The Institute for Organizational Viability (IOV) sees organizations as organs and tools of society that contribute to a sustainable world worth living in. Organizations are social or socio-technical systems and places of human collaboration. Through its activities, the IOV contributes to the socially responsible shaping of this collaboration through structures, people, and alignment.
To achieve its aims, the IOV is oriented towards three strategic focal points, which are essentially built up and established through application-oriented research, but also through continuing education and service projects:
- Governance structures and control systems
- Organizational learning- and change processes
- Organizational culture and mindset
Our research serves to describe and explain organizational forms, the behavior of people in and around organizations, and the development of organizational design principles. This contributes to a broader picture of organizations as components and players in society and the environment. This is in line with the ZHAW principle of contributing to a sustainable society. Through these focal points, the IOV positions itself as a partner for internationally connectable, practice-relevant research and development.
Institute for Organizational Viability Projects
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Virtualizing sales staff for online shopping: Transferring the offline shopping experience into the digital world
The project includes the elaboration of the basics for the development of a disruptive new type of application which, based on psychographic inputs, uses artificial intelligence to transfer the shopping experience from offline stores to the digital world.
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A Governance Framework for the Swiss Blockchain Ecosystem
This study intends to provide initial guidance on how to develop a blockchain governance framework for practical use scientifically. The framework will enable business to expand its services to organizations operating in the still growing Swiss blockchain economy. To this end, the study aims to outline a ...
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Blockchain Technology in Interorganizational Collaboration
The term ‘Blockchain Technology’ is currently a buzzword and is not always clearly defined. Different stakeholders have a different understanding of what it is and how it can be applied for fostering and enhancing the collaboration within business networks and ecosystems. Currently, we would define ‘blockchain’ as a ...
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no1s1 - A house owned by no one but itself
The project enhances Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and supports practitioners in the design and implementation of DAOs. For the first time, a DAO owning physical (and not only digital) assets is studied. For this, the No1s1 prototype is built – a physical space that owns and manages itself over an ...
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Supernodes in the dHealth Network
The dHealth Network is a decentralized blockchain based on NEM's open source technology and primarily designed for the healthcare market (specifically the pharmaceutical industry). As part of the network, the operation of a supernode will be enabled by ZHAW. Such a supernode is already used by the Blockchain Center ...