Strategic external deployment of intellectual assets

Globalization, pervasiveness of technology and ICT, and the buildup of information societies and policies have lead to a growing abundance of knowledge and highly educated labour supply that is distributed widely. These changes have shifted the foundation of competitiveness to valuable knowledge resources which are now distributed widely across the globe, across actors in the value chain and across educated individuals in multiple organizations. Against this backdrop, the paradigm of open innovation (OI) has emerged as a new response to managing the increased amount of boundary-spanning knowledge flows in and out of the innovation process. The outbound mode of open innovation, that is to say the external exploitation of knowledge assets outside of the firm’s own products and services, has been the less-researched aspect of the concept and so far typically seen as concerning the outlicensing of unused technological assets to generate additional revenue. Given that open innovation is essentially a framework for the holistic structuring and management of crossboundary knowledge flows to improve a firm’s innovative performance, a close integration to corporate strategy seems imperative in order to fully benefit from it. Integrating open innovation to strategy leads to elevating its role from a fringe activity to a central innovation management issue that needs to be systematically managed. Building a structure that allows effective management necessitates linking open innovation activities to each phase of the innovation process. Previously, the connection between outbound OI and the earlier stages of innovation has not been studied. The thesis finds that connecting outbound OI to the entire innovation process of the firm, including the fuzzy front end of innovation, is critical for attaining strategic objectives and to the successful implementation and management of the activity. The practical purpose for the research is to enable companies to fully utilize their potential for outbound open innovation and to be able to implement and manage it from a strategic standpoint.

Strategic Innovation Management Based on Three Dimensions

This thesis examines innovation development needs of firms in a remote rural region. The perspective of the study is in strategic innovation management and three dimensions of innovation development: innovation environment, value delivery and innovation capability. The framework is studied with a theoretical and methodological approach in the context of the development of a regional innovation system and the defining of innovation development needs. The thesis is based on existing innovation management literature, expanding it by examining the features of the three dimensions. The empirical data of the study comprise 50 purposefully selected firms within the region of Pielinen Karelia located in Eastern Finland. Most of the firms (70%) included in the study represent manufacturing firms, and over 90% are small and medium-sized enterprises. The research data consist of two questionnaires and an interview, which were done during 2011 in the connection of a regional development project. The point of view of the research is in regional development and harnessing the innovation capability of the firms within the region. The principal research approach applies soft systems methodology. The study explores the means to foster the innovativeness of firms from the viewpoints of innovation environment, innovation capability and value delivery. In closer detail, the study examines relations between the innovation capability factors, differences in innovation development needs within the value delivery system, between sectors and between firm size categories. The thesis offers three major contributions. First, the study extends earlier research on strategic innovation management by connecting the frameworks of innovation capability, innovation environment and value delivery process to the defining of innovation development needs at the regional level. The results deepen knowledge especially concerning practice-based innovation, peripheral regions and smaller firms. Second, the empirical work, based on a case study, confirms the existence of a structural connection integrating five factors of innovation capability. Statistical evidence is provided especially for the positive impacts of the improvement of absorption capability, marketing capability and networking capability, which are the main weaknesses of firms according to the study. Third, the research provides a methodological contribution by applying the innovation matrix in the defining of the innovation development needs of firms. The study demonstrates how the matrix improves possibility to target policy instruments and innovation services more efficiently through indicating significant differences between the innovation support needs regarding various time horizons and phases of innovation process.

Ydinprosessikuvaus johtamisen tukena rakennusalan konsernissa

Tämän diplomityön tärkeimpänä tavoitteena on kuvata kohdekonsernin ydinprosessi asiakasrajapinnasta takuutarkastukseen sekä sitä tukevat prosessit riittävällä tarkkuudella. Lisäksi tavoitteena on laatia kuvaamisen pohjalta yksinkertainen työkalu yksittäisten hankkeiden johtamisen sekä sisäisen koulutuksen tarpeisiin. Tavoitteena on työn kautta edistää konsernin strategisten tavoitteiden saavuttamista. Työ jakautuu teoria- ja empiriaosaan. Teoriaosassa luodaan viitekehys työn empiriaosalle. Se pitää sisällään prosessiajattelun ja prosessijohtamisen käsittelyä sekä prosessien kuvaamisen ja niiden suorituskyvyn mittaamisen teoreettista taustaa. Työn empiria- eli käytännön osassa kuvataan konsernin strategian mukainen ydinprosessi ja määritetään siihen porttimallin mukaiset portit sekä niissä tarkastettavat minimivaatimukset. Lisäksi esitellään ydinprosessia tukevia prosesseja ja laaditaan suorituskykymittaristo sekä käsitellään jatkuvaa parantamista konsernissa käytännössä. Käytännön osan lopussa esitellään kuvauksen pohjalta laadittu työkalu sekä sen tuomat mahdollisuudet. Teoriaosa on luonteeltaan kirjallisuustutkimus, joka muodostuu kirjojen ja artikkelien pohjalta. Empiriaosassa on sekä tapaustutkimuksen että konstruktiivisen tutkimuksen piirteitä ja menetelminä siinä on käytetty haastatteluja, palavereita ja havainnointia. Empiriaosassa on hyödynnetty myös konsernin omaa aineistoa. Keskeisimpiä tuloksia ovat ydinprosessin kuvaus sekä sen pohjalta laadittu konsernin tarpeisiin vastaava konkreettinen työkalu. Lisäksi tuloksena voidaan pitää havaittua prosessiajattelun edistymistä konsernissa. Kohdekonsernin ydinprosessi koostuu kuudesta vaiheesta: 1) asiakastarpeiden selvitys/myynti, 2) tarjous- ja sopimusvaihe, 3) suunnittelu, 4) työmaavaihe, 5) ennakkotarkastus- ja luovutusvaihe ja 6) loppuselvitys- ja takuuvaihe. Ydinprosessin vaiheet muodostuvat määriteltyjen porttien kautta ja ne muodostavat konsernin prosessikartan rungon.

Strategic communication : practice, ideology and dissonance

This dissertation approaches the manifestations of ideology in U.S. Strategic Communication. The discussion approaches Strategic Communication by relating it to the Enlightenment narratives and suggesting these narratives maintain similar social and political functions. This dissertation aims to address the key contents and mechanisms of Strategic Communication by covering the perspectives of (i) communication as leadership as well as (ii) communication as discourse , i.e. practice and contents. Throughout the empirical part of the dissertation, the communication theoretical discussion is supported by a methodological framework that bridges Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and functional language theory. According to the principles of CDA, Strategic Communication is treated as ideological, hegemonic discourse that impacts social order. The primary method of analysis is transitivity analysis, which is concerned with how language and its patterns construe reality. This analysis is complemented with a discussion on the rituals of production and interpretation, which can be treated as visual extensions of textual transitivity. The concept of agency is the key object of analysis. From the perspective of leadership, Strategic Communication is essentially a leadership model through which the organization defines itself, its aims and legitimacy. This dissertation arrives to the conclusion that Strategic Communication is used not only as a concept for managing Public Relations and information operations. It is an esse ntial asset in the inter-organization management of its members. The current developments indicate that the concept is developing towards even heavier measures of control. From the perspective of language and discourse, the key narratives of Strategic Communication are advocated with the intrinsic values of democracy and technological progress as the prerequisites of ethics and justice. The transitivity patterns reveal highly polarized agency. The agency of the Self is typically outsourced to technology. Further, the transitivity pa tterns demonstrate how the effects-centric paradigm of warfare has created a lexicon that is ideologically exclusive. It has led to the development of two mutually exclusive sets of vocabulary, where the desc riptions of legitimate ac tion exclude Others by default. These ideological discourses have become naturalized in the official vocabulary of strategic planning and le adership. Finally, the analysis of the images of the captures and deaths of Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi bring the discussion back to the themes of the Enlightenment by demonstrating how democracy is framed to serve political purposes. The images of democracy are essentially images of violence. Contrary to the official, instrumental and humanitari an narratives of Strategic Communication, it is the grammar of expressive, violent rituals that serve as the instrument of unity.

Liiketoiminnan strateginen suunnittelu: Konesali-liiketoiminta

Tässä diplomityössä selvitettiin tukkuliikkeen liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia konesali-liiketoiminnassa. Päätutkimuskysymys oli: Millainen liiketoimintamalli soveltuu kestävään arvontuotantoon tukkuliikkeelle konesali-liiketoiminnassa? Työn teoriaosassa paneudutaan strategiseen suunnitteluun, liiketoimintamalleihin ja liiketoimintamallien suunnitteluun. Teoriaosan pohjalta johdettiin vaatimukset ja luotiin viitekehys liiketoimintamallien suunnittelulle. Ongelmanratkaisu aloitettiin toimintaympäristön analyysillä, jonka pohjalta tunnistettiin liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia. Kerättyä dataa analysoitiin erilaisilla analysointimenetelmillä liikemahdollisuuksien tunnistamiseksi. Tämän jälkeen tunnistettuja liiketoimintamahdollisuuksia arvioitiin ja kaikkein potentiaalisimmat ideat kehitettiin liiketoimintamalleiksi. Työn varsinaiset tulokset jakautuvat kolmeen osaan: Toimintaympäristön analyysiin, kehitettyihin konsepteihin ja suunnitelmaan konseptien käyttöönotosta. Toimintaympäristön analyysi sisältää makro- ja mikroympäristön analysoinnin, joita voidaan hyödyntää, jos jokin liiketoimintamalleista päätetään ottaa käyttöön. Toimintaympäristön analyysin perusteella voidaan tehdä johtopäätös, etteivät tukkuliikkeen resurssit sovellu perinteiseen konesaliliiketoiminnan arvontuotantoon. Tutkimuksen tärkein tulos on kuitenkin kehitetyt liiketoimintamallit, jotka pystyvät hyödyntämään olemassa olevia resursseja ja silti olemaan kilpailukykyisiä konesali-liiketoiminnassa.

A DNS Bases Approach To Electronic Persistance, or "If Your Pants Fit, Why Use Suspenders?"

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Strategic narratives and competitive advantage : do winners speak differently?

Concepts, models, or theories that end up shaping practices, whether those practices fall in the domains of science, technology, social movements, or business, always emerge through a change in language use. First, communities begin to talk differently, incorporating new vocabularies (Rorty, 1989), in their narratives. Whether the community’s new narratives respond to perceived anomalies or failures of the existing ones (Kuhn, 1962) or actually reveal inadequacies by addressing previously unrecognized practices (Fleck, 1979; Rorty, 1989) is less important here than the very phenomena that they introduce differences. Then, if the new language proves to be useful, for example, because it helps the community solve a problem or create a possibility that existing narratives do not, the new narrative will begin circulating more broadly throughout the community. If other communities learn of the usefulness of these new narratives, and find them sufficiently persuasive, they may be compelled to test, modify, and eventually adopt them. Of primary importance is the idea that a new concept or narrative perceived as useful is more likely to be adopted. We can expect that business concepts emerge through a similar pattern. Concepts such as “competitive advantage,” “disruption,” and the “resource based view,” now broadly known and accepted, were each at some point first introduced by a community. This community experimented with the concepts they introduced and found them useful. The concept “competitive advantage,” for example, helped researchers better explain why some firm’s outperformed others and helped practitioners more clearly understand what choices to make to improve the profit and growth prospects of their firms. The benefits of using these terms compelled other communities to consider, apply, and eventually adopt them as well. Were these terms not viewed as useful, they would not likely have been adopted. This thesis attempts to observe and anticipate new business concepts that may be emerging. It does so by seeking to observe a community of business practitioners that are using different language and appear to be more successful than a similar community of practitioners that are have not yet begun using this different language as extensively. It argues that if the community that is adopting new types of narratives is perceived as being more successful, their success will attract the attention of other communities who may then seek to adopt the same narratives. Specifically, this thesis compares the narratives used by a set of firms that are considered to be performing well (called Winners) with those of set of less-successful peers (called Losers). It does so with the aim of addressing two questions: - How do the strategic narratives that circulate within “winning” companies and their leaders differ from those circulating within “losing” companies and their leaders? - Given the answer to the first question: what new business strategy concepts are likely to emerge in the business community at large? I expected to observe “winning” companies shifting their language, abandoning an older set of narratives for newer ones. However the analysis indicates a more interesting dynamic: “winning” companies adopt the same core narratives as their “losing” peers with equal frequency yet they go beyond these. Both “winners” and “losers” seem to pursue economies of scale, customer captivity, best practices, and securing preferential access to resources with similar vigor. But “winners” seem to go further, applying three additional narratives in their pursuits of competitive advantage. They speak of coordinating what is uncoordinated, adopting what this thesis calls “exchanging the role of guest for that of host,” and “forcing a two-front battle” more frequently than their “loser” peers. Since these “winning” companies are likely perceived as being more successful, the unique narratives they use are more likely to be emulated and adopted. Understanding in what ways winners speak differently, therefore, gives us a glimpse into the possible future evolution of business concepts.

Strategic planning of major disturbance proof network

In the 2000’s Finland suffered from storms that caused long outages in electricity distribution, longest up to two weeks. These major disturbances increased the importance of supply security. In 2013 new Electricity Market Act was announced. It defined maximum duration for outages, 6 h for city plan areas and 36 h for other areas. The aim for this work is to determine required major disturbance proof level for a study area and find tools for prioritizing overhead lines for cabling renovation to improve supply security. Three prioritization methods were chosen to be studied: A: prioritization line sections by customer outage costs they cause, B: maximizing customers major disturbance proof network and C: minimizing excavation costs in medium voltage network. Profitability calculations showed that prioritization method A was the most profitable and C had the weakest profitability. The prioritization method C drove renovation into unreasonable locations in the study area in reliability point of view. Therefore universal rule prioritization methods couldn’t be made from the prioritization methods. This led to the conclusion that every renewing area need to be evaluated in a case by case basis.