Reinventing the third way : towards new forms of economic and democratic conduct

Avhandlingen studerar samspelet mellan det politiska och det ekonomiska systemet genom det föregående seklet, med speciellt fokus på den nyliberala omdaning som utspelats de senaste tre årtiondena. Med en liberaliserad ekonomi och en individualiserad människa måste också det politiska systemet utformas på ett annat sätt. Gradvisa förändringar har varit synliga, som den växande nätverksorganiseringen, dvs. att olika typer av utvecklingspolitik allt mer genomförs som ett samspel mellan samhällssektorerna, istället för att enbart utföras av den offentliga sektorn som tidigare. Genom fyra fallstudier i Österbotten demonstreras hur arenor för samverkan kan konstrueras i enlighet med vad den aktuella frågan kräver. Ett exempel är det innovationsnätverk som skapats i Karleby-Jakobstad-regionen, där offentliga och privata intressenter deltar, och som samtidigt bryter traditionella administrativa gränser. Ett annat mer negativt exempel är omstruktureringsprocessen i Kaskö-regionen eft er Metsä-Botnia-fabrikens nedläggning, där småkommunproblemet tillsammans med att den privata intressenten inte haft skyldighet att samverka lett till att en tillräckligt regionalt förankrad arena för en långsiktig utvecklingspolitik inte har kunnat skapas. Det här visar på trögheten i det finska systemet, där en stark enhetsstat och en splittrad kommunal nivå ur ett historiskt perspektiv hindrat flexibla anpassningar till samhällsförändringar. Avhandlingen visar att nätverksorganiseringen bör vara en integrerad del av de representativa strukturerna för att kunna påverka processernas utfall. Avhandlingen visar framförallt att deltagande och funktionellt definierade regionala och lokala arenor har stor potential, både ekonomiskt och demokratiskt. Det handlar om att skapa en kultur med aktiverade och engagerade medborgare, vilket står i kontrast till det allt mer passiverande representativa systemet. ---------------------------------------- Väitöskirja tutkii viime vuosisadan poliittisen ja taloudellisen järjestelmän vuorovaikutusta keskittyen erityisesti kolmen viimeisen vuosikymmenen uusliberaaliseen muutokseen. Talouden liberalisoituminen ja ihmisen individualisoituminen edellyttävät myös poliittisen järjestelmän mukautumista. Asteittaisia muutoksia on ollut havaittavissa, kuten kasvava verkosto-organisaatio, toisin sanoen eri alojen kehityspolitiikkaa toteutetaan yhä enemmän eri yhteiskuntasektoreiden vuorovaikutuksena, kun aikaisemmin ainoastaan julkinen sektori vastasi kehityspolitiikan toteuttamisesta. Pohjanmaan maakunnan neljän tapaustutkimuksen avulla osoitetaan, miten vuorovaikutusareena voidaan rakentaa kulloinkin ajankohtaisen asiakokonaisuuden ympärille. Tästä esimerkkinä on Kokkola-Pietarsaari –alueen innovaatioverkosto, johon osallistuvat sekä julkiset että yksityiset sidosryhmät ja joka samalla rikkoo perinteisiä hallinnollisia rajoja. Toinen, kielteisempi esimerkki on Kaskisten alueen rakennemu utosprosessi Metsä-Botnian tehtaan sulkemisen jälkeen. Siellä pienkuntaongelma yhdistettynä siihen, että yksityinen sidosryhmä ei ole ollut velvollinen tekemään yhteistyötä, on johtanut siihen, että ei ole kyetty luomaan alueen pitkäaikaiseen kehittämiseen sitoutunutta vuorovaikutusareenaa. Tämä osoittaa suomalaisen järjestelmän kankeuden, jossa historiallisesta näkökulmasta vahva yhtenäinen valtio ja hajanainen kuntataso estävät joustavan yhteiskuntamuutoksiin sopeutumisen. Väitöskirja osoittaa, että verkosto-organisaation on oltava yhteiskunnassa vaikuttaviin rakenteisiin integroitu osa, jotta se voi vaikuttaa prosessien tuloksiin. Väitöskirja osoittaa ennen kaikkea, että osallistuvilla ja toiminnallisesti määritellyillä alueellisilla ja paikallisilla areenoilla on suuri taloudellinen ja demokraattinen potentiaali. Passivoivan edustavan järjestelmän tilalle on luotava aktiivisten ja tavoitteisiin sitoutuneiden kansalaisten vuorovaikutusjärjestelmä.

Guidelines for small embedded system companies aiming to enter the space industry

This guide summarizes useful information about the European Space Agency (ESA), the European space industry, the ECSS standards and product assurance for small and medium enterprises that are aiming to enter the industry. Additionally, the applicability of agile development in space projects is discussed.

Product Assurance in Agile Space Systems Development

Product assurance is an essential part of product development process if developers want to ensure that final product is safe and reliable. Product assurance can be supported withrisk management and with different failure analysis methods. Product assurance is emphasized in system development process of mission critical systems. The product assurance process in systems of this kind requires extra attention. Inthis thesis, mission critical systems are space systems and the product assurance processof these systems is presented with help of space standards. The product assurance process can be supported with agile development because agile emphasizes transparency of the process and fast response to changes. Even if the development process of space systems is highly standardized and reminds waterfall model, it is still possible to adapt agile development in space systems development. This thesisaims to support the product assurance process of space systems with agile developmentso that the final product would be as safe and reliable as possible. The main purpose of this thesis is to examine how well product assurance is performed in Finnish space organizations and how product assurance tasks and activities can besupported with agile development. The research part of this thesis is performed in survey form.

Product assurance in agile space systems development

Product assurance is an essential part of product development process if developers want to ensure that final product is safe and reliable. Product assurance can be supported with risk management and with different failure analysis methods. Product assurance is emphasized in system development process of mission critical systems. The product assurance process in systems of this kind requires extra attention. In this thesis, mission critical systems are space systems and the product assurance process of these systems is presented with help of space standards. The product assurance process can be supported with agile development because agile emphasizes transparency of the process and fast response to changes. Even if the development process of space systems is highly standardized and reminds waterfall model, it is still possible to adapt agile development in space systems development. This thesis aims to support the product assurance process of space systems with agile development so that the final product would be as safe and reliable as possible. The main purpose of this thesis is to examine how well product assurance is performed in Finnish space organizations and how product assurance tasks and activities can be supported with agile development. The research part of this thesis is performed in survey form.

Static waves in corporate space : characterizing oscillating trading patterns in New York stock exchange

Various researches in the field of econophysics has shown that fluid flow have analogous phenomena in financial market behavior, the typical parallelism being delivered between energy in fluids and information on markets. However, the geometry of the manifold on which market dynamics act out their dynamics (corporate space) is not yet known. In this thesis, utilizing a Seven year time series of prices of stocks used to compute S&P500 index on the New York Stock Exchange, we have created local chart to the corporate space with the goal of finding standing waves and other soliton like patterns in the behavior of stock price deviations from the S&P500 index. By first calculating the correlation matrix of normalized stock price deviations from the S&P500 index, we have performed a local singular value decomposition over a set of four different time windows as guides to the nature of patterns that may emerge. I turns out that in almost all cases, each singular vector is essentially determined by relatively small set of companies with big positive or negative weights on that singular vector. Over particular time windows, sometimes these weights are strongly correlated with at least one industrial sector and certain sectors are more prone to fast dynamics whereas others have longer standing waves.

A Business Incubator, Accelerator, or Coworking Space? Case Health Innovation Village at GE

Health Innovation Village at GE is one of the new communities targeted for startup and growth-oriented companies. It has been established at the premises of a multinational conglomerate that will promote networking and growth of startup companies. The concept combines features from traditional business incubators, accelerators, and coworking spaces. This research compares Health Innovation Village to these concepts regarding its goals, target clients, source of income, organization, facilities, management, and success factors. In addition, a new incubator classification model is introduced. On the other hand, Health Innovation Village is examined from its tenants’ perspective and improvements are suggested. The work was implemented as a qualitative case study by interviewing GE staff with connections to Health Innovation Village as well as startup entrepreneurs and employees’ working there. The most evident features of Health Innovation Village correspond to those of business incubators although it is atypical as a non-profit corporate business incubator. Strong network orientation and connections to venture capitalists are common characteristics of these new types of accelerators. The design of the premises conforms to the principles of coworking spaces, but the services provided to the startup companies are considerably more versatile than the services offered by coworking spaces. The advantages of Health Innovation Village are that there are first-class premises and exceptionally good networking possibilities that other types of incubators or accelerators are not able to offer. A conglomerate can also provide multifaceted special knowledge for young firms. In addition, both GE and the startups gained considerable publicity through their cooperation, indeed a characteristic that benefits both parties. Most of the expectations of the entrepreneurs were exceeded. However, communication and the scope of cooperation remain challenges. Micro companies spend their time developing and marketing their products and acquiring financing. Therefore, communication should be as clear as possible and accessible everywhere. The startups would prefer to cooperate significantly more, but few have the time available to assume the responsibility of leadership. The entrepreneurs also expected to have more possibilities for cooperation with GE. Wider collaboration might be accomplished by curation in the same way as it is used in the well-functioning coworking spaces where curators take care of practicalities and promote cooperation. Communication issues could be alleviated if the community had its own Intranet pages where all information could be concentrated. In particular, a common calendar and a room reservation system could be useful. In addition, it could be beneficial to have a section of the Intranet open for both the GE staff and the startups so that those willing to share their knowledge and those having project offers could use it for advertising.