I am professor for management and director of the study program "Digital Technologies & Coding" at Macromedia University of Applied Sciences. In addition, I am adviser for industry and technology policy, digitalization at the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labour and Tourism Baden-Württemberg.
My research addresses how digital media influence users. I focus on immersive technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality. Additionally, I examine digital innovations and their transformative effect on work environments. You can find more about my research on digital media and my research on digital innovations below.
Among others, this research has been published in journals such as Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Media Business Studies, and Journal of Media Innovations. I have also presented my findings at various leading conferences in the fields of information systems (AMCIS, ECIS, HICSS, ICIS, PACIS) and media management (EMMA, IMMAA, WMEMC).
Previously, I completed my PhD at the Institute for Information Systems and New Media at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich in Germany. My work experience encompasses more than ten years in technology policy, augmented reality develelopment, ecommerce, and consulting, including own startups that have received six-digit funding. I also coach organizations in agile methods for innovation management, among them are several DAX listed companies.
Digital media are becoming the main form of media consumption. The underlying technologies allow for altering consumers' perception, especially immersive technologies. The two most prominent examples are augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). In AR, an immersive technology adds digital objects to a real environment, whereas in VR, an immersive technology substitutes the real environment by a virtual one.
Abstract: Lead-users are ahead of important trends, which makes them valuable resources when it comes to generate ideas for new products in the early stages of a company's new product development process. In later stages-e.g. just before market entry when prototypes of the new products are available and can be tested-the company's market research usually focuses on average users or representative samples of users since their measured acceptance of the prototypes can be used to predict sales volumes or market shares. However, in the media industry, prototypes of new products are often made publically available as alpha or beta versions and may especially attract high shares of lead-users for testing. In this paper we analyze the potential effects of these biased samples on the prediction of sales volumes or market shares. A sample of lead-users and other users tests the prototype of a mobile augmented reality app. Then, the acceptance of this media innovation is measured applying a lead-usership extended version of the UTAUT2 model. Our results show that behavioral intention and the effects of influencing factors substantially differ between lead-users and other users. We argue that knowing these differences can help to reduce risks of biased prediction of sales volumes or market shares.
Abstract: Virtual reality (VR) technologies enable a new media consumption experience. Although VR's origins trace back at least to the 1960s, it is still unclear how VR's postulated key features immersion, presence, and interactivity contribute to that experience. Furthermore, it is unclear whether flow as a construct closely related to immersion offers explanatory power in investigating VR. On the basis of a quantitative survey in a VR center with 294 participants, I analyze the interplay of the key features and exemplify their influence in a VR context by relating them to satisfaction with the VR experience. Using a flow-based conceptualization of immersion, I find that presence as well as interactivity contribute to immersion. In addition, interactivity contributes to presence. Furthermore, my results show that immersion influences satisfaction with a VR experience, indicating that a flow-based conceptualization of immersion is a suitable predictor in VR contexts.
Mütterlein, J., Jelsch, S., Hess, T. (2018). Specifics of Collaboration in Virtual Reality: How Immersion Drives the Intention to Collaborate. Proceedings of the 22nd PACIS. | Download full paper
Mütterlein, J., Hess, T. (2017). Immersion, Presence, Interactivity: Towards a Joint Understanding of Factors Influencing Virtual Reality Acceptance and Use. Proceedings of the 23rd AMCIS. | Download full paper
Digital innovations have already changed whole industries and challenge established ways of doing business in many others. How digital innovations affect organizations and the individuals within them is an exciting area of research that I cover from a practical and an abstract theoretical perspective. The former relates to the influence of digital innovations on individuals and business models, the later to their influence on spaces.
Abstract: Users’ perceptions of a material artefact hold important implications of how they make sense of a digital innovation, expressed in their technological frames about the innovation. Yet, research on sensemaking offers little insights on the role of the material artefact for shaping users’ technological frames. This paper proposes a 2x2 experiment to investigate how newness as a crucial aspect of the material artefact influences users’ frames. Based on theories of resonance, we assume that this effect is mediated by cognitive and emotional resonance. We manipulate the technical and design newness of smart speakers to investigate our research model. Our findings contribute to research on technology sensemaking by illuminating the role of the newness of the material artefact. For developers, our results indicate how users’ understanding can be shaped by embodying familiar and non-familiar cues in digital innovations.
Abstract: While spaces are an important theoretical concept in various research fields, the influence of digitalization on spaces is unclear. Owing to their unique characteristics, digital technologies may shape spaces differently, limiting the applicability of existing theories. To examine whether this is in fact the case, we conduct a systematic literature review, revealing that digital technologies lead to what we call “digital spaces”. These are digitally open, i.e. they use digital technologies to blur boundaries between themselves and other physical or virtual spaces. Based on this insight, we provide an agenda for further research on digital spaces covering empirical validation; development of a digital spaces theory; methodical approaches to analyze digital spaces; design, constitution, reconfiguration, and discontinuance of digital spaces; interplay of different sub-spaces and boundaries in a digital space; shape and role of boundaries in digital spaces; and technologies in digital spaces.
Mütterlein, J., Kunz, R. E. (forthcoming). The Impact of Market and Technology Orientation on Business Model Innovation in the Media Industry. In: Scholz, C., Wildman, S. (eds.). Media Business Models: Connecting Media to their Markets.
Mütterlein, J., Hess, T. (2017). Exploring the Impacts of Virtual Reality on Business Models: The Case of the Media Industry. Proceedings of the 25th ECIS, pp. 3213-3222. | Download full paper
Mütterlein, J., Kunz, R. E. (2017). Innovate Alone or with Others? Influence of Entrepreneurial Orientation and Alliance Orientation on Media Business Model Innovation. Journal of Media Business Studies (14:3), pp. 173-187. | Download full paper
Research and teaching at Macromedia; local head of business faculty at the online campus; concept and development of a computer science bachelor program and a dual study program
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Concepts for and evaluation of projects with focus on artificial intelligence; coach for agile methods at the Open Digital Transformation Hub (with Clariant, Infineon Technologies, Linde & Munich Re)
Managing director, Center for Internet Research and Media Integration, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (July 2016 - December 2019)
Research assistant, Institute for Information Systems and New Media, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (July 2016 - December 2019)
Research assistant, Junior Professorship for Media Management, University of Bayreuth (September 2013 - June 2016)
Co-Founder and CEO, White Pony, Munich (January 2013 - December 2019)
Online marketer, Häfele GmbH & Co KG, Nagold (October 2009 - September 2011)
Topic: Hedonic Consumption of Virtual Reality
Specialization in experiments as well as qualitative and quantitative methods
Specialization in media management and media informatics
Specialization in management and finance
To get in touch, please write me an email (joschka [at] muetterlein.com) or contact me via the social media channels below. I look forward to hearing from you.