Seminar – Designing the Experience Economy: Bridging Physical and Digital Worlds

• The event will be held in a Hybrid format, both online and in-person
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Digital technologies have transformed how we create, deliver, and experience products and services. Yet not everything that makes an experience valuable can be digitalized.

We experience the world through our senses, movements, surroundings, and interactions with others. The taste of wine, the atmosphere of a restaurant, or the experience of visiting a historic city cannot simply be converted into digital form. But digital technologies can change how these experiences are created, shared, and enjoyed.

This presents new opportunities and challenges for the experience economy. How can organizations combine physical and digital elements to create experiences that neither could offer alone? What should be digitalized, what should remain physical, and how can these choices create and capture value?

Drawing on research into multisensory experiences, digital innovation, and the design of physical-digital offerings, this talk explores how organizations can rethink the design of experiences in an increasingly digital world. Through examples from tourism, hospitality, and other industries, we will discuss how digital technologies can enrich physical experiences, enable new forms of interaction, and open opportunities for innovation and value creation.

This talk is based on three papers, among others:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07421222.2024.2376386#abstract
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02683962221096860
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12599-025-00956-0

Biography

Leona Chandra Kruse is a professor of Information Systems at the University of Agder in Norway.

Her research focuses on how people use information systems for work and leisure and how the technologies should be designed to provide people with support, pleasure, and security.

She examines legacy and emerging technologies, such as decision support systems, simulated AI persona, digital companions, non-fungible tokens, and immersive systems.

Her research has been recognized with several awards, including the Young Researcher Award

2024 from Agder Academy of Sciences and Letters and the AIS Senior Scholar’s best Information Systems publication in 2019 (on green information systems) and 2025 (BAUSTEIN for design science research). Leona is an Associate Editor for MIS Quarterly, Senior Editor for the Journal of Strategic Information Systems and the European Journal of Information Systems. Check out the latest activities of CHERISH research group: https://www.uia.no/english/research/research-groups/social-sciences/CHERISH.