Offered Subjects

A DSML for the Specification and Configuration of Product Types demonstrated through exemplary Use Cases

Type:
  • Master Thesis Business Information Systems
Status:
offered
Tutor:

Abstract

Motivation:

Online shopping platforms like Amazon offer a huge number of different product types with many new types added every day. There are different approaches for the registration of new product types. In most cases, they remain flat in the sense that specific product properties cannot be specified. This lack of semantics has a serious impact on the integrity of product descriptions. In particular, it is usually not possible to define elaborate constraints that apply to the specification of configurations. Furthermore, searching for products is often restricted to full-text search, which does not allow for expressing sophisticated search criteria.

Description:

Based on a thorough analysis of product specifications on selected online platforms, this thesis aims at the development of a domain-specific modelling language that supports vendors with the safe and convenient specification of new product types and configurations and empowers buyers with more powerful retrieval capabilities. The DSML should cover a wide range of products. To cope with the complexity, the thesis is supposed to focus on selected product types, such as bicycles, consumer electronics, etc. and to make use of multi-level approaches as suggested in current literature.

Recommended Literature:

  • Atkinson, C; Gerbig, R & Kühne, T (2014). Comparing multi-level modeling approaches. In: MULTI@ MoDELS,pp. 53-61
  • Becker,J; Schütte, R (2011) Handelsinformationssysteme, Redline Wirtschaft, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 243-257
  • Frank, U (2011) Some Guidelines for the Conception of Domain-Specific Modelling Languages, in: EMISA Proceedings, pp. 93-106
  • Frank, U (2011) Multi-Perspective Enterprise Modelling: Background and Terminological Foundation. ICB Research Report No. 46, Essen
  • Frank, U (2014). Multilevel modeling. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 6(6), 319-337.
  • Rowley, J (2000) "Product search in e-shopping: a review and research propositions", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 17 Issue: 1, pp.20-35