Open innovation model for a large company in the ICT industry: Case Ericsson LMF

Open innovation paradigm states that the boundaries of the firm have become permeable, allowing knowledge to flow inwards and outwards to accelerate internal innovations and take unused knowledge to the external environment; respectively. The successful implementation of open innovation practices in firms like Procter & Gamble, IBM, and Xerox, among others; suggest that it is a sustainable trend which could provide basis for achieving competitive advantage. However, implementing open innovation could be a complex process which involves several domains of management; and whose term, classification, and practices have not totally been agreed upon. Thus, with many possible ways to address open innovation, the following research question was formulated: How could Ericsson LMF assess which open innovation mode to select depending on the attributes of the project at hand? The research followed the constructive research approach which has the following steps: find a practical relevant problem, obtain general understanding of the topic, innovate the solution, demonstrate the solution works, show theoretical contributions, and examine the scope of applicability of the solution. The research involved three phases of data collection and analysis: Extensive literature review of open innovation, strategy, business model, innovation, and knowledge management; direct observation of the environment of the case company through participative observation; and semi-structured interviews based of six cases involving multiple and heterogeneous open innovation initiatives. Results from the cases suggest that the selection of modes depend on multiple reasons, with a stronger influence of factors related to strategy, business models, and resources gaps. Based on these and others factors found in the literature review and observations; it was possible to construct a model that supports approaching open innovation. The model integrates perspectives from multiple domains of the literature review, observations inside the case company, and factors from the six open innovation cases. It provides steps, guidelines, and tools to approach open innovation and assess the selection of modes. Measuring the impact of open innovation could take years; thus, implementing and testing entirely the model was not possible due time limitation. Nevertheless, it was possible to validate the core elements of the model with empirical data gathered from the cases. In addition to constructing the model, this research contributed to the literature by increasing the understanding of open innovation, providing suggestions to the case company, and proposing future steps.

Suorituskyvyn johtaminen ja IT-strategian suuntaaminen; Case: ICT-alan yritys

Yrityksen tietohallintoon kohdistuu tänä päivänä paljon vaatimuksia. Vaatimukset kohdistuvat tietohallinnon merkitykseen liiketoiminnan tukijana ja suorituskyvyn edistäjänä. ICT-toimialan rooli palveluiden tuottajana ja Suomen taloudellisen kas-vun tukijana ovat merkittävät. Tämän diplomityön tavoite on selvittää mikä on tietohallinnon rooli ja merkitys osana yrityksen suorituskykyä ja miten sitä tulisi kehittää. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys koostuu yleisistä suorituskyvyn johtamisen malleista, suorituskyvyn joh-tamisen malleista tietohallinnossa sekä IT-strategian suuntaamisen malleista ja suuntaamisen vaikutuksesta yrityksen suorituskykyyn. Tutkimuskysymys on: miten strategian suuntaamista tulisi kehittää jotta tietohallinto pystyisi edistämään yrityk-sen suorituskykyä? Tutkimusstrategia on case-tutkimus ja empiirinen aineisto on hankittu teemahaastatteluilla. Case-tutkimuksen tulosten mukaan strategian suuntaamisen arvioinnin mallin valit-seminen on tärkeää. Strategian suuntaamisen kaikki näkökulmat tulee ottaa huomi-oon. Esimerkiksi osaaminen, kommunikaatio, kumppanuudet ja ihmisten käyttäy-tyminen saattavat jäädä ns. kovien näkökulmien varjoon. Strategian suuntaamisessa tulee kiinnittää huomiota suuntaamiseen kaikilla organisaatiotasoilla. Toiminnalli-sen tason merkitys tulee myös huomioida. Strategian suuntaamista kehitettäessä tulee arvioinnissa ottaa huomioon eri liiketoimintayksiköiden arvioinnit, koska ne saattavat poiketa vahvasti toisistaan ja siten vääristää kehittämiskohteiden valitse-mista.

Johtamisen, kommunikaation ja organisaation oikeudenmukaisuuden vaikutus sitoutumiseen ICT-alan organisaatiossa ja sitouttamisen keinot

Organisaatioon sitoutuminen on organisaation kannalta kriittinen ilmiö. Sen nähdään vähentävän henkilöstön vaihtuvuutta ja aineettoman pääoman katoa organisaatiosta. Tässä työssä tutkittiin erään valtionhallinnon laitoksen henkilöstön organisaatioon sitoutumisen tasoa ja siihen vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Tutkimuksessa organisaatioon sitoutumista tarkasteltiin johtamisen, kommunikaation ja organisaation oikeudenmukaisuuden näkökulmasta. Kaikkia tutkittavia tekijöitä tarkasteltiin sekä globaalista, että lokaalista näkökulmasta. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin ainoastaan globaalin tason vaikuttajilla olevan merkittävä vaikutus organisaatioon sitoutumisessa, ainoana poikkeuksena lokaali oikeudenmukaisuus. Organisaatioon sitoutumisen havaittiin perustuvan sitoutumisen tunneperäiseen elementtiin, velvollisuudentunnon ja jatkuvuusperäisen komponentin jäädessä heikommiksi. Merkittävä havainto oli tutkimuksissa havaittujen demografisten vaikuttajien korreloivan joko ainoastaan heikosti tai ei lainkaan organisaatioon sitoutumiseen. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin myös kriittisten asiantuntijoiden ja perusasiantuntijoiden sitoutumisen eroja. Kriittisten asiantuntijoiden havaittiin olevan heikommin sitoutuneita ja sitoutumisen tekijöiden globaalin tason vaikutuksen olevan merkittävästi vahvempi heihin, kuin perusasiantuntijoihin. Perusasiantuntijoiden havaittiin kiinnittyvän lokaaleihin tekijöihin, joilla on heikompi, tai ei juurikaan vaikutusta organisaatioon sitoutumiseen. Vaikuttavimmiksi organisaatioon sitoutumista vahvistaviksi tekijöiksi tunnistettiin johtamisen ja kommunikaation laadukkuus, ja organisaation osoittama oikeudenmukaisuus.

Ei-henkilöityvän organisatorisen luottamuksen merkitys YT-neuvotteluja läpikäyvän kuntaomisteisen ICT-palveluyhtiön toiminnassa

Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin mikä on ei-henkilöityvän organisatorisen luottamuksen merkitys yrityksen toiminnassa ja voidaanko ei-henkilöityvää organisatorista luottamusta jälleenrakentaa ja kehittää yrityksessä, joka parhaillaan käy YT-neuvotteluita. Tutkimusongelmaa lähestyttiin ei-henkilöityvän organisatorisen luottamuksen viitekehyksen kautta. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvalitatiivisena tapaustutkimuksena kuntaomisteisessa ICT-palveluyhtiössä. Kvalitatiivinen tutkimusaineisto kerättiin puolistrukturoidulla teemahaastattelukyselylomakkeella ja vastaukset analysoitiin sisällönanalyysimenetelmällä. Tutkimuksessa saatujen tulosten perusteella yrityksen henkilöstön kokemalla ei-henkilöityvällä organisatorisella luottamuksella yritystä kohtaan on yhteys työntekijöiden työmotivaation, työtehokkuuteen ja sitoutumiseen ja vaikutus yrityksen toimintaan. Luottamuksen jälleenrakentaminen ja kehittäminen organisaatiossa edellyttävät toimenpiteitä yrityksen johdolta.

Food packaging indicators and sensors

Various categories of food packaging indicators namely; VTT, Ageless Eye, Mocon, Åbo Akademi and Impak were selected and incorporated into food trays manufactured at LUT packaging laboratory. Each of these food packaging indicators was used to investigate (visually and qualitatively) the transmission of oxygen through the seal, and tray material, as well as to detect microbial activity within the content of the package. Applications of different methods of gas flushing, content variation and introduction of two distinct levels of oxygen scavengers were employed as treatments to evaluate the packaging performance of the food packaging indicators. Ease of handling of each food packaging indicator was also taken into considerations. Findings showed that for packages, which contained chicken product, the amount of oxygen in the package, measured immediately after the sealing operation on the first day gradually decreased to zero percent by the third day of the storage period. The oxygen level remained at this point throughout the duration of storage for the chicken packages. Besides, level of oxygen in the packages without product continued to increase with the storage time, at moderate rate of 0.1% for 100%N2 and 0.3% for 30%CO2/70%N2 empty packages. More carbon dioxide gas was recorded for packages flushed with 30%CO2/70%N2. Results also revealed that visual analysis of one of the color indicators for example Ageless Eye, conformed to the data derived from the luminescence food-packaging indicator. This shows that packaging operation of the packaging line was considerably stable, and efficient with negligible exception. However, it was found that most of the food packaging indicators investigated in this research study exhibited considerable packaging challenges, such as, reaction with the content of the package (Impak); over sensitivity (Åbo Akademi and Impak); ease of handling problem (Åbo Akademi); and ease of activation problem (VTT indicators). In this study, the strengths and limitations of different indicators were analyzed. This study demonstrates the applicability of various indicators in MAP using chicken package application.

ICT - Tietojärjestelmäympäristön siirto

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää tietojärjestelmäympäristön siirtoprojektin toteutukseen liittyviä ongelmia ja etsiä niihin ratkaisuja. Tutkimuksen lopputuloksen perusteella on tarkoitus tehdä ehdotus tietojärjestelmäympäristön siirtoprojektin mahdollisesta prosessikuvauksesta. Kunnollisen prosessikuvauksen avulla tietojärjestelmäympäristön siirtoprojektin toteutus helpottuu huomattavasti, koska on olemassa selkeät ohjeet siitä, mitä kaikkea on otettava huomioon siirtoa suunniteltaessa ja toteutettaessa. Asiakkaan vaatimukset ovat oleelliset tässä työssä, joten tässä työssä prosessikuvaus suunnitellaan eri osapuolten näkökulmasta, joita tässä työssä ovat sekä Hallinnon tietotekniikkakeskus (Haltik) että sen asiakkaat.

Glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies are indicators of the course, but not of the onset, of diabetes in middle-aged adults: the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study

To efficiently examine the association of glutamic acid decarboxylase antibody (GADA) positivity with the onset and progression of diabetes in middle-aged adults, we performed a case-cohort study representing the ~9-year experience of 10,275 Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study participants, initially aged 45-64 years. Antibodies to glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65) were measured by radioimmunoassay in 580 incident diabetes cases and 544 non-cases. The overall weighted prevalence of GADA positivity (³1 U/mL) was 7.3%. Baseline risk factors, with the exception of smoking and interleukin-6 (P £ 0.02), were generally similar between GADA-positive and -negative individuals. GADA positivity did not predict incident diabetes in multiply adjusted (HR = 1.04; 95%CI = 0.55, 1.96) proportional hazard analyses. However, a small non-significant adjusted risk (HR = 1.29; 95%CI = 0.58, 2.88) was seen for those in the highest tertile (³2.38 U/mL) of positivity. GADA-positive and GADA-negative non-diabetic individuals had similar risk profiles for diabetes, with central obesity and elevated inflammation markers, aside from glucose, being the main predictors. Among diabetes cases at study's end, progression to insulin treatment increased monotonically as a function of baseline GADA level. Overall, being GADA positive increased risk of progression to insulin use almost 10 times (HR = 9.9; 95%CI = 3.4, 28.5). In conclusion, in initially non-diabetic middle-aged adults, GADA positivity did not increase diabetes risk, and the overall baseline profile of risk factors was similar for positive and negative individuals. Among middle-aged adults, with the possible exception of those with the highest GADA levels, autoimmune pathophysiology reflected by GADA may become clinically relevant only after diabetes onset.

Assessment of indicators of vitamin A status in non-cirrhotic chronic hepatitis C patients

Subjects with chronic liver disease are susceptible to hypovitaminosis A due to several factors. Therefore, identifying patients with vitamin deficiency and a requirement for vitamin supplementation is important. Most studies assessing vitamin A in the context of hepatic disorders are conducted using cirrhotic patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 43 non-cirrhotic patients with chronic hepatitis C to evaluate markers of vitamin A status represented by serum retinol, liver retinol, and serum retinol-binding protein levels. We also performed the relative dose-response test, which provides an indirect estimate of hepatic vitamin A reserves. These vitamin A indicators were assessed according to the stage of liver fibrosis using the METAVIR score and the body mass index. The sample study was predominantly composed of male subjects (63%) with mild liver fibrosis (F1). The relative dose-response test was <20% in all subjects, indicating vitamin A sufficiency. Overweight or obese patients had higher serum retinol levels than those with a normal body mass index (2.6 and 1.9 µmol/L, respectively; P<0.01). Subjects with moderate liver fibrosis (F2) showed lower levels of serum retinol (1.9 vs 2.5 µmol/L, P=0.01) and retinol-binding protein levels compared with those with mild fibrosis (F1) (46.3 vs 67.7 µg/mL, P<0.01). These results suggested an effect of being overweight on serum retinol levels. Furthermore, more advanced stages of liver fibrosis were related to a decrease in serum vitamin A levels.

Green Service Level Agreement under Sustainability Lens in IT Industry

Nowadays, when most of the business are moving forward to sustainability by providing or getting different services from different vendors, Service Level Agreement (SLA) becomes very important for both the business providers/vendors and as well as for users/customers. There are many ways to inform users/customers about various services with its inherent execution functionalities and even non-functional/Quality of Services (QoS) aspects through negotiating, evaluating or monitoring SLAs. However, these traditional SLA actually do not cover eco-efficient green issues or IT ethics issues for sustainability. That is why green SLA (GSLA) should come into play. GSLA is a formal agreement incorporating all the traditional commitments as well as green issues and ethics issues in IT business sectors. GSLA research would survey on different traditional SLA parameters for various services like as network, compute, storage and multimedia in IT business areas. At the same time, this survey could focus on finding the gaps and incorporation of these traditional SLA parameters with green issues for all these mentioned services. This research is mainly points on integration of green parameters in existing SLAs, defining GSLA with new green performance indicators and their measurable units. Finally, a GSLA template could define compiling all the green indicators such as recycling, radio-wave, toxic material usage, obsolescence indication, ICT product life cycles, energy cost etc for sustainable development. Moreover, people’s interaction and IT ethics issues such as security and privacy, user satisfaction, intellectual property right, user reliability, confidentiality etc could also need to add for proposing a new GSLA. However, integration of new and existing performance indicators in the proposed GSLA for sustainable development could be difficult for ICT engineers. Therefore, this research also discovers the management complexity of proposed green SLA through designing a general informational model and analyses of all the relationships, dependencies and effects between various newly identified services under sustainability pillars. However, sustainability could only be achieved through proper implementation of newly proposed GSLA, which largely depends on monitoring the performance of the green indicators. Therefore, this research focuses on monitoring and evaluating phase of GSLA indicators through the interactions with traditional basic SLA indicators, which would help to achieve proper implementation of future GSLA. Finally, this newly proposed GSLA informational model and monitoring aspects could definitely help different service providers/vendors to design their future business strategy in this new transitional sustainable society.

Green ICT metrics and Biomimicry

Sustainability issue of ICT have gathered attention in recent years, and researchers are working on this problem. Sustainability incorporates numerous interconnected aspects as well as methods to achieve it in ICT, so it is quite complicated to have a general view on a problem without a proper framework. However, a general methodology for such a research is missing. In this work it is proposed to use Biomimicry approach as a framework for sustainability research and development, as it introduces systematics and also forces to account sustainable aspects. Additionally, an interesting problem of green network measurements for enhancing sustainability in ICT will be researched using mentioned approach. The goal is to investigate Biomimicry as a systemic approach for developing sustainable systems, as well as to apply it in green network measurements study. Comparative study is performed for examining Biomimicry approach, as well as a use case of green network measurements research is presented. As a result, green network measurement can potentially improve sustainability, but only to a limited extent as it cannot incorporate all the aspects; within Biomimicry approach, two methodologies exist. It is possible to conclude that Biomimicry is a good framework for developing sustainable systems, nevertheless, another methodology has to be introduced within it; new methodology has to incorporate advantages of two existing ones.

Kilpailija-analyysi johdon työ kaluna – empiirinen analyysi ICT-toimialan yrityksistä

Merkittävät ja nopeat muutokset markkina- ja kilpailukentässä viimeisen kahden vuosikymmenen aikana ovat saaneet yhtiöt sekä tutkijat kiinnostumaan kilpaili-joista uudella tavalla. Systemaattisen kilpailijaseurannan määrä on lisääntynyt operatiivisessa liiketoimintaympäristössä merkittävästi. Kilpailijoita käsittelevä tut-kimus on lisääntynyt ja siihen ovat ottaneet osaa myös tutkijat uusilta tieteenaloil-ta. Kilpailijaetua sekä kilpailuanalyyseja käsittelevään tutkimukseen otti aikai-semmin osaa lähinnä johtamista ja markkinointia tutkivat tutkijat. Erityisesti ta-loushallintonäkökulman mukaantulo keskusteluun on ollut merkittävää. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, miksi yritykset toteuttavat kilpailija-analyyseja. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa pyrittiin lisäämään tietoa siitä, miten yritykset käytännössä toteuttavat kilpailija-analyyseja. Työn empiirinen tutkimus toteutettiin laadullisin tutkimusmenetelmin ja haastatteluaineisto kerättiin teemahaastatte-luin. Haastatteluaineisto koostui kolmesta Suomessa liiketoimintaa harjoittavasta ICT-toimialan yrityksestä. Haastatteluaineiston tulokset olivat pääosin linjassa kirjallisuuden kanssa. Kilpailija-analyysin rooli nähtiin merkittävänä yhtiön laa-jemmassa strategiatyössä. Syyt siihen, miksi kilpailija-analyysiä toteutettiin, erosi-vat hyvin vähän yhtiöiden välillä. Kilpailija-analyysin käytännön toteutuksessa nähtiin merkittävämpiä eroja yhtiöiden välillä. Haastatteluaineiston pieni koko ei kuitenkaan mahdollista yleistysten tekemistä. Tutkimusalueesta tulee tehdä tule-vaisuudessa merkittävästi lisätutkimusta. Erityisesti strukturoituneempia kilpailija-analyysimalleja tarvitaan tulevaisuudessa lisää.

Challenges of user-driven innovations on late stages of innovation process: evidence from ICT companies

The goal of this thesis is to study user-driven innovations and user involvement throughout the innovation process in context of B2B companies. Significant emphasis in the analysis put onto the late stages of innovation process and commercialization of innovations. Thesis includes detailed review of theoretical concepts and underlying frameworks of innovation process, lead users and user-driven innovations. The empirical part of the thesis consist of interviews of the four companies from ICT industry, followed by the comprehensive analysis and comparison of the results. The presented findings indicate common challenges, which ICT companies face, when shifting towards innovation by users paradigm. Linkages and connections among current situation and theoretical frameworks presented in the discussion part of the thesis allow to draw practical managerial implications. The results of the research emphasize valuable insights and challenges of user interactions within innovation process as well as output and participation related benefits for the companies and users. The research points out current state of the user involvement techniques and tools used for user interactions as well as suggests the possibilities for improvement in the future.

Data Governance and Automated Marketing – A Case Study of Expected Benefits of Organizing Data Governance in an ICT Company

This research is looking to find out what benefits employees expect the organization of data governance gains for an organization and how it benefits implementing automated marketing capabilities. Quality and usability of the data are crucial for organizations to meet various business needs. Organizations have more data and technology available what can be utilized for example in automated marketing. Data governance addresses the organization of decision rights and accountabilities for the management of an organization’s data assets. With automated marketing it is meant sending a right message, to a right person, at a right time, automatically. The research is a single case study conducted in Finnish ICT-company. The case company was starting to organize data governance and implementing automated marketing capabilities at the time of the research. Empirical material is interviews of the employees of the case company. Content analysis is used to interpret the interviews in order to find the answers to the research questions. Theoretical framework of the research is derived from the morphology of data governance. Findings of the research indicate that the employees expect the organization of data governance among others to improve customer experience, to improve sales, to provide abilities to identify individual customer’s life-situation, ensure that the handling of the data is according to the regulations and improve operational efficiency. The organization of data governance is expected to solve problems in customer data quality that are currently hindering implementation of automated marketing capabilities.