently, AI, wearable and ambient sensors, and other emerging technologies are being used in research and are able to suggest future possibilities, but these have not yet been realized in the market. AI, of course, brings with it a whole host of additional concerns related not only to the technical challenges, including reliability and explainability of autonomous systems but also significant ethical concerns, including those related to bias in training data leading to structural racism being replicated at scale with AI, trust, trustworthiness of systems, and so on. Smart homes, also in ascendance, hold potential in the telehealth space, but the potential health benefits (and risks) remain largely in the future.

As alluded to previously, it is possible to foresee numerous future scenarios regarding the evolution of telehealth. In an effort to probe the kinds of worries the authors have about the trajectories of emerging technologies, to expand the range of lessons learned from each case, and ultimately to “pressure test” the governance framework, the authors have developed a brief “visioning” narrative that pushes the technology presented in the core case 10–15 years into the future, playing out one plausible (but imagined) trajectory. The narrative was developed iteratively in collaboration with a case-specific working group, with additional feedback from members of CESTI. All reviewers are acknowledged in the back matter of this paper. Each narrative is told from a particular perspective and is designed to highlight a small set of social shifts that shape and are shaped by the evolving technology.

Telehealth Case Visioning Narrative

Perspective: A remote caregiver and digital health navigator dyad

It is 2035, and the home has become the preferred site for the receipt of most acute and non-acute medical services (labs, imaging, nursing visits, retail pharmacy) in the United States. Termed hospital-at-home (HaH), it is also the dominant model for non-ICU-level in-person care in much of the world. Although this care paradigm has been around for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed this shift due to physical distancing requirements and fears among patients about contracting the virus within the hospital setting. Massive investments from the private sector into telemedicine platforms, coupled with technology advancements in AI-enabled remote monitoring, voice-activated medical devices, augmented reality, and sensors were also pivotal in this care transformation. Results from randomized controlled trials showed that the HaH was just as effective as the traditional hospital setting for a wide range of medical conditions, and with lower cost. However, the data on patient safety has been mixed thus far, with certain kinds of care episodes demonstrating clear reductions in adverse events while others result in poorer outcomes, often due to poor recognition of the need for escalation to emergency care (e.g., malignant bowel obstruction being mistaken for constipation). Hospital visits are increasingly limited to serious conditions that mandate an in-person work-up (e.g., biopsy for a cancer diagnosis) or procedural intervention (e.g., surgical procedure or cardiac catheterization).

Chronic Disease Management

Beyond increasing access to specialty providers (physicians, nurses, pharmacists, physical therapists), this new care paradigm revolutionized chronic disease management. Through “digital touchpoints,” providers were able to durably increase patients’ engagement with their own self-care and remotely manage the trajectory of chronic diseases at increasingly earlier time points. By leveraging ambient clinical intelligence tools (i.e., Internet of Medical Things [IoMT]), all data became re-imagined as health care data, including music preferences, voice pitch, communication logs, gait, step counts, and sleep patterns—a process known as digital phenotyping. In this new personalized care paradigm, conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, and renal insufficiency were now managed prospectively and continuously as opposed to in a reactive and episodic fashion. Patients could now be managed within the context of their lives, and for many, this meant the ability to safely “age in place.” However, over time questions arose as to how the governance of emerging technologies intersects with the provision of care in the home. Specifically, issues regarding data standards, quality assurance, interoperability, oversight, bias, and transparency were yet to be definitively addressed in the context of care delivery. Whom should be held legally responsible in instances of harm due to erroneous automated diagnosis? How can the authenticity, accuracy, and integrity of such a wide variety of devices be reliably established?

Impact on Equity

Unfortunately, HaH in some cases led to a widening of existing equity gaps. This is because many of the infrastructural technologies were not developed through the lens of equity or cultural competency (e.g., to account for language barriers, vision/hearing/physical impairments, digital and health literacy, or other impacts of the social determinants of health). Non-English-speaking patients who were more than 80 years of age had tremendous difficulty engaging with this care model, as their communication preferences were more consistent with an in-person encounter. Although HaH uptake was relatively low in areas of high economic deprivation due to poor infrastructure and add-on device costs (smartphones and sensing equipment), great strides were made in improving access to rural communities, in step with investments in broadband and satellite internet service. For the first time, specialty care became available in many areas previously described as “medical deserts.” There was also growing recognition that HaH models implicitly exclude individuals experiencing unstable housing or homelessness.

Impact on the Health Care Workforce

The often ad hoc implementation of these virtual workflows sent prevailing levels of physician burnout soaring even higher due to the lack of clear practice guidelines, time to engage with the data and patient communication that these systems generate, and concerns for liability exposure. Lengthy wait times were reported in many urban areas, as physicians now had to manage two distinct clinic schedules (in-person and virtual). There was also considerable displacement of many health care provider roles due to automation and the transition to HaH. Custodial staff, nursing assistants, clerical workers, and some administrative staff roles were transitioned out of the traditional medical infrastructure and into caretaker or home health worker roles. For those “essential health care workers” such as nurses and physicians, retraining was set in motion by credentialing bodies to ensure that fluency in statistics, data science, and information systems became core competencies, allowing these workers to remain relevant and effective in the new digital age. Rote memorization of medical facts was no longer the norm in medical schools. A stronger emphasis was also placed on the human skills that cannot be displaced with automation such as empathy, physical examination, and implicit bias awareness. New health care roles also emerged in this data-rich delivery paradigm, such as digital health navigators, telenurses, and health data specialists. However, many of these new positions and several traditional ones (e.g., physicians, nurses, care coordinators) were increasingly outsourced to global vendors in an attempt to reduce the administrative costs of health care. In this distributed staffing model, international hubs of excellence also began to emerge for certain conditions or treatments (e.g., Sweden for the best interpretation of radiology images). With this in mind, the broader question of how to appropriately regulate remote second opinions across international borders arose. What licensure requirements should be enforced for the practice of international telemedicine? In an increasingly networked world, do state-based licensures still make sense? Calls for the nationalization of medical licensure, or at a minimum the harmonization of requirements across states, were proposed by a variety of stakeholders.

Data Privacy, Trust, and the Wisdom of Crowds

Mr. Jeff Jackson is a 63-year-old Black male with hard-to-control type 2 diabetes, early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and stable chronic heart failure (CHF). He has chosen to live alone in Youngstown, Ohio, since his wife died 5 years ago. An implanted microchip is able to sample, interpret, and transmit biometric (heart rate, temperature, oxygen saturation) and biochemical data (blood glucose, sodium levels, creatinine levels) about Mr. Jackson at high frequency. AI algorithms embedded within wall-mounted camera-based sensors are also able to detect the progression of his Alzheimer’s or warning signs of acute exacerbations of his CHF. All of this information is relayed 24/7 to a “digital health navigator” assigned by his health plan who serves as a health coach and care coordinator. As outlined in the consent agreement, monthly summaries of routine care are sent to his 23-year-old daughter, Jean, who resides in Miami, Florida. Potentially concerning events sensed in Ohio automatically trigger real-time “red alerts” to both the digital navigator and Jean. Arrangements like this raised many questions during their rollout, including but not limited to the potential vulnerability of these technologies to data breaches and cyberattacks, particularly since the identifiable medical record of every U.S. patient was transitioned to the cloud to facilitate interoperability and timely access. Should HIPAA include the home digital infrastructure in its scope? Under what circumstance should employers or insurance companies have access to personal data? What should be the recourse for care episodes involving harm due to egregious digital navigator negligence? Lastly, instances wherein elder or child abuse or domestic violence were detected using camera-based sensors (“bycatching”) raised ethical concerns as to whether the gravity of these offenses justified circumventing the confidentiality, privacy, and anonymity of involved patients and family members. These events also give rise to the broader question of who owns or is able to repossess these data. Will commercial entities be able to contract and monetize passively captured (audio or video) personal information (e.g., targeted advertising on social media based on fridge contents)?

About 6 months ago, based on his personality traits, risk preferences, and at the strong suggestion of his daughter, Jeff joined a health platform called “All2Gether” that linked individuals across the globe based on more than 200 phenotypes. The goal was to provide phenotype-specific social support to reduce loneliness. The platform offered crowd-sourced medical advice based on lived experiences, behavioral change interventions, and in some instances, mental health therapies based on biofeedback techniques. The much-heralded age of “democratizing medical knowledge” had finally arrived, with these platforms now able to serve millions of people worldwide and drive robust engagement. Over time, Jean had grown much more comfortable entrusting her father’s health data to these cloud-based platforms, rather than a primary care physician or the digital health navigation company. For Jean, this mistrust in her father’s primary care physician and the digital health navigation company was undergirded by the fact that neither she nor Jeff had direct access to the raw data or proprietary algorithms that informed his care. Conspiracy theories and science denial began to rapidly proliferate on these platforms, casting doubt on the value of long-established medical treatments and entrenching health care mistrust. This accelerated in some quarters, a rejection of digital therapeutics and data-driven medicine all together, in favor of more relationship-based approaches to health care.

The international reach of these companies also made regulatory oversight difficult because the practice of medicine is usually controlled through state-specific licensure. Legal experts pointed out that these international platform companies are often predatory and in violation of the existing corporate practice of medicine. Proponents argue that these companies are not “health services establishments” and their business model does not constitute a “provider–patient relationship,” in fact, they claim it is no different from a patient-initiated search engine query. Furthermore, for many patients in rural areas and parts of the developing world, these platforms are the only portal to timely and affordable medical advice. All of these issues are illustrative of the fact that many of the normative behaviors and standards around the practice of medicine evolved well before the information boom associated with the internet and digital care transformation catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Telehealth Case Study: Lessons Learned

Some lessons drawn from the above core case and visioning exercise that can inform the development of a cross-sectoral governance framework for emerging technologies focused on societal benefit are given below.

• The coexistence of health and non-health (e.g., wellness) applications can complicate governance.
• It is important to keep in mind the dual roles of state and federal regulation, as well, potentially, of regional (e.g., European Union) regulation.
• There are opportunities for shared or distributed governance in the gaps between regulatory authorities.
• There is a potential role for cross-sectoral governance groups at multiple levels and stages of governance.
• It is important to keep in mind the role of key enabling technologies (e.g., internet access and speed) in the development of the primary technology of interest.
• Key stakeholders to a technology will need to be adequately prepared for large shifts (e.g., dramatic ramping up of telehealth).
• Opportunities for regulatory nimbleness have been revealed by the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., steps skipped).
• Attention must be paid to the equity implications of access (or lack thereof) to enabling technologies.
• Attention should be paid to identifying and assessing the impact of intangible losses (e.g., healing touch, patient–provider relationships).
• Despite an explicit focus and justification for telehealth based on concerns about equity and access, success has been mixed—improving access in some cases and recapitulating existing inequities in others.
• Special attention must be paid to technologies requiring collection, storage, and use of human data.
• As the degree to which our lives are lived online versus in-person, we can become increasingly alienated from our normal markers of trust.
• We lack appropriate governance tools for a health care delivery landscape that is becoming increasingly digital and international.
• We may need to reconsider the traditional risk/benefit analysis of health care treatments when the opportunity for “immediate rescue” in situations of acute decompensation, no longer exists due to physical distance.
• One person’s valued benefit is another person’s harm (and vice versa) (e.g., home monitoring for safety versus surveillance).
• In order to adequately assess the risk/benefit balance, we need to make the trade-offs explicit (e.g., gains in convenience versus loss of privacy).
• We need both ethics and governance frameworks for addressing instances of “bycatching” (e.g., elder abuse captured via camera-based sensors).
• Technology (beyond traditional social media) can drive or erode trust in medical expertise (e.g., dissemination of false information about available treatment options on online platforms).
• There is flexibility/lack of oversight in the grey area that exists following the development of promising data regarding a new technology, but before proven efficacy and regulated products; this lack of oversight can drive innovation and investment in emerging technologies or delivery models, but also comes with risks.
• In the digital home, there are no silos around work/personal or public/private. What happens when the same living environment has to pivot from a place of rest to a place of work (remote work) to a place to get care (hospital-at-home)?

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https://doi.org/10.31478/202311e

Suggested Citation

Mathews, D., A. Abernethy, A. J. Butte, P. Ginsburg, B. Kocher, C. Novelli, L. Sandy, J. Smee, R. Fabi, A. C. Offodile II, J. S. Sherkow, R. D. Sullenger, E. Freiling, and C. Balatbat. 2023. Telehealth and Mobile Health: Case Study for Understanding and Anticipating Emerging Science and Technology. NAM Perspectives. Discussion Paper, National Academy of Medicine, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.31478/202311e .

Author Information

Debra Mathews, PhD, MA, is Associate Director for Research and Programs at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and Professor, Department of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD, is President of Product Development and Chief Medical Officer at Verily. Atul J. Butte, MD, PhD, is Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Paul Ginsburg, PhD, is Professor of the Practice of Health Policy and Management at the University of Southern California and Senior Fellow at the USC Schaeffer Center. Bob Kocher, MD, is Partner at Venrock. Catherine Novelli, JD, LLM, is President of Listening for America. Lewis Sandy, MD, is Principal and Co-founder, Sulu Coaching. John Smee, PhD, is Senior VP Engineering at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Rachel Fabi, PhD, is Associate Professor, Center for Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Anaeze C. Offodile II, MD, MPH, is Chief Strategy Officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Jacob S. Sherkow, JD, MA, is Professor of Law at the Illinois College of Law, Professor of Medicine at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Professor at the European Union Center, and Affiliate of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois. Rebecca D. Sullenger, BSPH, is a medical student at the Duke University School of Medicine. Emma Freiling, BA, is a Research Associate at the National Academy of Medicine. Celynne Balatbat, BA, was the Special Assistant to the NAM President at the National Academy of Medicine while this paper was authored.

Acknowledgments

This paper benefitted from the thoughtful input of Bernard Lo , University of California San Francisco; and George Demiris , University of Pennsylvania.

Conflict-of-Interest Disclosures

Amy Abernethy reports personal fees from Verily/Alphabet, relationships with Georgiamune and EQRx, and personal investments in Iterative Health and One Health, outside the submitted work. Atul J. Butte reports support for the present manuscript from National Institutes of Health; grants or contracts from Merck, Genentech, Peraton (as a prime for an NIH contract), Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, the Bakar Family Foundation; royalties or licenses from NuMedii, Personalis, and Progenity; consulting fees from Samsung, Gerson Lehman Group, Dartmouth, Gladstone Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Mango Tree Corporation; payment of honoraria from Boston Children’s Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, Endocrine Society, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, Roche, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, University of Utah, Society of Toxicology, Mayo Clinic, Pfizer, Cerner, Johnson and Johnson, and the Transplantation Society; payment for expert testimony from Foresight, support for attending meetings and/or travel from Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, Cleveland Clinic, University of Utah, Society of Toxicology, Mayo Clinic, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, American Association of Clinical Chemistry, Analytical, and Life Science & Diagnostics Association; patents planned, issued, or pending from Personalis, NuMedii, Carmenta, Progenity, Stanford, and University of California, San Francisco; participation on a Data Safety Monitoring Board or Advisory Board from Washington University in Saint Louis, Regenstrief Institute, Geisinger, and University of Michigan; leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee or advocacy group, from National Institutes of Health, National Academy of Medicine, and JAMA; and stock or stock options from Sophia Genetics, Allbirds, Coursera, Digital Ocean, Rivian, Invitae, Editas Medicine, Pacific Biosciences, Snowflake, Meta, Alphabet, 10x Genomics, Snap, Regeneron, Doximity, Netflix, Illumina, Royalty Pharma, Starbucks, Sutro Biopharma, Pfizer, Biontech, Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon, Microsoft, Moderna, Tesla, Apple, Personalis, and Lilly. Paul Ginsburg reports personal fees from the American Academy of Ophthalmology outside the submitted work. Bob Kocher reports being a Partner at the venture capital firm Venrock which invests in technology and healthcare businesses. Dr. Kocher is on the Boards of several healthcare services businesses that utilize telehealth technology including Lyra Health, Aledade, Devoted Health, Virta Health, Accompany Health, Sitka, Need, and Candid. Jacob S. Sherkow reports employment with the University of Illinois, grants from National Institutes of Health, personal fees from Expert Consulting services, outside the submitted work.

Correspondence

Questions or comments should be directed to Debra Mathews at [email protected].

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily of the authors’ organizations, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies). The paper is intended to help inform and stimulate discussion. It is not a report of the NAM or the National Academies. Copyright by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

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Top 10 FinTech Case Studies [A Detailed Exploration] [2024]

In the dynamic realm of financial technology—often abbreviated as FinTech—groundbreaking innovations have revolutionized how we interact with money, democratizing access to myriad financial services. No longer confined to traditional banking and financial institutions, today’s consumers can easily invest, transact, and manage their finances at their fingertips. Through a deep dive into the top five FinTech case studies, this article seeks to illuminate the transformative power of financial technology. From trailblazing start-ups to industry disruptors, we will unravel how these companies have reshaped the financial landscape, offering invaluable lessons for consumers and future FinTech leaders.

Top 10 FinTech case studies [A Detailed Exploration] [2024]

Case study 1: square – democratizing payment processing.

Launched in 2009 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Square sought to fill a gaping hole in the financial services market—accessible payment processing for small businesses. In an industry overshadowed by high costs and complexity, Square introduced a game-changing point-of-sale (POS) system, using a tiny card reader that could be plugged into a smartphone.

Key Challenges

1. High Costs: The financial burden of traditional payment systems made it difficult for small businesses to participate, affecting their growth and market reach.

2. Complexity: Legacy systems were cumbersome, requiring hefty upfront investments in specialized hardware and software, with a steep learning curve for users.

3. Limited Accessibility: Many small businesses had to resort to cash-only operations, losing potential customers who preferred card payments.

Related: Important FinTech KPIs Explained

Strategies Implemented

1. User-Friendly Hardware: Square’s portable card reader was revolutionary. Easy to use and set up, it integrated seamlessly with smartphones.

2. Transparent Pricing: A flat-rate fee structure eliminates hidden costs, making budgeting more predictable for businesses.

3. Integrated Business Solutions: Square went beyond payment processing to offer additional services such as inventory management, analytics, and loans.

Results Achieved

1. Market Penetration: As of 2023, Square boasted over 4 million sellers using its platform, solidifying its market position.

2. Revenue Growth: Square achieved significant financial gains, reporting $4.68 billion in revenue in Q2 2021—a 143% year-over-year increase.

3. Product Diversification: Expanding its ecosystem, Square now offers an array of services from payroll to cryptocurrency trading through its Cash App.

Key Learnings

1. Simplicity is Key: Square’s user-centric design proved that simplifying complex processes can open new markets and encourage adoption.

2. Holistic Ecosystems: Offering integrated services can foster customer loyalty and increase lifetime value.

3. Transparency Builds Trust: A clear, straightforward fee structure can differentiate a FinTech solution in a market known for its opaqueness.

4. Accessibility: Providing easy-to-use and affordable services can empower smaller businesses, contributing to broader economic inclusion.

Related: Benefits of Green FinTech for Businesses

Case Study 2: Robinhood – Democratizing Investment

Founded in 2013, Robinhood burst onto the financial scene with a disruptive promise—commission-free trading. Unlike traditional brokerage firms that charged a fee for every trade, Robinhood allowed users to buy and sell stocks at no direct cost. The platform’s user-friendly interface and sleek design made it particularly appealing to millennials and Gen Z, demographics often underrepresented in the investment world.

1. High Commissions: Traditional brokerages often had fee structures that discouraged individuals, especially younger investors, from participating in the stock market.

2. Complex User Interfaces: Many existing trading platforms featured clunky, complicated interfaces that were intimidating for novice investors.

3. Limited Access: Entry-level investors often felt the investment landscape was an exclusive club beyond their financial and technical reach.

1. Commission-Free Trading: Robinhood’s flagship offering eliminated the financial barriers that commissions presented, inviting a new cohort of individual investors into the market.

2. User-Friendly Design: A sleek, intuitive interface made stock trading less intimidating, broadening the platform’s appeal.

3. Educational Resources: Robinhood provides educational content to help novice investors understand market dynamics, equipping them for more informed trading.

1. Market Disruption: Robinhood’s model has pressured traditional brokerage firms to rethink their fee structures, with several following suit by offering commission-free trades.

2. User Growth: As of 2023, Robinhood has amassed over 23.2 million users, a testament to its market penetration.

3. Public Scrutiny: Despite its success, Robinhood has not been without controversy, especially regarding its revenue model and lack of transparency. These issues have sparked widespread debate about ethical practices in fintech.

1. User-Centricity Drives Adoption: Robinhood’s easy-to-use platform illustrates that reducing friction encourages higher user engagement and diversifies the investor base.

2. Transparency is Crucial: The controversies surrounding Robinhood serve as a cautionary tale about the importance of transparent business practices in building and maintaining consumer trust.

3. Disruption Spurs Industry Change: Robinhood’s entry forced a reevaluation of longstanding industry norms, underscoring the influence a disruptive FinTech company can wield.

Related: How to Get an Internship in the FinTech Sector?

Case Study 3: Stripe – Simplifying Online Payments

Founded in 2010 by Irish entrepreneurs Patrick and John Collison, Stripe set out to solve a significant problem—simplifying online payments. During that time, businesses looking to accept payments online had to navigate a complex labyrinth of banking relationships, security protocols, and regulatory compliance. Stripe introduced a straightforward solution—APIs that allow businesses to handle online payments, subscriptions, and various other financial transactions with ease.

1. Complex Setup: Traditional online payment methods often require cumbersome integration and extensive documentation.

2. Security Concerns: Handling financial transactions online raised issues about data safety and compliance with financial regulations.

3. Limited Flexibility: Most pre-existing payment solutions were not adaptable to specific business needs, particularly for start-ups and SMEs.

1. Simple APIs: Stripe’s suite of APIs allowed businesses to integrate payment gateways effortlessly, removing barriers to entry for online commerce.

2. Enhanced Security: Stripe implemented robust security measures, including tokenization and SSL encryption, to protect transaction data.

3. Customization: Stripe’s modular design gave businesses the freedom to tailor the payment experience according to their specific needs.

1. Broad Adoption: Stripe’s intuitive and secure payment solutions have attracted a diverse client base, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

2. Global Reach: As of 2023, Stripe operates in over 46 countries, testifying its global appeal and functionality.

3. Financial Milestone: Stripe’s valuation skyrocketed to $50 billion in 2023, making it one of the most valuable FinTech companies globally.

1. Ease of Use: Stripe’s success proves that a user-friendly, straightforward approach can go a long way in attracting a wide range of customers.

2. Security is Paramount: Handling financial data requires stringent security measures, and Stripe’s focus on secure transactions sets an industry standard.

3. Scalability and Flexibility: Providing a modular, customizable solution allows businesses to scale and adapt, increasing customer satisfaction and retention.

Related: FinTech Skills to Add in Your Resume

Case Study 4: Coinbase – Mainstreaming Cryptocurrency

Founded in 2012, Coinbase set out to make cryptocurrency trading as simple and accessible as using an email account. At the time, the world of cryptocurrency was a wild west of complicated interfaces, murky regulations, and high-risk investments. Coinbase aimed to change this by offering a straightforward, user-friendly platform to buy, sell, and manage digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many others.

1. User Complexity: Before Coinbase, cryptocurrency trading required high technical know-how, making it inaccessible to the average person.

2. Security Risks: The lack of centralized governance in the crypto world led to various security concerns, including hacking and fraud.

3. Regulatory Uncertainty: The absence of clear regulations concerning cryptocurrency created a hesitant environment for both users and investors.

1. User-Friendly Interface: Coinbase developed a sleek, easy-to-use platform with a beginner-friendly approach, which allowed users to start trading with just a few clicks.

2. Enhanced Security: The platform incorporated advanced security features such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and cold storage for digital assets to mitigate risks.

3. Educational Content: Coinbase offers guides, tutorials, and other educational resources to help demystify the complex world of cryptocurrency.

1. Mass Adoption: As of 2023, Coinbase had over 150 million verified users, contributing significantly to mainstreaming cryptocurrencies.

2. Initial Public Offering (IPO): Coinbase went public in April 2021 with a valuation of around $86 billion, highlighting its commercial success.

3. Regulatory Challenges: While Coinbase has succeeded in democratizing crypto trading, it continues to face scrutiny and regulatory hurdles, emphasizing the sector’s evolving nature.

1. Accessibility Drives Adoption: Coinbase’s user-friendly design has played a pivotal role in driving mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, illustrating the importance of making complex technologies accessible to everyday users.

2. Security is a Selling Point: In an ecosystem rife with security concerns, robust safety measures can set a platform apart and attract a broader user base.

3. Regulatory Adaptability: The ongoing regulatory challenges highlight the need for adaptability and proactive governance in the fast-evolving cryptocurrency market.

Related: Top FinTech Interview Questions and Answers

Case Study 5: Revolut – All-In-One Financial Platform

Founded in 2015, Revolut started as a foreign currency exchange service, primarily focusing on eliminating outrageous foreign exchange fees. With the broader vision of becoming a financial super-app, Revolut swiftly expanded its services to include digital banking, stock trading, cryptocurrency exchange, and other financial services. This rapid evolution aimed to provide users with an all-encompassing financial solution on a single platform.

1. Fragmented Services: Before Revolut, consumers had to use multiple platforms for various financial needs, leading to a fragmented user experience.

2. High Costs: Traditional financial services, particularly foreign exchange and cross-border payments, often have hefty fees.

3. Slow Adaptation: Conventional banking systems were slow to integrate new financial technologies, leaving a gap in the market for more agile solutions.

1. Unified Platform: Revolut combined various financial services into a single app, offering users a seamless experience and a one-stop solution for their financial needs.

2. Competitive Pricing: By leveraging FinTech efficiencies, Revolut offered competitive rates for services like currency exchange and stock trading.

3. Rapid Innovation: The platform continually rolled out new features, staying ahead of consumer demand and forcing traditional institutions to catch up.

1. User Growth: As of 2023, Revolut has amassed over 30 million retail customers, solidifying its reputation as a financial super-app.

2. Revenue Increase: In 2021, Revolut’s revenues climbed to approximately $765 million, indicating its business model’s viability.

3. Industry Influence: Revolut’s multi-functional capabilities have forced traditional financial institutions to reconsider their offerings, pushing the industry toward integrated, user-friendly solutions.

1. User-Centric Design: Revolut’s success stems from its focus on solving real-world consumer problems with an easy-to-use, integrated platform.

2. Agility Wins: In the fast-paced world of fintech, the ability to innovate and adapt quickly to market needs can be a significant differentiator.

3. Competitive Pricing is Crucial: Financial services have always been a cost-sensitive sector. Offering competitive pricing can draw users away from traditional platforms.

Related: Surprising FinTech Facts and Statistics

Case Study  6 : Chime – Revolutionizing Personal Banking

Essential term: digital banking.

Digital banking represents the digitization of all traditional banking activities, where financial services are delivered predominantly through the internet. This innovation caters to a growing demographic of tech-savvy users seeking efficient and accessible banking solutions.

Founded in 2013, Chime entered the financial market with a bold mission: to redefine personal banking through simplicity, transparency, and customer-centricity. At a time when traditional banks were mired in fee-heavy structures and complex service models, Chime introduced a revolutionary no-fee model complemented by a streamlined digital experience, challenging the status quo of personal banking.

1. Fee-Heavy Structure: Traditional banks heavily relied on various fees, including overdraft and maintenance charges, alienating a significant portion of potential customers, particularly those seeking straightforward banking solutions.

2. Complexity and Inaccessibility: Conventional banking systems were often marred by cumbersome procedures and lacked user-friendly interfaces, making them less appealing, especially to younger, more tech-savvy generations.

3. Customer Service: The traditional banking sector frequently struggled with providing proactive and responsive customer service, creating a gap in customer satisfaction and engagement.

1. No-Fee Model: By eliminating common banking fees such as overdraft fees, Chime positioned itself as a customer-friendly alternative, significantly attracting customers frustrated with traditional banking penalties.

2. User-Friendly App: Chime’s app was designed with user experience at its core, offering an intuitive and accessible platform for everyday banking operations, thereby enhancing overall customer experience.

3. Automatic Savings Tools: Chime innovated with features like automatic savings round-up and early paycheck access, designed to empower customers in their financial management.

1. Expansive Customer Base: Chime successfully captured a broad market segment, particularly resonating with millennials and Gen Z, evidenced by its rapid accumulation of millions of users.

2. Catalyst for Innovation: The company’s growth trajectory and model pressured traditional banks to reassess and innovate their fee structures and service offerings.

3. Valuation Surge: Reflecting its market impact and success, Chime’s valuation experienced a substantial increase, marking its significance in the banking sector.

1. Customer-Centric Approach: Chime’s journey underscores the importance of addressing customer pain points, such as fee structures, and offering a seamless digital banking experience, which can be instrumental in rapid user base growth.

2. Innovation in Features: The introduction of genuinely helpful financial management tools can significantly differentiate a FinTech company in a competitive market.

3. Disruptive Influence: Chime’s success story illustrates how a digital-first approach can disrupt and challenge traditional banking models, paving the way for new, innovative banking experiences.

Related: Is FinTech Overhyped?

Case Study  7 : LendingClub – Pioneering Peer-to-Peer Lending

Essential term: peer-to-peer (p2p) lending.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending is a method of debt financing that enables individuals to borrow and lend money without using an official financial institution as an intermediary. This model directly connects borrowers and lenders through online platforms.

LendingClub, founded in 2006, emerged as a trailblazer in the lending industry by introducing a novel P2P lending model. This innovative approach offered a substantial departure from the traditional credit system, typically dominated by banks and credit unions, aiming to democratize access to credit.

1. High-Interest Rates: Traditional loans were often synonymous with high-interest rates, rendering them inaccessible or financially burdensome for many borrowers.

2. Limited Access to Credit: Conventional lending mechanisms frequently sidelined individuals with lower credit scores, creating a significant barrier to credit access.

3. Intermediary Costs: The traditional lending process involves numerous intermediaries, leading to additional costs and inefficiencies for borrowers and lenders.

1. Direct Platform: LendingClub’s platform revolutionized lending by directly connecting borrowers with investors, reducing the overall cost of obtaining loans.

2. Risk Assessment Tools: The company employed advanced algorithms for assessing the risk profiles of borrowers, which broadened the spectrum of loan accessibility to include individuals with diverse credit histories.

3. Streamlined Process: LendingClub’s online platform streamlined the loan application and disbursement processes, enhancing transparency and efficiency.

1. Expanded Credit Access: LendingClub significantly widened the avenue for credit, particularly benefiting those with less-than-perfect credit scores.

2. Influencing the Market: The P2P lending model introduced by LendingClub prompted traditional lenders to reconsider their rates and processes in favor of more streamlined, borrower-friendly approaches.

3. Navigating Regulatory Hurdles: The journey of LendingClub highlighted the intricate regulatory challenges of financial innovation, underscoring the importance of adaptive compliance strategies.

1. Efficiency of Direct Connections: Eliminating intermediaries in the lending process can lead to substantial cost reductions and process efficiency improvements.

2. Broadening Credit Accessibility: FinTech can play a pivotal role in democratizing access to financial services by implementing innovative risk assessment methodologies.

3. Importance of Regulatory Compliance: Sustainable innovation in the FinTech sector necessitates a keen awareness and adaptability to the evolving regulatory landscape.

Related: Who is a FinTech CTO?

Case Study  8 : Brex – Reinventing Business Credit for Startups

Essential term: corporate credit cards.

Corporate credit cards are specialized financial tools designed for business use. They offer features like higher credit limits, rewards tailored to business spending, and, often, additional tools for expense management.

Launched in 2017, Brex emerged with a bold vision to transform how startups access and manage credit. In a financial landscape where traditional corporate credit cards posed steep requirements and were often misaligned with the unique needs of burgeoning startups, Brex introduced an innovative solution. Their model focused on the company’s cash balance and spending patterns rather than relying on personal credit histories.

1. Inaccessibility for Startups: Traditional credit systems, with their reliance on extensive credit history, were largely inaccessible to new startups, which typically lacked this background.

2. Rigid Structures: Conventional corporate credit cards were not designed to accommodate rapidly evolving startups’ fluid and dynamic financial needs.

3. Personal Guarantee Requirement: A common stipulation in business credit involves personal guarantees, posing a significant risk for startup founders.

1. No Personal Guarantee: Brex innovated by offering credit cards without needing a personal guarantee, basing creditworthiness on business metrics.

2. Tailored Financial Solutions: Understanding the unique ecosystem of startups, Brex designed its services to be flexible and in tune with their evolving needs.

3. Technology-Driven Approach: Utilizing advanced algorithms and data analytics, Brex could assess the creditworthiness of startups in a more nuanced and comprehensive manner.

1. Breaking Barriers: Brex made corporate credit more accessible to startups, removing traditional barriers.

2. Market Disruption: By tailoring its product, Brex pressures traditional financial institutions to innovate and rethink its credit card offerings.

3. Rapid Growth: Brex’s unique approach led to rapid adoption within the startup community, significantly growing its customer base and market presence.

1. Adapting to Market Needs: Brex’s success underscores the importance of understanding and adapting to the specific needs of your target market.

2. Innovative Credit Assessment: Leveraging technology for credit assessment can open new avenues and democratize access to financial products.

3 Risk and Reward: The move to eliminate personal guarantees, while riskier, positioned Brex as a game-changer, highlighting the balance between risk and innovation in FinTech.

Related: Is FinTech a Dying Career Industry?

Case Study  9 : SoFi – Transforming Personal Finance

Essential term: financial services platform.

A financial services platform offers a range of financial products and services, such as loans, investment options, and banking services, through a unified digital interface.

SoFi, short for Social Finance, Inc., was founded in 2011 to revolutionize personal finance. Initially focused on student loan refinancing, SoFi quickly expanded its offerings to include a broad spectrum of financial services, including personal loans, mortgages, insurance, investment products, and a cash management account. This expansion was driven by a vision to provide a one-stop financial solution for consumers, particularly catering to the needs of early-career professionals.

1. Fragmented Financial Services: Consumers often had to navigate multiple platforms and institutions to manage their various financial needs, leading to a disjointed financial experience.

2. Student Loan Debt: Many graduates needed more flexible and affordable refinancing options with student debt escalating.

3. Accessibility and Education: A significant segment of the population lacked access to comprehensive financial services and the knowledge to navigate them effectively.

1. Diverse Financial Products: SoFi expanded its product range beyond student loan refinancing to include a suite of financial services, offering more holistic financial solutions.

2. Tech-Driven Approach: Utilizing technology, SoFi provided streamlined, user-friendly experiences across its platform, simplifying the process of managing personal finances.

3. Financial Education and Advice: SoFi offered educational resources and personalized financial advice, positioning itself as a partner in its customers’ financial journey.

1. Expanding Consumer Base: SoFi succeeded in attracting a broad customer base, especially among young professionals looking for integrated financial services.

2. Innovation in Personal Finance: The company’s expansion into various financial services positioned it as a leader in innovative personal finance solutions.

3. Brand Recognition and Trust: With its comprehensive approach and focus on customer education, SoFi built a strong brand reputation and trust among its users.

1. Integrated Services Appeal: Offering a broad array of financial services through a single platform can attract customers seeking a unified financial management experience.

2. Leveraging Technology for Ease: Using technology to simplify and streamline financial services is key to enhancing customer experience and satisfaction.

3. Empowering Through Education: Providing users with financial education and advice can foster long-term customer relationships and trust.

Related: FinTech vs Investment Banking

Case Study  10 : Apple Pay – Redefining Digital Payments

Essential term: mobile payment system.

A mobile payment system allows consumers to make payments for goods and services using mobile devices, typically through apps or integrated digital wallets.

Launched in 2014, Apple Pay marked Apple Inc.’s foray into the digital payment landscape. It was introduced with the aim of transforming how consumers perform transactions, focusing on enhancing the convenience, security, and speed of payments. Apple Pay allows users to make payments using their Apple devices, employing Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. This move was a strategic step in leveraging the widespread use of smartphones for financial transactions.

1. Security Concerns: The rising incidences of data breaches and fraud in digital payments made consumers skeptical about the security of mobile payment systems.

2. User Adoption: Convincing consumers to shift from traditional payment methods like cash and cards to a digital platform requires overcoming ingrained habits and perceptions.

3. Merchant Acceptance: For widespread adoption, a large number of merchants needed to accept and support Apple Pay.

1. Enhanced Security Features: Apple Pay uses a combination of device-specific numbers and unique transaction codes, ensuring that card numbers are not stored on devices or servers, thereby enhancing transaction security.

2. Seamless Integration: Apple Pay was designed to work seamlessly with existing Apple devices, offering an intuitive and convenient user experience.

3. Extensive Partnership with Banks and Retailers: Apple forged partnerships with numerous banks, credit card companies, and retailers to ensure widespread acceptance of Apple Pay.

1. Widespread Adoption: Apple Pay quickly gained a significant user base, with millions of transactions processed shortly after its launch.

2. Market Leadership: Apple Pay became one of the leading mobile payment solutions globally, setting a standard in the digital payment industry.

3. Influence on Payment Behaviors: The introduction of Apple Pay substantially accelerated the shift towards contactless payments and mobile wallets.

1. Trust Through Security: The emphasis on security can be a major driving force in user adoption of new financial technologies.

2. Integration and Convenience: A system that integrates seamlessly with users’ daily lives and provides tangible convenience can successfully change long-standing consumer habits.

3. Strategic Partnerships: Building a network of partnerships is key to the widespread acceptance and success of a new payment system.

These stories of globally renowned FinTech trailblazers offer invaluable insights, providing a must-read blueprint for anyone looking to make their mark in this rapidly evolving industry.

1. Square shows that focusing on user needs, especially in underserved markets, can drive innovation and market share.

2. Robinhood serves as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale, advocating for democratization while emphasizing the importance of ethical practices.

3. Stripe proves that simplifying complex processes through customizable, user-friendly solutions can redefine industries.

4. Coinbase highlights the transformative potential of making new financial instruments like cryptocurrency accessible while reminding us of regulatory challenges.

5. Revolut sets the bar high with its user-centric, all-in-one platform, emphasizing the need for agility and competitive pricing in the sector.

The key to FinTech success lies in simplicity, agility, user focus, and ethical considerations. These case studies serve as guiding lights for future innovation, emphasizing that technological superiority must be balanced with customer needs and ethical responsibilities.

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Who Gets the Loudest Voice in DEI Decisions?

Business leaders are wrestling with how to manage their organizations' commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. If you were a CEO, which constituency would you consider most: your employees, customers, or investors? asks James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

• 26 Jul 2023

STEM Needs More Women. Recruiters Often Keep Them Out

Tech companies and programs turn to recruiters to find top-notch candidates, but gender bias can creep in long before women even apply, according to research by Jacqueline Ng Lane and colleagues. She highlights several tactics to make the process more equitable.

• 18 Jul 2023

Will Global Demand for Oil Peak This Decade?

The International Energy Agency expects the world's oil demand to start to ebb in the coming years. However, Joseph Lassiter and Lauren Cohen say the outlook will likely be more complex, especially as poor and fast-growing regions seek energy sources for their economies.

• 28 Apr 2023

Sweden’s Northvolt Electric Battery Maker: A Startup with a Mission

In Stockholm, Sweden an upstart battery maker, Northvolt, is trying to recreate the value chain for European car manufacturers making the switch to EVs. With two founders from Tesla and two experienced financiers at the helm, the company seems bound for success. But can they partner with government, scale fast enough, and truly be part of the climate solution? Harvard Business School professor George Serafeim discusses what it takes to scale a business—the right people, in the right place, at the right time—with the aim of providing a climate solution in the case, “Northvolt, Building Batteries to Fight Climate Change.” As part of a new first-year MBA course at Harvard Business School, this case examines the central question: what is the social purpose of the firm?

• 18 Apr 2023

What Happens When Banks Ditch Coal: The Impact Is 'More Than Anyone Thought'

Bank divestment policies that target coal reduced carbon dioxide emissions, says research by Boris Vallée and Daniel Green. Could the finance industry do even more to confront climate change?

• 11 Apr 2023

A Rose by Any Other Name: Supply Chains and Carbon Emissions in the Flower Industry

Headquartered in Kitengela, Kenya, Sian Flowers exports roses to Europe. Because cut flowers have a limited shelf life and consumers want them to retain their appearance for as long as possible, Sian and its distributors used international air cargo to transport them to Amsterdam, where they were sold at auction and trucked to markets across Europe. But when the Covid-19 pandemic caused huge increases in shipping costs, Sian launched experiments to ship roses by ocean using refrigerated containers. The company reduced its costs and cut its carbon emissions, but is a flower that travels halfway around the world truly a “low-carbon rose”? Harvard Business School professors Willy Shih and Mike Toffel debate these questions and more in their case, “Sian Flowers: Fresher by Sea?”

• 28 Mar 2023

BMW’s Decarbonization Strategy: Sustainable for the Environment and the Bottom Line

In mid-2022, automakers, consumers, regulators, and investors were focusing on the transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles (EV). While this would reduce tail-pipe emissions, it ignored the fact that the production of EVs—and especially their batteries—increases emissions in the supply chain. Many automakers were announcing deadlines by which they would stop selling ICE vehicles altogether, buoyed by investment analysts and favorable press. But BMW decided to focus on lifecycle emissions and pursued a flexible powertrain strategy by offering vehicles with several options: gasoline and diesel-fueled ICE, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and battery electric vehicles. That approach received a frostier reception in the stock market. Assistant Professor Shirley Lu discusses how BMW plans to convince stakeholders that its strategy is good for both the environment and the company’s financial performance in the case, “Driving Decarbonization at BMW.”

• 23 Mar 2023

As Climate Fears Mount, More Investors Turn to 'ESG' Funds Despite Few Rules

Regulations and ratings remain murky, but that's not deterring climate-conscious investors from paying more for funds with an ESG label. Research by Mark Egan and Malcolm Baker sizes up the premium these funds command. Is it time for more standards in impact investing?

• 13 Jan 2023

Are Companies Actually Greener—or Are They All Talk?

More companies than ever use ESG reports to showcase their social consciousness. But are these disclosures meaningful or just marketing? Research by Ethan Rouen delves into the murky world of voluntary reporting and offers advice for investors.

• 09 Nov 2022
• In Practice

COP27: What Can Business Leaders Do to Fight Climate Change Now?

The US government plans to spend $370 billion to cut greenhouse gases and expand renewable energy—its biggest investment yet. In the wake of COP27, we asked Harvard Business School faculty members how executives could seize this moment.

28 Case Study Examples Every Marketer Should See

Published: March 08, 2023

Putting together a compelling case study is one of the most powerful strategies for showcasing your product and attracting future customers. But it's not easy to create case studies that your audience can’t wait to read.

In this post, we’ll go over the definition of a case study and the best examples to inspire you.

What is a case study?

A case study is a detailed story of something your company did. It includes a beginning — often discussing a conflict, an explanation of what happened next, and a resolution that explains how the company solved or improved on something.

A case study proves how your product has helped other companies by demonstrating real-life results. Not only that, but marketing case studies with solutions typically contain quotes from the customer. This means that they’re not just ads where you praise your own product. Rather, other companies are praising your company — and there’s no stronger marketing material than a verbal recommendation or testimonial. A great case study is also filled with research and stats to back up points made about a project's results.

There are myriad ways to use case studies in your marketing strategy . From featuring them on your website to including them in a sales presentation, a case study is a strong, persuasive tool that shows customers why they should work with you — straight from another customer. Writing one from scratch is hard, though, which is why we’ve created a collection of case study templates for you to get started.

Fill out the form below to access the free case study templates.

Free Case Study Templates

Showcase your company's success using these three free case study templates.

• Data-Driven Case Study Template
• Product-Specific Case Study Template
• General Case Study Template

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

There’s no better way to generate more leads than by writing case studies . But without case study examples to draw inspiration from, it can be difficult to write impactful studies that convince visitors to submit a form.

Marketing Case Study Examples

To help you create an attractive and high-converting case study, we've put together a list of some of our favorites. This list includes famous case studies in marketing, technology, and business.

These studies can show you how to frame your company offers in a way that is both meaningful and useful to your audience. So, take a look, and let these examples inspire your next brilliant case study design.

These marketing case studies with solutions show the value proposition of each product. They also show how each company benefited in both the short and long term using quantitative data. In other words, you don’t get just nice statements, like "This company helped us a lot." You see actual change within the firm through numbers and figures.

You can put your learnings into action with HubSpot's Free Case Study Templates . Available as custom designs and text-based documents, you can upload these templates to your CMS or send them to prospects as you see fit.

1. " How Handled Scaled from Zero to 121 Locations with the Help of HubSpot ," by HubSpot

What's interesting about this case study is the way it leads with the customer. That reflects a major HubSpot cornerstone, which is to always solve for the customer first. The copy leads with a brief description of why the CEO of Handled founded the company and why he thought Handled could benefit from adopting a CRM. The case study also opens up with one key data point about Handled’s success using HubSpot, namely that it grew to 121 locations.

Notice that this case study uses mixed media. Yes, there is a short video, but it's elaborated upon in the other text on the page. So while your case studies can use one or the other, don't be afraid to combine written copy with visuals to emphasize the project's success.

Key Learnings from the HubSpot Case Study Example

• Give the case study a personal touch by focusing on the CEO rather than the company itself.
• Use multimedia to engage website visitors as they read the case study.

2. " The Whole Package ," by IDEO

Here's a design company that knows how to lead with simplicity in its case studies. As soon as the visitor arrives at the page, they’re greeted with a big, bold photo and the title of the case study — which just so happens to summarize how IDEO helped its client. It summarizes the case study in three snippets: The challenge, the impact, and the outcome.

Immediately, IDEO communicates its impact — the company partnered with H&M to remove plastic from its packaging — but it doesn't stop there. As the user scrolls down, the challenge, impact, and progress are elaborated upon with comprehensive (but not overwhelming) copy that outlines what that process looked like, replete with quotes and intriguing visuals.

Key Learnings from the IDEO Case Study Example

• Split up the takeaways of your case studies into bite-sized sections.
• Always use visuals and images to enrich the case study experience, especially if it’s a comprehensive case study.

3. " Rozum Robotics intensifies its PR game with Awario ," by Awario

In this case study, Awario greets the user with a summary straight away — so if you’re feeling up to reading the entire case study, you can scan the snapshot and understand how the company serves its customers. The case study then includes jump links to several sections, such as "Company Profile," "Rozum Robotics' Pains," "Challenge," "Solution," and "Results and Improvements."

The sparse copy and prominent headings show that you don’t need a lot of elaborate information to show the value of your products and services. Like the other case study examples on this list, it includes visuals and quotes to demonstrate the effectiveness of the company’s efforts. The case study ends with a bulleted list that shows the results.

Key Learnings from the Awario Robotics Case Study Example

• Create a table of contents to make your case study easier to navigate.
• Include a bulleted list of the results you achieved for your client.

4. " Chevrolet DTU ," by Carol H. Williams

If you’ve worked with a company that’s well-known, use only the name in the title — like Carol H. Williams, one of the nation’s top advertising agencies, does here. The "DTU," stands for "Discover the Unexpected." It generates interest because you want to find out what the initials mean.

They keep your interest in this case study by using a mixture of headings, images, and videos to describe the challenges, objectives, and solutions of the project. The case study closes with a summary of the key achievements that Chevrolet’s DTU Journalism Fellows reached during the project.

Key Learnings from the Carol H. Williams Case Study Example

• If you’ve worked with a big brand before, consider only using the name in the title — just enough to pique interest.
• Use a mixture of headings and subheadings to guide users through the case study.

5. " How Fractl Earned Links from 931 Unique Domains for Porch.com in a Single Year ," by Fractl

Fractl uses both text and graphic design in their Porch.com case study to immerse the viewer in a more interesting user experience. For instance, as you scroll, you'll see the results are illustrated in an infographic-design form as well as the text itself.

Further down the page, they use icons like a heart and a circle to illustrate their pitch angles, and graphs to showcase their results. Rather than writing which publications have mentioned Porch.com during Fractl’s campaign, they incorporated the media outlets’ icons for further visual diversity.

Key Learnings from the Fractl Case Study Example

• Let pictures speak for you by incorporating graphs, logos, and icons all throughout the case study.
• Start the case study by right away stating the key results, like Fractl does, instead of putting the results all the way at the bottom.

6. " The Met ," by Fantasy

What's the best way to showcase the responsiveness and user interface of a website? Probably by diving right into it with a series of simple showcases— which is exactly what Fantasy does on their case study page for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They keep the page simple and clean, inviting you to review their redesign of the Met’s website feature-by-feature.

Each section is simple, showing a single piece of the new website's interface so that users aren’t overwhelmed with information and can focus on what matters most.

If you're more interested in text, you can read the objective for each feature. Fantasy understands that, as a potential customer, this is all you need to know. Scrolling further, you're greeted with a simple "Contact Us" CTA.

Key Learnings from the Fantasy Case Study Example

• You don’t have to write a ton of text to create a great case study. Focus on the solution you delivered itself.
• Include a CTA at the bottom inviting visitors to contact you.

7. " Rovio: How Rovio Grew Into a Gaming Superpower ," by App Annie

If your client had a lot of positive things to say about you, take a note from App Annie’s Rovio case study and open up with a quote from your client. The case study also closes with a quote, so that the case study doesn’t seem like a promotion written by your marketing team but a story that’s taken straight from your client’s mouth. It includes a photo of a Rovio employee, too.

Another thing this example does well? It immediately includes a link to the product that Rovio used (namely, App Annie Intelligence) at the top of the case study. The case study closes with a call-to-action button prompting users to book a demo.

Key Learnings from the App Annie Case Study Example

• Feature quotes from your client at the beginning and end of the case study.
• Include a mention of the product right at the beginning and prompt users to learn more about the product.

8. " Embracing first-party data: 3 success stories from HubSpot ," by Think with Google

Google takes a different approach to text-focused case studies by choosing three different companies to highlight.

The case study is clean and easily scannable. It has sections for each company, with quotes and headers that clarify the way these three distinct stories connect. The simple format also uses colors and text that align with the Google brand.

Another differentiator is the focus on data. This case study is less than a thousand words, but it's packed with useful data points. Data-driven insights quickly and clearly show how the value of leveraging first-party data while prioritizing consumer privacy.

Key Learnings from the Think with Google Case Study Example

• A case study doesn’t need to be long or complex to be powerful.
• Clear data points are a quick and effective way to prove value.

9. " In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study ," by Switch

Switch is an international marketing agency based in Malta that knocks it out of the park with this case study. Its biggest challenge is effectively communicating what it did for its client without ever revealing the client’s name. It also effectively keeps non-marketers in the loop by including a glossary of terms on page 4.

The PDF case study reads like a compelling research article, including titles like "In-Depth Performance Marketing Case Study," "Scenario," and "Approach," so that readers get a high-level overview of what the client needed and why they approached Switch. It also includes a different page for each strategy. For instance, if you’d only be interested in hiring Switch for optimizing your Facebook ads, you can skip to page 10 to see how they did it.

The PDF is fourteen pages long but features big fonts and plenty of white space, so viewers can easily skim it in only a few minutes.

Key Learnings from the Switch Case Study Example

• If you want to go into specialized information, include a glossary of terms so that non-specialists can easily understand.
• Close with a CTA page in your case study PDF and include contact information for prospective clients.

10. " Gila River ," by OH Partners

Let pictures speak for you, like OH Partners did in this case study. While you’ll quickly come across a heading and some text when you land on this case study page, you’ll get the bulk of the case study through examples of actual work OH Partners did for its client. You will see OH Partners’ work in a billboard, magazine, and video. This communicates to website visitors that if they work with OH Partners, their business will be visible everywhere.

And like the other case studies here, it closes with a summary of what the firm achieved for its client in an eye-catching way.

Key Learnings from the OH Partners Case Study Example

• Let the visuals speak by including examples of the actual work you did for your client — which is especially useful for branding and marketing agencies.
• Always close out with your achievements and how they impacted your client.

11. " Facing a Hater ," by Digitas

Digitas' case study page for Sprite’s #ILOVEYOUHATER campaign keeps it brief while communicating the key facts of Digitas’ work for the popular soda brand. The page opens with an impactful image of a hundred people facing a single man. It turns out, that man is the biggest "bully" in Argentina, and the people facing him are those whom he’s bullied before.

Scrolling down, it's obvious that Digitas kept Sprite at the forefront of their strategy, but more than that, they used real people as their focal point. They leveraged the Twitter API to pull data from Tweets that people had actually tweeted to find the identity of the biggest "hater" in the country. That turned out to be @AguanteElCofler, a Twitter user who has since been suspended.

Key Learnings from the Digitas Case Study Example

• If a video was part of your work for your client, be sure to include the most impactful screenshot as the heading.
• Don’t be afraid to provide details on how you helped your client achieve their goals, including the tools you leveraged.

12. " Better Experiences for All ," by HermanMiller

HermanMiller sells sleek, utilitarian furniture with no frills and extreme functionality, and that ethos extends to its case study page for a hospital in Dubai.

What first attracted me to this case study was the beautiful video at the top and the clean user experience. User experience matters a lot in a case study. It determines whether users will keep reading or leave. Another notable aspect of this case study is that the video includes closed-captioning for greater accessibility, and users have the option of expanding the CC and searching through the text.

HermanMiller’s case study also offers an impressive amount of information packed in just a few short paragraphs for those wanting to understand the nuances of their strategy. It closes out with a quote from their client and, most importantly, the list of furniture products that the hospital purchased from the brand.

Key Learnings from the HermanMiller Case Study Example

• Close out with a list of products that users can buy after reading the case study.
• Include accessibility features such as closed captioning and night mode to make your case study more user-friendly.

13. " Capital One on AWS ," by Amazon

Do you work continuously with your clients? Consider structuring your case study page like Amazon did in this stellar case study example. Instead of just featuring one article about Capital One and how it benefited from using AWS, Amazon features a series of articles that you can then access if you’re interested in reading more. It goes all the way back to 2016, all with different stories that feature Capital One’s achievements using AWS.

This may look unattainable for a small firm, but you don’t have to go to extreme measures and do it for every single one of your clients. You could choose the one you most wish to focus on and establish a contact both on your side and your client’s for coming up with the content. Check in every year and write a new piece. These don’t have to be long, either — five hundred to eight hundred words will do.

Key Learnings from the Amazon AWS Case Study Example

• Write a new article each year featuring one of your clients, then include links to those articles in one big case study page.
• Consider including external articles as well that emphasize your client’s success in their industry.

14. " HackReactor teaches the world to code #withAsana ," by Asana

While Asana's case study design looks text-heavy, there's a good reason. It reads like a creative story, told entirely from the customer's perspective.

For instance, Asana knows you won't trust its word alone on why this product is useful. So, they let Tony Phillips, HackReactor CEO, tell you instead: "We take in a lot of information. Our brains are awful at storage but very good at thinking; you really start to want some third party to store your information so you can do something with it."

Asana features frequent quotes from Phillips to break up the wall of text and humanize the case study. It reads like an in-depth interview and captivates the reader through creative storytelling. Even more, Asana includes in-depth detail about how HackReactor uses Asana. This includes how they build templates and workflows:

"There's a huge differentiator between Asana and other tools, and that’s the very easy API access. Even if Asana isn’t the perfect fit for a workflow, someone like me— a relatively mediocre software engineer—can add functionality via the API to build a custom solution that helps a team get more done."

Key Learnings from the Asana Example

• Include quotes from your client throughout the case study.
• Provide extensive detail on how your client worked with you or used your product.

15. " Rips Sewed, Brand Love Reaped ," by Amp Agency

Amp Agency's Patagonia marketing strategy aimed to appeal to a new audience through guerrilla marketing efforts and a coast-to-coast road trip. Their case study page effectively conveys a voyager theme, complete with real photos of Patagonia customers from across the U.S., and a map of the expedition. I liked Amp Agency's storytelling approach best. It captures viewers' attention from start to finish simply because it's an intriguing and unique approach to marketing.

Key Learnings from the Amp Agency Example

• Open up with a summary that communicates who your client is and why they reached out to you.
• Like in the other case study examples, you’ll want to close out with a quantitative list of your achievements.

16. " NetApp ," by Evisort

Evisort opens up its NetApp case study with an at-a-glance overview of the client. It’s imperative to always focus on the client in your case study — not on your amazing product and equally amazing team. By opening up with a snapshot of the client’s company, Evisort places the focus on the client.

This case study example checks all the boxes for a great case study that’s informative, thorough, and compelling. It includes quotes from the client and details about the challenges NetApp faced during the COVID pandemic. It closes out with a quote from the client and with a link to download the case study in PDF format, which is incredibly important if you want your case study to be accessible in a wider variety of formats.

Key Learnings from the Evisort Example

• Place the focus immediately on your client by including a snapshot of their company.
• Mention challenging eras, such as a pandemic or recession, to show how your company can help your client succeed even during difficult times.

17. " Copernicus Land Monitoring – CLC+ Core ," by Cloudflight

Including highly specialized information in your case study is an effective way to show prospects that you’re not just trying to get their business. You’re deep within their industry, too, and willing to learn everything you need to learn to create a solution that works specifically for them.

Cloudflight does a splendid job at that in its Copernicus Land Monitoring case study. While the information may be difficult to read at first glance, it will capture the interest of prospects who are in the environmental industry. It thus shows Cloudflight’s value as a partner much more effectively than a general case study would.

The page is comprehensive and ends with a compelling call-to-action — "Looking for a solution that automates, and enhances your Big Data system? Are you struggling with large datasets and accessibility? We would be happy to advise and support you!" The clean, whitespace-heavy page is an effective example of using a case study to capture future leads.

Key Learnings from the Cloudflight Case Study Example

• Don’t be afraid to get technical in your explanation of what you did for your client.
• Include a snapshot of the sales representative prospects should contact, especially if you have different sales reps for different industries, like Cloudflight does.

18. " Valvoline Increases Coupon Send Rate by 76% with Textel’s MMS Picture Texting ," by Textel

If you’re targeting large enterprises with a long purchasing cycle, you’ll want to include a wealth of information in an easily transferable format. That’s what Textel does here in its PDF case study for Valvoline. It greets the user with an eye-catching headline that shows the value of using Textel. Valvoline saw a significant return on investment from using the platform.

Another smart decision in this case study is highlighting the client’s quote by putting it in green font and doing the same thing for the client’s results because it helps the reader quickly connect the two pieces of information. If you’re in a hurry, you can also take a look at the "At a Glance" column to get the key facts of the case study, starting with information about Valvoline.

Key Learnings from the Textel Case Study Example

• Include your client’s ROI right in the title of the case study.
• Add an "At a Glance" column to your case study PDF to make it easy to get insights without needing to read all the text.

19. " Hunt Club and Happeo — a tech-enabled love story ," by Happeo

In this blog-post-like case study, Happeo opens with a quote from the client, then dives into a compelling heading: "Technology at the forefront of Hunt Club's strategy." Say you’re investigating Happeo as a solution and consider your firm to be technology-driven. This approach would spark your curiosity about why the client chose to work with Happeo. It also effectively communicates the software’s value proposition without sounding like it’s coming from an in-house marketing team.

Every paragraph is a quote written from the customer’s perspective. Later down the page, the case study also dives into "the features that changed the game for Hunt Club," giving Happeo a chance to highlight some of the platform’s most salient features.

Key Learnings from the Happeo Case Study Example

• Consider writing the entirety of the case study from the perspective of the customer.
• Include a list of the features that convinced your client to go with you.

20. " Red Sox Season Campaign ," by CTP Boston

What's great about CTP's case study page for their Red Sox Season Campaign is their combination of video, images, and text. A video automatically begins playing when you visit the page, and as you scroll, you'll see more embedded videos of Red Sox players, a compilation of print ads, and social media images you can click to enlarge.

At the bottom, it says "Find out how we can do something similar for your brand." The page is clean, cohesive, and aesthetically pleasing. It invites viewers to appreciate the well-roundedness of CTP's campaign for Boston's beloved baseball team.

Key Learnings from the CTP Case Study Example

• Include a video in the heading of the case study.
• Close with a call-to-action that makes leads want to turn into prospects.

21. " Acoustic ," by Genuine

Sometimes, simple is key. Genuine's case study for Acoustic is straightforward and minimal, with just a few short paragraphs, including "Reimagining the B2B website experience," "Speaking to marketers 1:1," and "Inventing Together." After the core of the case study, we then see a quote from Acoustic’s CMO and the results Genuine achieved for the company.

The simplicity of the page allows the reader to focus on both the visual aspects and the copy. The page displays Genuine's brand personality while offering the viewer all the necessary information they need.

• You don’t need to write a lot to create a great case study. Keep it simple.
• Always include quantifiable data to illustrate the results you achieved for your client.

22. " Using Apptio Targetprocess Automated Rules in Wargaming ," by Apptio

Apptio’s case study for Wargaming summarizes three key pieces of information right at the beginning: The goals, the obstacles, and the results.

Readers then have the opportunity to continue reading — or they can walk away right then with the information they need. This case study also excels in keeping the human interest factor by formatting the information like an interview.

The piece is well-organized and uses compelling headers to keep the reader engaged. Despite its length, Apptio's case study is appealing enough to keep the viewer's attention. Every Apptio case study ends with a "recommendation for other companies" section, where the client can give advice for other companies that are looking for a similar solution but aren’t sure how to get started.

Key Learnings from the Apptio Case Study Example

• Put your client in an advisory role by giving them the opportunity to give recommendations to other companies that are reading the case study.
• Include the takeaways from the case study right at the beginning so prospects quickly get what they need.

23. " Airbnb + Zendesk: building a powerful solution together ," by Zendesk

Zendesk's Airbnb case study reads like a blog post, and focuses equally on Zendesk and Airbnb, highlighting a true partnership between the companies. To captivate readers, it begins like this: "Halfway around the globe is a place to stay with your name on it. At least for a weekend."

The piece focuses on telling a good story and provides photographs of beautiful Airbnb locations. In a case study meant to highlight Zendesk's helpfulness, nothing could be more authentic than their decision to focus on Airbnb's service in such great detail.

Key Learnings from the Zendesk Case Study Example

• Include images of your client’s offerings — not necessarily of the service or product you provided. Notice how Zendesk doesn’t include screenshots of its product.
• Include a call-to-action right at the beginning of the case study. Zendesk gives you two options: to find a solution or start a trial.

24. " Biobot Customer Success Story: Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida ," by Biobot

Like some of the other top examples in this list, Biobot opens its case study with a quote from its client, which captures the value proposition of working with Biobot. It mentions the COVID pandemic and goes into detail about the challenges the client faced during this time.

This case study is structured more like a news article than a traditional case study. This format can work in more formal industries where decision-makers need to see in-depth information about the case. Be sure to test different methods and measure engagement .

Key Learnings from the Biobot Case Study Example

• Mention environmental, public health, or economic emergencies and how you helped your client get past such difficult times.
• Feel free to write the case study like a normal blog post, but be sure to test different methods to find the one that best works for you.

25. " Discovering Cost Savings With Efficient Decision Making ," by Gartner

You don't always need a ton of text or a video to convey your message — sometimes, you just need a few paragraphs and bullet points. Gartner does a fantastic job of quickly providing the fundamental statistics a potential customer would need to know, without boggling down their readers with dense paragraphs. The case study closes with a shaded box that summarizes the impact that Gartner had on its client. It includes a quote and a call-to-action to "Learn More."

Key Learnings from the Gartner Case Study Example

• Feel free to keep the case study short.
• Include a call-to-action at the bottom that takes the reader to a page that most relates to them.

26. " Bringing an Operator to the Game ," by Redapt

This case study example by Redapt is another great demonstration of the power of summarizing your case study’s takeaways right at the start of the study. Redapt includes three easy-to-scan columns: "The problem," "the solution," and "the outcome." But its most notable feature is a section titled "Moment of clarity," which shows why this particular project was difficult or challenging.

The section is shaded in green, making it impossible to miss. Redapt does the same thing for each case study. In the same way, you should highlight the "turning point" for both you and your client when you were working toward a solution.

Key Learnings from the Redapt Case Study Example

• Highlight the turning point for both you and your client during the solution-seeking process.
• Use the same structure (including the same headings) for your case studies to make them easy to scan and read.

27. " Virtual Call Center Sees 300% Boost In Contact Rate ," by Convoso

Convoso’s PDF case study for Digital Market Media immediately mentions the results that the client achieved and takes advantage of white space. On the second page, the case study presents more influential results. It’s colorful and engaging and closes with a spread that prompts readers to request a demo.

Key Learnings from the Convoso Case Study Example

• List the results of your work right at the beginning of the case study.
• Use color to differentiate your case study from others. Convoso’s example is one of the most colorful ones on this list.

28. " Ensuring quality of service during a pandemic ," by Ericsson

Ericsson’s case study page for Orange Spain is an excellent example of using diverse written and visual media — such as videos, graphs, and quotes — to showcase the success a client experienced. Throughout the case study, Ericsson provides links to product and service pages users might find relevant as they’re reading the study.

For instance, under the heading "Preloaded with the power of automation," Ericsson mentions its Ericsson Operations Engine product, then links to that product page. It closes the case study with a link to another product page.

Key Learnings from the Ericsson Case Study Example

• Link to product pages throughout the case study so that readers can learn more about the solution you offer.
• Use multimedia to engage users as they read the case study.

Start creating your case study.

Now that you've got a great list of examples of case studies, think about a topic you'd like to write about that highlights your company or work you did with a customer.

A customer’s success story is the most persuasive marketing material you could ever create. With a strong portfolio of case studies, you can ensure prospects know why they should give you their business.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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7 Blockchain Case Studies from Different Industries in 2024

Global investment in blockchain technology is skyrocketing (see Figure 1) because blockchain can enhance data exchange in multi-party processes thanks to:

• Enhanced transparency
• Increased speed
• Reduced transfer costs. 

Blockchain pioneers have a chance to acquire a competitive edge . However, executives have many investment alternatives and maturity of some blockchain based solutions is low. Therefore, executives need to make smart decisions to invest in an optimal manner in blockchain based solutions.

In this article, we present 7 blockchain case studies. Real-world examples can help executives identify solution areas that are mature enough for investment.

Figure 1: Blockchain market size in billion US dollars

Procurement

1. blockchain ease supplier master data management: trust your supplier.

Business challenge:

Trust Your Supplier saw an opportunity to reduce costs and effort when it came to finding and onboarding a reputable supplier. Supply chain interruptions and quality expectations to comply with regulations or stakeholders’ environmental and social concerns , are two important risk aspects that firms must deal with. Finding a suitable supplier is a time-consuming and expensive process for businesses because verifying and obtaining data from providers is difficult since companies do not want to share their data openly.

Initiative:

Trust Your Supplier  collaborated with IBM to create an open source blockchain platform that allows businesses to securely and effectively share data with permissioned partners. Platform allows businesses to have their data confirmed by third-party verifiers such as:

• Dun & Bradstreet (business data).
• Eco Vadis (ESG data).
• Rapid Ratings (finance data).

Once your company’s data is confirmed, a blockchain-based corporate digital passport is created, allowing:

• Enhanced compliance.
• Enhanced risk management.
• Reduced onboarding duration of suppliers.
• Reduce supplier onboarding duration more than 70%.
• Lessen the cost for data verification to work with a suitable supplier 50%.
• Improve compliance by almost instantaneously checking international quality certificates of other parties like GRI, ISO, SASB etc.

2. Blockchain eases trade finance: Marco Polo Network

For both exporters and importers, international trading can be risky. When an importer pays in advance for goods, the exporter may collect the cash without sending the goods. However, if the exporter agrees to receive payment after delivery, the importer may refuse to pay after receiving the products. To overcome this problem, traders collaborate with third parties such as banks that employ instruments like letters of credit , which guarantee payment once goods are delivered to the importer.

Marco Polo Network utilizes blockchain technology to provide a platform for exporters and importers to transparently share delivery data by integrating with supply chain ERP systems and creating an irrevocable contract for parties that guarantees the exchange of money and goods under specified conditions (e.g. money transferred when goods receives the importer).

Initiative potentially eliminates the need for third party existence that solves “trust issue”. However, third parties also involve and benefit while they are using Marco Polo Network’ solution since the platform increases transparency.   

• Enhances working capital cycle for both buyer and seller.
• Automates transaction settlement process.
• Reduced complexity by digitizing documents.

Supply chain

3. blockchain improves compliance: renault .

The automotive sector is highly regulated . Renault, for example, deals with 6,000 regulatory and quality characteristics relating to:

• Safety regulations
• Geometric features
• Material quality
• Environmental concerns

A vehicle must meet certain internal and external compliance criteria in order to be offered on the market. A change in regulations needs to be communicated downstream to suppliers and suppliers of suppliers to ensure that they all build according to the new specifications. Therefore,  Renault needed a platform throughout the ecosystem in a transparent manner to ensure compliance. 

Renault and IBM collaborated to create the automotive industry’s first extended compliance end-to-end distributed blockchain platform for the traceability of components internal and external regulatory compliance. 

• Reduces expense of non-compliance by half. 
• The initiative reduces the cost of managing non-quality/non-compliance by 10%. 
• Renault wants to invest more in blockchain technology for the visibility of product carbon footprints and recycling operations as a result of the initiative’s success, aligning with the company’s ESG and circular economy ambitions.

4. Blockchain authenticates infant products quality: Nestle

After 300,000 newborns were sickened with melamine from powdered milk products in 2008, Chinese parents ‘ trust in infant nourishment products was damaged. Nestle was looking for ways to reassure Chinese parents about the quality of their newborn nourishment product NAN A2 to penetrate the market effectively.

Nestle teamed up with Techrock , a Chinese technology firm, to create a public blockchain platform that integrates with a mobile app . As a result, parents can verify the NAN A2’s following characteristics using their phone:

• Ingredients 
• Place the ingredients sourced from
• Origin of production
• Packaging details including the photos.
• Due to the transparency provided by blockchain, Nestle held the largest market share in China’s infant nourishment sector.

5. Blockchain ensures instant claims processing: Etherisc

Etherisc is an insurtech startup that was looking for ways to speed up the claims processing. Traditional claims processing comprises five processes, as shown in Figure 2. Though the time it takes to settle a claim varies by insurance company and type, it usually takes weeks. However, according to EY , nearly 90% of insureds choose an insurer based on the quality and speed of claims processing.

Figure 2: Steps of Claims Processing

To automate claims processing Etherisc uses blockchain technology which enables smart contracts that enforce the agreement when the certain conditions specified on the contract are met. 

Etherisc employed third-party data providers to determine if the payment arrangement’s terms were met or not (see Figure 3). Therefore, after alerting the insurance provider, Etherisc evaluates the initial claim investigation and policy check processes in real time, increasing its claims processing efficiency.

Figure 3: Claims processing with blockchain

• Reduces the time needed for claims settlement.
• Automatically investigates probable fraud using data from third parties ( IoT devices or reputable databases).

6. Blockchain optimizes the power grid: Tennet

TenneT , situated in the Netherlands and Germany, is an energy transmission operator. Because energy demand and supply are not always in balance, electricity distribution is difficult. Energy productivity of sustainable energy supplies varies instantly depending on the state of the weather. Wind turbine electricity generation, for example, differs depending on the wind conditions of the day. Similarly electricity demand varies within the day. Thus, optimizing electricity distribution becomes a challenging issue.

To optimize the power grid Tennet cooperated with IBM and Sonnen. IBM deployed blockchain Sonnen, producer of home energy storage systems provides an opportunity for interaction with minor energy producers and consumers. 

Energy storage systems linked to the TenneT’s power grid database via blockchain. Thanks to blockchain’s distributed ledger, inaccuracies in the demand and supply of electricity are transparently shared with a variety of stakeholders. Initiative enables the connected energy storage units to collect or release additional electricity as needed in a couple of moments, reducing grid transmission inefficiencies.

• Elevated curtailment and re-routing operations became unnecessary so the initiative saves millions of dollars.
• A significant step toward the transformation towards renewable energy sources has been taken. Because initiative provides a way of management for the significant supply volatility of renewable energy sources.
• Support local energy producers like home owners or farmers who deploy solar plants or wind turbines and lower their electricity expenses as well carbon footprint’s .

7. Blockchain assists the tracking of intellectual property (IP): IPwe

Many businesses do not have the opportunity to present the true value of their assets to potential investors so some companies are undervalued. IPwe   intended to transform the inefficient old IP system, in which patent holders, lawyers, corporations, intermediaries, and global patent offices lack communication for a variety of reasons, including the inability to transfer information from one source to another transparently.

IPwe teamed up with IBM to create a blockchain that allows IP to be tokenized and stored in the cloud. As a result, traders have easy access to IP and can invest in it based on clear data. IPwe also provides a place for businesses to fairly advertise their intellectual property.

• IPwe’s blockchain database has 80% of global patents.

If you think blockchain could help your company, use our data-driven lists to compare the best blockchain platforms and services .

If you have further questions regarding blockchain you can contact us:

This article was drafted by former AIMultiple industry analyst Görkem Gençer.

Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 60% of Fortune 500 every month. Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider , Forbes, Washington Post , global firms like Deloitte , HPE, NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission . You can see more reputable companies and media that referenced AIMultiple. Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised businesses on their enterprise software, automation, cloud, AI / ML and other technology related decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization. He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider . Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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Case study definition

Case study, a term which some of you may know from the "Case Study of Vanitas" anime and manga, is a thorough examination of a particular subject, such as a person, group, location, occasion, establishment, phenomena, etc. They are most frequently utilized in research of business, medicine, education and social behaviour. There are a different types of case studies that researchers might use:

• Collective case studies

• Descriptive case studies

• Explanatory case studies

• Exploratory case studies

• Instrumental case studies

• Intrinsic case studies

Case studies are usually much more sophisticated and professional than regular essays and courseworks, as they require a lot of verified data, are research-oriented and not necessarily designed to be read by the general public.

How to write a case study?

It very much depends on the topic of your case study, as a medical case study and a coffee business case study have completely different sources, outlines, target demographics, etc. But just for this example, let's outline a coffee roaster case study. Firstly, it's likely going to be a problem-solving case study, like most in the business and economics field are. Here are some tips for these types of case studies:

• Your case scenario should be precisely defined in terms of your unique assessment criteria.

• Determine the primary issues by analyzing the scenario. Think about how they connect to the main ideas and theories in your piece.

• Find and investigate any theories or methods that might be relevant to your case.

• Keep your audience in mind. Exactly who are your stakeholder(s)? If writing a case study on coffee roasters, it's probably gonna be suppliers, landlords, investors, customers, etc.

• Indicate the best solution(s) and how they should be implemented. Make sure your suggestions are grounded in pertinent theories and useful resources, as well as being realistic, practical, and attainable.

• Carefully proofread your case study. Keep in mind these four principles when editing: clarity, honesty, reality and relevance.

Are there any online services that could write a case study for me?

Luckily, there are!

We completely understand and have been ourselves in a position, where we couldn't wrap our head around how to write an effective and useful case study, but don't fear - our service is here.

We are a group that specializes in writing all kinds of case studies and other projects for academic customers and business clients who require assistance with its creation. We require our writers to have a degree in your topic and carefully interview them before they can join our team, as we try to ensure quality above all. We cover a great range of topics, offer perfect quality work, always deliver on time and aim to leave our customers completely satisfied with what they ordered.

The ordering process is fully online, and it goes as follows:

• Select the topic and the deadline of your case study.

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• Leave the email address, where your completed order will be sent to.

• Select your payment type, sit back and relax!

With lots of experience on the market, professionally degreed writers, online 24/7 customer support and incredibly low prices, you won't find a service offering a better deal than ours.

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Independent. Since 2003

Eutelsat selects Enensys technology to broadcast UHD TV channels in France

March 26, 2024 14.54 Europe/London By Julian Clover

Coverage map for French UKD rollout

Enensys Technologies has announced Eutelsat has selected its OneBeam DVB-SIS technology to deploy DTT in Ultra HD/4K in France.

Broadcasters France 2 and France 3 are moving to Ultra High Definition ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games and European Football Championships

Eutelsat has adopted DVB-SIS (Single Illumination System) technology, an innovative standard to which Enensys has made a major contribution and implemented with its OneBeam solution.

The technology makes it possible to pool satellite links to serve both DVB-T2 terrestrial transmitters (DTT) and direct-to-home (DTH) satellite homes. For France Télévisions, the solution has been deployed on the Eutelsat 5WB satellite at 5 degrees West to supply terrestrial DTT transmitters in France, while simultaneously serving households using the Fransat free-to-air DTH satellite bouquet.

Laurence Delphy, general manager of Eutelsat’s Video Business Unit, said: “We are honoured to have been chosen by France Télévisions for the first launch of a public UHD channel and for the first deployment of the DVB-SIS standard in France. By integrating Enensys’ OneBeam solution, we can take a mutualized approach to our distribution strategy, feeding terrestrial and satellite networks from a single source. As a result, all viewers on French territory can enjoy 4K-quality programming, no matter where they are.”

Régis Le Roux, CEO and founder of Enensys Technologies, added: “We are delighted to contribute to the modernization of DTT in France, and to enable Eutelsat to optimize their satellite distribution network. Our OneBeam solution has been deployed internationally for 10 years, and we’re proud to install it in France for the transition to Ultra HD. Thanks to this solution, second-generation DTT networks can be deployed more quickly and at a lower cost, with a clear improvement in the viewer experience.”

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About Julian Clover

Julian Clover is a Media and Technology journalist based in Cambridge, UK. He works in online and printed media. Julian is also a voice on local radio. You can talk to Julian on Twitter @julianclover , on Facebook or by email at [email protected] .

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