Curriculum Vitae:

Since September 2018: Research Assistant at the Chair of Business Informatics and Integrated Information Systems at the University of Duisburg-Essen by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schütte

December 2017 - August 2018: Research Aide at the Chair of Business Informatics and Integrated Information Systems at the University of Duisburg-Essen by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schütte

Oktober 2015 - Juli 2018: Studies of Business Information Systems (M. Sc.) at the University Duisburg-Essen (passed with distinction)

• Topic of Master Thesis: Measuring the Emotional Part of User Experience: Towards a Method to Guide Emotion Assessment in HCI

August 2016 – January 2017: Semester abroad at the Högskolan i Borås in Sweden

April 2016 – December 2017: Student Assistant at the Chair of Business Informatics and Integrated Information Systems at the University of Duisburg-Essen by Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schütte

October 2012 – July 2016: Studies of Business Information Systems (B. Sc.) at the University of Duisburg-Essen

• Focus of Studies: IT-Management and E-Entrepreneurship
• Topic of Bachelor Thesis: Decision Support in IT-Management: Evaluation Criteria for Performance Indicator Systems and Exemplary Application

Fields of Research:

• User Experience (UX) measurement with psychophysiological methods
• Implementation of neuroscientific methods in Information Systems research
• Measuring effects of graphical user interface design and brands
• Measuring customer experience in ecommerce and retail
• Observation and analysis of human-robot interactions

Projects:

• Responsible for the IIS fNIRS Lab
• Project Manager/ Controller of the International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik 2021
• Responsible for website and marketing of WeLearnInBits

Publications:

• Nissen, Anika: Investigations along the eCommerce user journey: a neuroIS approach with fNIRS to better understand user experience (Dissertation). Universität Duisburg-Essen, Essen 2023. Abstract Details Full textCitation

  The identification and satisfaction of user needs in business-to-consumer ecommerce is crucial to elicit positive experiences and establish loyalty toward the business. One major interface to the consumer is the website of the business, which can impact the user and customer experience throughout the whole journey. Current approaches that aim to measure user experience (UX) and related constructs have significant shortcomings and are often not able to uncover spontaneous processes in website users. Related neuroIS research proposes that a great part of behavior is formed by these spontaneous processes and that the utilization of additional, neurophysiological measurements can help to uncover these processes and better understand user behavior. Therefore, and to address the shortcomings of common UX measurements in ecommerce, this cumulative thesis presents 6 essays along different UX phases being pre-use, during-use, and post-/repeated-use of the ecommerce website. As a means to assess the spontaneous, potentially unconscious processes, the neuroimaging method fNIRS is utilized in the included essays. Across all papers, several responses to website design factors across UX phases could be identified on the neural level. The complementing self-reported data could reveal these effects only to a certain degree. Consequently, this thesis shows the contribution of neuroimaging (fNIRS) to UX investigation on ecommerce websites to better understand users, which helps to optimize website design and thus, UX.

• Nissen, Anika.; Gier, Nadine R.: A Neural Investigation of eLoyalty on eCommerce Websites. In: International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). 2021, p. 1-17. Abstract Details Full textCitation

  eLoyalty provides a major competitive advantage for online businesses, however it is difficult to define. To understand the underlying mechanisms of eloyalty, a neuroimaging study was conducted, identifying possible “neural” activations that point to antecedents of the users’ eloyalty. Our results show that antecedents to eloyalty might be associated with an activation of the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC), and the right orbitofrontal/ventromedial cortex. Furthermore, a non-hypothesized deactivation of the left superior dorsomedial PFC was identified. This activation pattern can be related to increased pleasantness and reward attribution of the target website, as well as higher associated familiarity and user preference. Based on this it is discussed that antecedents to eloyalty may be associated with neural lock-in effects. These lock-in effects may be elicited through continuous, positive, and pleasant user experiences which ultimately lead to an emotional attachment that is “neurally encoded” into the user’s brain.

• Nissen, Anika; Ersöz, Semra: Towards a Psychophysiological Investigation of Perceived Trustworthiness and Risk in Online Pharmacies: Results of a Pre-study.. In: Davis, Fred D.; Riedl, René; Brocke, Jan Vom; Léger, Pierre-Majorique; Randolph, Adriane B.; ; Müller-Putz, Gernot (Ed.): Information Systems and Neuroscience. Springer Cham, 2021, p. 9-19. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-88900-5_2Abstract Details Citation

  Perceived trustworthiness and risk are crucial impact factors for a website’s success. While they have been frequently applied to diverse e-commerce contexts, an investigation of these constructs for the special case of online pharmacies is still scarce. In an attempt to measure these constructs in a neural experiment, this paper offers a pre-study with the aim to gain first insights and select appropriate stimuli for the upcoming study. Therefore, five operating online pharmacies are tested in an online survey with 121 participants which rated scales of perceived trustworthiness, perceived risk, attitude towards the website, and use intention for each of the included pharmacies. Results show that online pharmacies with high reputation are rated higher in the included constructs. Consequently, reputation, perceived risk, and trustworthiness are crucial impact factors on attitude and use intention. Thus, two promising online pharmacies could be selected for the follow-up study.

• Nissen, Anika.; Krampe, Caspar: Why He Buys It and She Doesn’t – Exploring Self-Reported and Neural Gender Differences in the Perception of eCommerce Websites. In: Computers in Human Behavior, Vol121 (2021), No April. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.106809Abstract Details Full textCitation

  Studies of gender-related differences in the perception of ecommerce websites dependent on the websites’ aesthetics, usefulness, ease of use, and purchase intentions, give contradictory results. To shed light on these conflicting findings, in addition to self-reported data from two online questionnaires (Study 1 & Study 2), our research uses the neuroimaging method of functional near-infrared spectroscopy to explore possible genderrelated differences (Study 3). By conducting three studies, users’ conscious and unconscious (neural) evaluations of ecommerce websites are explored. The self-reported results reveal that men and women do not significantly differ in their expressed evaluations of ecommerce websites. However, the neural results indicate that gender-related differences in the perception of ecommerce websites are influenced by unconscious effects, which might explain the inconsistent gender-specific research findings. Men tend to require greater neural activity when using ecommerce websites. Websites evaluated as useful and visually aesthetic lead to significant neural activation in brain regions of the left hemisphere for men in comparison to women, whereas websites evaluated as less useful and appealing reveal neural activation in brain regions of the right hemisphere in male participants. The results provide several theoretical and practical implications for the evaluation of genderspecific decision making on ecommerce websites.

• Nissen, Anika; Obermeier, Gabriele; Gier, Nadine R.; Auinger, Andreas: Oh, What a Cognitive Relief! A NeuroIS Study on Visual Designs of Digital Signages. In: International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). 2021, p. 1-17. Abstract Details Full textCitation

  Digital signages are the most diffused in­store technologies with their effects on perceived store atmospherics and behavioral outcomes relying heavily on their visual design and context. To further inform and understand the effects of visual design, this research investigates the effect of digital signage designs from the lens of Fuzzy­Trace Theory which differentiates between a verbatim and gist­based processing of (visual) information. The designs were embedded within a store environment and without this context to validate the design’s effect in context. The results of our study using functional near­infrared spectroscopy show activated brain areas in the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) accompanied by a lateral PFC deactivation, which indicates cognitive relief and increased emotional processing for gist­based designs. In store context, the cognitive relief is no longer found, yet the emotional attribution was still found. These results provide several theoretical and practical implications for the visual design of digital signages.

• Nissen, Anika; Obermeier, Gabriele; Gier, Nadine R.; Schütte, Reinhard; Auinger, Andreas: Consumers Prefer Abstract Design in Digital Signage: An Application of Fuzzy-Trace Theory in NeuroIS. In: NeuroIS Retreat 2021. 2021. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-88900-5_17Abstract Details Citation

  Visual designs of digital signage (DS) content shape and influence consumers’ decisions. Understanding the effect of DS design on consumer behavior requires a fundamental understanding of human reasoning and decision-making. This research explores the effect of different visual design cues of DS on a neural level and through the lens of Fuzzy-Trace Theory (FTT). The FTT suggests that humans have both a verbatim-based and a gist-based information processing. To explore the effect of FTT-based visual design, an experiment using functional near-infrared spectroscopy is conducted. DS are tested on three design levels: (1) verbatim: text, (2) verbatim: photographs, and (3) gist-based. Results show that only the gist-based design resulted in significantly higher self-reported results and activated brain areas in the medial prefrontal cortex, which are associated with emotional and rewarding processing. These results challenge the manifest differentiation only between image and text elements.

• Nissen, Anika; Riedl, René: Design Mode, Color, and Button Shape: A Pilot Study on the Neural Effects of Website Perception. In: NeuroIS Retreat 2021. 2021, p. 1-13. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-88900-5_22Abstract Details Citation

  The investigation of website aesthetics has a long history and has already been addressed in NeuroIS research. The extant literature predominantly studied website complexity, symmetry, and colors. However, other design factors have not yet been examined so far. We studied two new factors (design mode: light vs. dark, button shape: rounded vs. sharp angled) along with color (blue vs. red). Specifically, we examined the impact of these three factors on several outcomes. Results from a repeated-measures MANOVA indicate: (i) design mode (light vs. dark) significantly affects users’ pleasure, arousal, trust, attitude, and use intention, (ii) color (blue vs. red) significantly influences pleasure, arousal, and use intentions, while (iii) button shape (rounded vs. sharp) does not significantly influence any of the dependent measures. Based on these results, follow up functional near-infrared spectroscopy studies are developed which aim to further complement our self-report findings.

• Nissen, Anika; Jahn, Katharina: Between Anthropomorphism, Trust, and the Uncanny Valley: A Dual-Processing Perspective on Perceived Trustworthiness and Its Mediating Effects on Use Intentions of Social Robots. In: Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. 2021, p. 360-369. doi:10.24251/HICSS.2021.043Abstract Details Full textCitation

  Designing social robots with the aim to increase their acceptance is crucial for the success of their implementation. However, even though increasing anthropomorphism is often seen as a promising way to achieve this goal, the uncanny valley effect proposes that anthropomorphism can be detrimental to acceptance unless robots are almost indistinguishable from humans. Against this background, we use a dual processing theory approach to investigate whether an uncanny valley of perceived trustworthiness (PT) can be observed for social robots and how this effect differs between the intuitive and deliberate reasoning system. The results of an experiment with four conditions and 227 participants provide support for the uncanny valley effect. Furthermore, mediation analyses suggested that use intention decreases through both reduced intuitive and deliberate PT for medium levels of anthropomorphism. However, for high levels of anthropomorphism (indistinguishable from real human), only intuitive PT determined use intention. Consequently, our results indicate both advantages and pitfalls of anthropomorphic design.

• Nissen, Anika: Psychological and Physiological Effects of Color Use on eCommerce Websites: a Neural Study Using fNIRS. In: International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Hyderabad, India, 2020. Abstract Details Full textCitation

  Colors surround us in all life situations and have the power to influence our mood and emotions, which makes color a crucial impact factor for decision making in ecommerce environments. Therefore, this research paper aims to explore the psychological and physiological effects of color use on websites with a neuroimaging method. For this, an experiment was designed in which 24 healthy participants watched an online shoe shop in 4 different colored versions during which their neural activity in the prefrontal cortex was measured. While comparing the neural activity between the different employed colors, distinct implications can be derived. That is, in comparison to the blueish website, (1) grey scaled websites require higher cognitive load but are rated as aesthetically pleasing, (2) greenish websites result in more negative valence while they require not more neural resources, and (3) reddish websites are rated low in valence and require higher neural processing resources.

• Jahn, Katharina; Nissen, Anika: Towards Dual Processing of Social Robots: Differences in the Automatic and Reflective System. In: International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Hyderabad, India, 2020. Abstract Details Full textCitation

  Social robots increasingly diffuse into our lives in work, health, and many other areas. However, theoretical approaches that explain how social robots should be designed to maximize experiential and performance-related outcomes in human-robot interaction (HRI) are still rare. To close this research gap, we aim to develop a dual process model of HRI with the help of two experiments. Results of the first experiment show that individuals categorize humans and robots differently in the automatic and reflective system, leading to different forms of robotic biases in these systems. Specifically, whereas humans show a bias against all types of robots in the reflective system, they only show biases against robots with low anthropomorphism in the automatic system. With the second experiment, we aim to complement these results from a neurophysiological perspective to gain more insights into cognitive processes during classification and evaluation of robots.

• Nissen, Anika: Why We Love Blue Hues on Websites: a fNIRS Investigation of Color and Its Impact on the Neural Processing of eCommerce Websites. In: Davis, Fred D.; Riedl, René; vom Brocke, Jan; Léger, Pierre-Majorique; Randolph, Adriane B.; Fischer, Thomas (Ed.): NeuroIS Retreat. Wien, 2020. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60073-0_1Abstract Details Citation

  Blue of all colors seems to be generally preferred by humans and animals. Consequently, the use of this color in ecommerce context has several positive effects such as increased trustworthiness and aesthetic ratings. These effects are, in this study, hypothesized to be caused by specific neural processes in the prefrontal cortex of human decision makers. Consequently, this study tackles the research question whether there is a distinct neural activation pattern for blue websites that helps to explain why blue is often most favored. To investigate this, one website is designed and manipulated in col-or to which user reactions are measured by employing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The results of this study show that blue colored websites seem to require generally less processing power related to cognitive while revealing increases in brain structures related to processing pleasant and aesthetic stimuli.

• Nissen, Anika; Krampe, Caspar: Exploring Gender Differences on eCommerce Websites: A Behavioral and Neural Approach Utilizing fNIRS. In: Davis, Fred D.; Riedl, René; vom Brocke, Jan; Léger, Pierre-Majorique; Randolph, Adriane B.; Fischer, Thomas (Ed.): NeuroIS Retreat. Wien, 2020. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60073-0_26Abstract Details Citation

  Whether males and females evaluate ecommerce websites differently has long been discussed and has resulted in inconsistent research findings. While some studies identified gender differences in the evaluation of websites, other studies indicate that these differences are inexistent. To shed light on these hypothetical gender differences on ecommerce website perceptions, a behavioral and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) experiment in which participants had to use and evaluate three different ecommerce websites was conducted. While the questionnaire-based behavioral results showed no significant differences between gender, neural gender differences could be discovered. In particular, well rated websites resulted in increased neural activity for men in brain regions of the dlPFC and vlPFC in the left hemisphere, while the lower evaluated websites resulted in an increased neural activity in brain regions of the vmPFC for men in the right hemisphere. Consequently, the results suggest that men seem to require higher neural activity for the emotional appraisal of, and decision making on ecommerce websites.

• Nissen, Anika: Exploring the Neural Correlates of Visual Aesthetics on Websites. In: Davis, Fred D.; Riedl, René; vom Brocke, Jan; Léger, Pierre-Majorique; Randolph, Adriane; Fischer, Thomas (Ed.): Information Systems and Neuroscience. 1st Edition. Springer, Cham, 2020, p. 211-220. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28144-1_23Abstract Details Citation

  Perceiving beauty typically provides pleasure through which it becomes a general human need. In the context of online shopping, websites should be designed, bearing in mind that users prefer websites that are visually pleasing. In recent research, website aesthetics have mostly been explored with qualitative self-reports measurements, eye-tracking devices, or even mathematical models. Moreover, also neuroscientific methods have been utilized to investigate websites’ aesthetics and beauty. Nevertheless there are only few studies that investigated the visual design of websites with neuroimaging tools, even though these neuroimaging studies might enable researchers to investigated unconscious cognitive processes. Against this background, this work in progress aims to open up fruitful avenues to measure website aesthetics and states hypotheses which brain regions are likely to be involved when it comes to the aesthetically pleasing perception of websites by users.

• Nissen, Anika; Krampe, Caspar; Kenning, Peter; Schütte, Reinhard: Utilizing Mobile fNIRS to Investigate Neural Correlates of the TAM in eCommerce. In: International Conference for Information Systems (ICIS). Munich, Germany, 2019. Abstract Details Full textCitation

  The investigation of user behavior in IS contexts is often conducted by utilizing self-report measurements. To complement these measurements, neuroscientific methods have indicated their potential for IS research. Most pioneering research work utilized fMRI as neuroimaging method, which is associated with a decreased ecological validity. To investigate whether mobile fNIRS – an innovative, portable and lightweight neuroimaging method – can overcome the limited ecological validity of fMRI, reproducing existing neuroscientific research results, this study aims to explore whether mobile fNIRS could be used as a valid neuroimaging method for IS research, or more precisely for ecommerce research. Preliminary research findings revealed that fNIRS is capable of partly reproducing pioneering research results. Consequently, fNIRS is found to be a reliable and valid neuroimaging method to increase the ecological validity in IS research in certain situations and circumstances, providing a fruitful new avenue to investigate IS research relevant scenarios.

Reviewing and consulting activities:

2021

• ICIS 2021 (2 reviews)
• HICSS 2022 (2 reviews)

2020

• ICIS 2020 (3 reviews)
• AMCIS 2020 (1 review)
• HICSS 2021 (1 review)
• WI 2021 (1 review)
• ECIS 2021 (4 reviews)

2019

• Internet Research (1 review)

Talks:

• Nissen, A.: Assessing the Emotional Part of User Experience - Potential of Affective Computing Methods. Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik 2018, 7th Mar 2018, Leuphana, Lüneburg.

Courses:

Management of Large Enterprise Systems

Enterprise Systems

Tutored Theses:

• Analyse des Technology Acceptance Models als hinreichende Erklärungsmethode der Akzeptanz von Smartwatches auf Konsumentenseite (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Nutzerzufriedenheit im E-Learning: Eine Analyse relevanter Bewertungskriterien (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Die Digitale Transformation und ihre Auswirkungen auf Mitarbeiter: Eine Untersuchung am Beispiel eines Digitalisierungsprojektes der innogy SE (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Analyse der Akzeptanz von Self-Service Technologien am Beispiel von Selbstbedienungskassen im Einzelhandel (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Die Digitale Transformation und ihre Auswirkungen auf Mitarbeiter: Eine Untersuchung am Beispiel eines Digitalisierungsprojektes der innogy SE (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Nutzerzufriedenheit im E-Learning: Eine Analyse relevanter Bewertungskriterien (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Creating a Future for Mobile Point-of-Sales: Construction of a DevOps based framework for Android development and exemplary application to a prototype (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Entwicklung eines Akzeptanzmodells für Virtual Reality im Bildungssektor auf Basis einer Befragung von Anwendern (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Visualisierung von großen Datenmengen im Business Intelligence (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Entwicklung einer Methodik zur Analyse von Informationssicherheitsrisiken im Kontext von IT-Services in Handelsunternehmen (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Analysis of behavioral changes of website users: a focus on the impact of color (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Das Internet der Dinge für smarte Parksysteme: Aktueller technischer Stand und Umfrage zum Bekanntheitsgrad (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Handlungsempfehlungen zur Steuerung von Dienstleistern im Kontext der Informationssicherheit und exemplarische Anwendung auf ein Lebensmitteleinzelhandelsunternehmen  (Master Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Analyse zur Anreicherung von CRM-Systemen um umfassende Business-Analytic-Funktionen (Bachelor Thesis Business Administration)
• Analyse des State of the Art von Brain Computer Interfaces und zukünftige Einsatzmöglichkeiten aus der Perspektive der Wirtschaftsinformatik (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Auswirkungen von Dark Patterns auf die User Experience in sozialen Netzwerken (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Investigation of Parasocial Relationships in Social Media as Influencing Factors on eCommerce Revenues (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Investigation of Parasocial Relationships in Social Media as Influencing Factors on eCommerce Revenues (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Anwendungsmöglichkeiten und -grenzen des Einsatzes von Internet of Things-Technologien in der Landwirtschaft (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Chatbots als Serviceassistenten auf eCommerce Webseiten – eine literaturbasierte Evaluation (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Nutzerzufriedenheit im E-Learning: Eine Analyse relevanter Bewertungskriterien (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)
• Towards an automatized service management: Conceptualization and exemplary application of A CMDB data model to support automated provisioning and decommissioning activities of virtual machines in hybrid clouds (Bachelor Thesis Business Information Systems)