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.

FUTURES OF FINNISH FOOD SYSTEM BY 2050. The perspective of resilience

Modern food systems face complex global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcities, population growth, concentration and globalization. It is not possible to forecast how all these challenges will affect food systems, but futures research methods provide possibilities to enable better understanding of possible futures and that way increases futures awareness. In this thesis, the two-round online Delphi method was utilized to research experts’ opinions about the present and the future resilience of the Finnish food system up to 2050. The first round questionnaire was constructed based on the resilience indicators developed for agroecosystems. Sub-systems in the study were primary production (main focus), food industry, retail and consumption. Based on the results from the first round, the future images were constructed for primary production and food industry sub-sections. The second round asked experts’ opinion about the future images’ probability and desirability. In addition, panarchy scenarios were constructed by using the adaptive cycle and panarchy frameworks. Furthermore, a new approach to general resilience indicators was developed combining “categories” of the social ecological systems (structure, behaviors and governance) and general resilience parameters (tightness of feedbacks, modularity, diversity, the amount of change a system can withstand, capacity of learning and self- organizing behavior). The results indicate that there are strengths in the Finnish food system for building resilience. According to experts organic farms and larger farms are perceived as socially self-organized, which can promote innovations and new experimentations for adaptation to changing circumstances. In addition, organic farms are currently seen as the most ecologically self-regulated farms. There are also weaknesses in the Finnish food system restricting resilience building. It is important to reach optimal redundancy, in which efficiency and resilience are in balance. In the whole food system, retail sector will probably face the most dramatic changes in the future, especially, when panarchy scenarios and the future images are reflected. The profitability of farms is and will be a critical cornerstone of the overall resilience in primary production. All in all, the food system experts have very positive views concerning the resilience development of the Finnish food system in the future. Sometimes small and local is beautiful, sometimes large and international is more resilient. However, when probabilities and desirability of the future images were questioned, there were significant deviations. It appears that experts do not always believe desirable futures to materialize.

Fiber-reinforced composite fixed dental prostheses: Studies of the materials used as pontics

Fiber-reinforced composite fixed dental prostheses – Studies of the materials used as pontics University of Turku, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Dentistry, Department of Biomaterials Science, Finnish Doctoral Program in Oral Sciences – FINDOS, Annales Universitatis Turkuensis, Turku, Finland 2015 Fiber-reinforced composites (FRC), a non-metallic biomaterial, represent a suitable alternative in prosthetic dentistry when used as a component of fixed dental prostheses (FDPs). Some drawbacks have been identified in the clinical performance of FRC restorations, such as delamination of the veneering material and fracture of the pontic. Therefore, the current series of studies were performed to investigate the possibilities of enhancing the mechanical and physical properties of FRC FDPs by improving the materials used as pontics, to then heighten their longevity. Four experiments showed the importance of the pontic design and surface treatment in the performance of FRC FDPs. In the first, the load-bearing capacities of inlay-retained FRC FDPs with pontics of various materials and thicknesses were evaluated. Three different pontic materials were assessed with different FRC framework vertical positioning. Thicker pontics showed increased load-bearing capacities, especially ceramic pontics. A second study was completed investigating the influence of the chemical conditioning of the ridge-lap surface of acrylic resin denture teeth on their bonding to a composite resin. Increased shear bond strength demonstrated the positive influence of the pretreatment of the acrylic surfaces, indicating dissolution of the denture surfaces, and suggesting potential penetration of the monomer systems into the surface of denture teeth. A third study analyzed the penetration depth of different monomer systems on the acrylic resin denture teeth surfaces. The possibility of establishing a durable bond between acrylic pontics and FRC frameworks was demonstrated by the ability of monomers to penetrate the surface of acrylic resin denture teeth, measured by a confocal scanning type microscope. A fourth study was designed to evaluate the load-bearing capacities of FRC FDPs using the findings of the previous three studies. In this case, the performance of pre-shaped acrylic resin denture teeth used as pontics with different composite resins as filling materials was evaluated. The filling material influenced the load-bearing capacities, providing more durable FRC FDPs. It can be concluded that the mechanical and physical properties of FRC FDPs can be improved as has been shown in the development of this thesis. The improvements reported then might provide long lasting prosthetic solutions of this kind, positioning them as potentially permanent rehabilitation treatments. Key words: fiber-reinforced composite, fixed dental prostheses, inlay-retained bridges, adhesion, acrylic resin denture teeth, dental material.

Embedded Service Bus for Internet of Things Interoperability

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are developing rapidly, and therefore there exist several standards of interconnection protocols and platforms. The existence of heterogeneous protocols and platforms has become a critical challenge for IoT system developers. To mitigate this challenge, few alliances and organizations have taken the initiative to build a framework that helps to integrate application silos. Some of these frameworks focus only on a specific domain like home automation. However, the resource constraints in the large proportion of connected devices make it difficult to build an interoperable system using such frameworks. Therefore, a general purpose, lightweight interoperability framework that can be used for a range of devices is required. To tackle the heterogeneous nature, this work introduces an embedded, distributed and lightweight service bus, Lightweight IoT Service bus Architecture (LISA), which fits inside the network stack of a small real-time operating system for constrained nodes. LISA provides a uniform application programming interface for an IoT system on a range of devices with variable resource constraints. It hides platform and protocol variations underneath it, thus facilitating interoperability in IoT implementations. LISA is inspired by the Network on Terminal Architecture, a service centric open architecture by Nokia Research Center. Unlike many other interoperability frameworks, LISA is designed specifically for resource constrained nodes and it provides essential features of a service bus for easy service oriented architecture implementation. The presented architecture utilizes an intermediate computing layer, a Fog layer, between the small nodes and the cloud, thereby facilitating the federation of constrained nodes into subnetworks. As a result of a modular and distributed design, the part of LISA running in the Fog layer handles the heavy lifting to assist the lightweight portion of LISA inside the resource constrained nodes. Furthermore, LISA introduces a new networking paradigm, Node Centric Networking, to route messages across protocol boundaries to facilitate interoperability. This thesis presents a concept implementation of the architecture and creates a foundation for future extension towards a comprehensive interoperability framework for IoT.

Carbon footprint of recycled paper

Industrial production of pulp and paper is an intensive consumer of energy, natural resources, and chemicals that result in a big carbon footprint of the final product. At present companies and industries aspire to calculate their gas emissions into the atmosphere in order to afterwards reduce atmospheric contamination. One of the approaches allowing to increase carbon burden from the pulp and paper manufacture is paper recycling. The general purpose of the current paper is to establish methods of quantifying and minimizing the carbon footprint of paper. The first target of this research is to derive a mathematical relationship between virgin fibre requirements with respect to the amount of recycled paper used in the pulp. One more purpose is to establish a model to be used to clarify the contribution of recycling and transportation to decreasing carbon dioxide emissions. For this study sensitivity analysis is used to investigate the robustness of obtained results. The results of the present study show that an increasing of recycling rate does not always lead to minimizing the carbon footprint. Additionally, we derived that transportation of waste paper throughout distances longer than 5800 km has no sense because the use of that paper will only increase carbon dioxide emissions and it is better to reject recycling at all. Finally, we designed the model for organization of a new supply chain of paper product to a customer. The models were implemented as reusable MATLAB frameworks.

FUTURES OF FINNISH FOOD SYSTEM BY 2050. The perspective of resilience

Modern food systems face complex global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcities, population growth, concentration and globalization. It is not possible to forecast how all these challenges will affect food systems, but futures research methods provide possibilities to enable better understanding of possible futures and that way increases futures awareness. In this thesis, the two-round online Delphi method was utilized to research experts’ opinions about the present and the future resilience of the Finnish food system up to 2050. The first round questionnaire was constructed based on the resilience indicators developed for agroecosystems. Sub-systems in the study were primary production (main focus), food industry, retail and consumption. Based on the results from the first round, the future images were constructed for primary production and food industry sub-sections. The second round asked experts’ opinion about the future images’ probability and desirability. In addition, panarchy scenarios were constructed by using the adaptive cycle and panarchy frameworks. Furthermore, a new approach to general resilience indicators was developed combining “categories” of the social ecological systems (structure, behaviors and governance) and general resilience parameters (tightness of feedbacks, modularity, diversity, the amount of change a system can withstand, capacity of learning and self- organizing behavior). The results indicate that there are strengths in the Finnish food system for building resilience. According to experts organic farms and larger farms are perceived as socially self-organized, which can promote innovations and new experimentations for adaptation to changing circumstances. In addition, organic farms are currently seen as the most ecologically self-regulated farms. There are also weaknesses in the Finnish food system restricting resilience building. It is important to reach optimal redundancy, in which efficiency and resilience are in balance. In the whole food system, retail sector will probably face the most dramatic changes in the future, especially, when panarchy scenarios and the future images are reflected. The profitability of farms is and will be a critical cornerstone of the overall resilience in primary production. All in all, the food system experts have very positive views concerning the resilience development of the Finnish food system in the future. Sometimes small and local is beautiful, sometimes large and international is more resilient. However, when probabilities and desirability of the future images were questioned, there were significant deviations. It appears that experts do not always believe desirable futures to materialize.

Computational models for and from biology : simple gene assembly and reaction systems

The advancement of science and technology makes it clear that no single perspective is any longer sufficient to describe the true nature of any phenomenon. That is why the interdisciplinary research is gaining more attention overtime. An excellent example of this type of research is natural computing which stands on the borderline between biology and computer science. The contribution of research done in natural computing is twofold: on one hand, it sheds light into how nature works and how it processes information and, on the other hand, it provides some guidelines on how to design bio-inspired technologies. The first direction in this thesis focuses on a nature-inspired process called gene assembly in ciliates. The second one studies reaction systems, as a modeling framework with its rationale built upon the biochemical interactions happening within a cell. The process of gene assembly in ciliates has attracted a lot of attention as a research topic in the past 15 years. Two main modelling frameworks have been initially proposed in the end of 1990s to capture ciliates’ gene assembly process, namely the intermolecular model and the intramolecular model. They were followed by other model proposals such as templatebased assembly and DNA rearrangement pathways recombination models. In this thesis we are interested in a variation of the intramolecular model called simple gene assembly model, which focuses on the simplest possible folds in the assembly process. We propose a new framework called directed overlap-inclusion (DOI) graphs to overcome the limitations that previously introduced models faced in capturing all the combinatorial details of the simple gene assembly process. We investigate a number of combinatorial properties of these graphs, including a necessary property in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs. We also introduce DOI graph-based rewriting rules that capture all the operations of the simple gene assembly model and prove that they are equivalent to the string-based formalization of the model. Reaction systems (RS) is another nature-inspired modeling framework that is studied in this thesis. Reaction systems’ rationale is based upon two main regulation mechanisms, facilitation and inhibition, which control the interactions between biochemical reactions. Reaction systems is a complementary modeling framework to traditional quantitative frameworks, focusing on explicit cause-effect relationships between reactions. The explicit formulation of facilitation and inhibition mechanisms behind reactions, as well as the focus on interactions between reactions (rather than dynamics of concentrations) makes their applicability potentially wide and useful beyond biological case studies. In this thesis, we construct a reaction system model corresponding to the heat shock response mechanism based on a novel concept of dominance graph that captures the competition on resources in the ODE model. We also introduce for RS various concepts inspired by biology, e.g., mass conservation, steady state, periodicity, etc., to do model checking of the reaction systems based models. We prove that the complexity of the decision problems related to these properties varies from P to NP- and coNP-complete to PSPACE-complete. We further focus on the mass conservation relation in an RS and introduce the conservation dependency graph to capture the relation between the species and also propose an algorithm to list the conserved sets of a given reaction system.

Yhteiskuntavastuuraportointi kansainvälisissä öljy-yhtiöissä vuonna 2013

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, kuinka suuret yhdysvaltalaiset ja eurooppalaiset öljy-yhtiöt raportoivat yhteiskuntavastuustaan vuonna 2013 sekä kuinka laadukasta ja laaja-alaista raportointi oli. Yhtiöiden raportointia tutkittiin GRI-viitekehyksen taloudellisen, sosiaalisen ja ympäristövastuun näkökulmasta. Yritysten raportointia arvioitiin myös maa-alue- sekä liikevaihtokohtaisesti tutkien, voidaanko eroja näiden suhteen löytää. Lisäksi raportoinnin laatua analysoitiin yritysten asettamien yhteiskuntavastuutavoitteiden määrän kautta. Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin myös GRI-viitekehyksen sekä muiden yleisimpien yhteiskuntavastuuviitekehyksien käyttöä tutkimusyrityksissä. Tutkimusaineisto koostui 30:stä listatusta yhdysvaltalais- ja eurooppalaisyrityksen vuoden 2013 yhteiskuntavastuuraporteista. Tutkimustapana käytettiin kvalitatiivista sisällönanalyysiä. GRI-viitekehys oli tutkimusyrityksissä käytetyin viitekehys. Tulosten mukaan eurooppalaisyritykset raportoivat pääsääntöisesti laadukkaasti vastuustaan ja raportointi oli Euroopassa selkeästi Yhdysvaltoja laadukkaampaa kaikilla vastuun osa-alueilla. Tutkimusyrityksen koko vaikutti raportoinnin laajuuteen sekä määrään vain Yhdysvalloissa. Suuremmat yhdysvaltalaisyritykset raportoivat pienempiä paremmin. Tulosten perusteella yrityksen koko ei vaikuttanut tavoitteiden määrään. Maantieteellinen sijainti vaikutti raportoinnin laatuun. Eurooppalaisyritykset raportoivat laajemmin, laadukkaammin sekä asettivat tavoitteita huomattavasti yhdysvaltalaisia yrityksiä useammin ja enemmän kaikilla vastuun osa-alueilla.

Ohjelmistoyrityksen tuoteliiketoiminnan ohjaaminen elinkaarimallin avulla

Nopeasti muuttuvissa kilpailutilanteissa varsinkin pienet ja keskisuuret ohjelmistoyritykset joutuvat kilpailuetuja saavuttaakseen tekemään strategisia päätöksiä, joiden vaikutukset voidaan todeta vasta pitkän ajan kuluttua. Sen vuoksi yritysjohto tarvitsee päätöksentekoa varten tukijärjestelmiä, jotka sekä tuottavat informaatiota päätöksenteon tueksi että auttavat vähentämään päätöksistä aiheutuneita riskejä. Tämän työn tavoitteena oli kehittää ohjelmistoyritysten ohjelmistotuoteliiketoimintaa varten elinkaarikustannusmalli, jonka avulla yritysjohto voi arvioida ohjelmistotuotteiden koko-naiskustannuksia koko elinkaaren ajalta. Elinkaarikustannusmallia tutkittiin sekä elinkaarikustannusten että ohjelmistotuotantoprosessien teoreettisissa viitekehyksissä. Empiirinen tieto kerättiin tutkimukseen osallistuneen ohjelmistoyrityksen avulla. Tutkimuksessa kehitetty elinkaarikustannusmalli eroaa monista muista tutkituista kustannusmalleista siinä, että se lähestyy elinkaarikustannusten problematiikkaa strategisesta näkökulmasta, kun taas monet muut mallit toteuttavat tietoteknistä lähestymistapaa. Siten ohjelmistoyrityksen johto voi ohjata tuoteliiketoimintaa osana strategista päätöksentekoa sekä tuotteen elinkaaren kokonaiskustannusten avulla että elinkaarikustannusmallin epäsuorien vaikutusten kautta

Toimittajien suorituskykymittariston suunnittelu ja toteutus

Tämän diplomityön tarkoituksena oli kehittää teollisuusyrityksen toimittajahallintaa suorituskykymittauksen avulla. Työssä suunnitellaan ja toteutetaan toimittajien suorituskykymittaristo teoriatiedon avulla. Projektin lopputuloksena case-yrityksellä on käytössään kokonaisvaltainen toimittajien suorituskykymittaristo ja kehittyneet toimittajahallinnan prosessit. Työn teoriaosuudessa syvennytään erilaisiin suorituskykymittariston kehittämisen viitekehyksiin. Lisäksi teoriaosuudessa käsitellään hyvän suorituskykymittariston vaatimuksia ja suositeltuja mittauksen seuranta-alueita. Työn empiriaosuudessa rakennetaan suorituskykymittaristo vaihe vaiheelta perustuen tapaustutkimukseen. Kehitettyä suorituskykymittaristoa testattiin simulaatiovaiheen aikana case-yrityksen kolmella tehtaalla. Käyttäjäpalautteen perusteella mittaristo täytti teoriaosuudessa löydetyt tärkeimmät vaatimukset suorituskykymittaristolle. Mittaristo on helppokäyttöinen, visuaalinen ja sen raportoinnista saa arvokasta informaatiota toimittajien arviointiin. Diplomityön konkreettisia hyötyjä case-yritykselle ovat olleet laatupoikkeamien kehittynyt havaitseminen ja toimittajan hintakilpailukyvyn parantunut arviointi. Kaikkein merkittävin hyöty case-yritykselle on kuitenkin ollut systemaattinen toimittaja-arviointiprosessi, minkä suorituskykymittaristo mahdollistaa.

ETO-Tuotekehitysprojektin suorituskyvyn mittaaminen

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, mitä suorituskyvyn osa-alueita ETO (Engineer To Order) – tyyppinen tuotekehitysprojekti pitää sisällään, ja mitkä niistä ovat projektin onnistumisen kannalta tärkeimpiä, eli niin sanottuja menestystekijöitä. Edelleen näiden tunnistettujen menestystekijöiden pohjalta oli tavoitteena kehittää suorituskyvyn mittausmalli, jonka avulla voisi arvioida ja ohjata projektin ja projektinhallinnan suorituskykyä. Tärkeimmät suorituskyvyn näkökulmat tässä mallissa olivat projektin kannattavuuden -, asiakastyytyväisyyden - ja projektinhallinnan näkökulmat. Malli tehtiin rautatieliikenne toimialalla toimivalle yritykselle, joka asetti omat vaatimuksensa mallille. Tutkimus tehtiin kolmivaiheisesti. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa tutustuttiin aiempiin tutkimuksiin, joiden pohjalta pyrittiin löytämään projektin menestystekijät, sekä näiden suorituskyvyn analysointiin toimiviksi todetut mittausmenetelmät. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa tutustuttiin myös alaa ohjaaviin standardeihin, ja niiden asettamiin erityisvaatimuksiin projektien suorituskyvyn mittaukselle. Tutkimuksen toinen vaihe oli tapaustutkimus kohdeyrityksen sisäiselle projektiorganisaatiolle, joka toteutettiin survey-kyselynä. Kyselyn avulla pyrittiin löytämään ne menestystekijät, jotka projektiorganisaation itsensä mielestä olivat kaikkein tärkeimpiä projektin onnistumisen kannalta. Kyselyllä pyrittiin myös selvittämään sidosryhmien välisiä näkemyseroja projektin menestystekijöistä. Kysymykset muodostettiin synteesinä tutkimuksen ensimmäisessä vaiheessa löydetyistä menestystekijöistä ja standardien vaatimista pakollisista mitattavista tekijöistä. Tärkeimmäksi menestystekijäksi kyselyssä nousi projektipäällikön kompetenssi. Kyselyssä vastaajilta kysyttiin myös sitä, minkä menestystekijöiden suorituskykyä heidän mielestään tulisi mitata. Tärkeimmäksi mitattavaksi osa-alueeksi nousi aikataulun tarkka seuranta. Kolmannessa vaiheessa näiden kohdeyrityksen menestystekijöiden pohjalta luotiin mittausmalli, joka pyrkii mittaamaan projektin ja projektinhallinnan suorituskykyä tasapainoisesti valituista näkökulmista. Malli ottaa huomioon erityisesti projektinhallinnan suorituskyvyn vaikutuksen projektin lopputuotteena syntyvien hyödykkeiden laatuun. Kohdeyrityksen kokonaissuorituskyvyn kannalta on erittäin tärkeää parantaa projektien suorituskykyä, johon projektien suorituskyvyn mittaaminen on ratkaisu. Standardien asettamat vaatimukset antavat hyvät lähtökohdat kokonaisvaltaisen mittausjärjestelmän luomiselle.

Regimes cambiais: um modelo alternativo para o Brasil

After the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, many frameworks of exchange rate have been proposed. The aim of this paper is to propose an alternative rule of exchange rate and evaluate the case for Brazil. The analysis of the Brazilian case made necessary the evaluation of auxiliary instruments for its implementation. The paper proposes the use of capital controls or scape clauses.

Valuation models and Simon's bounded rationality

This paper aims at reconciling the evidence that sophisticated valuation models are increasingly used by companies in their investment appraisal with the literature of bounded rationality, according to which objective optimization is impracticable in the real world because it would demand an immense level of sophistication of the analytical and computational processes of human beings. We show how normative valuation models should rather be viewed as forms of reality representation, frameworks according to which the real world is perceived, fragmented for a better understanding, and recomposed, providing an orderly method for undertaking a task as complex as the investment decision.

The role of product features on buyer-supplier collaboration in packaging industry

The thesis presents the study relative to the collaboration between suppliers and buyers in packaging industry with the impact of product features. The main purpose of this study is to examine the importance of product characteristics on collaboration to develop better packaging and to figure out how buyer-supplier collaboration in the supply chain perspectives is conducted and managed in packaging industry. The theoretical part reviewed some basic frameworks of collaboration including the scopes and levels of collaboration, risks as well as powers of collaboration, relationship and some key factors for successful collaboration. Followed by the overviews of packaging industry with the main issues related to product characteristics in packaging. By using the qualitative method, secondary data consisting of articles, reports, websites and primary data through interviewing some well-known packaging companies and case companies are collected in the thesis. The empirical result emphasized the importance of product features’ analysis in packaging industry since it plays a central role in the materials, design process, production and innovation with the role of collaboration. Collaboration in packaging is vital for packaging companies to survive and grow in the competitive environment. Finally, some key factors for effective collaboration were summarized based on the perspectives of packaging companies. It is highly recommend building a long-run collaboration with their customers due to undeniable benefits With increasingly importance of collaboration in packaging industry, further studies may be conducted.

Governance of Healthcare Data: International Standards and Recommendations

In the global phenomenon, the aging population becomes a critical issue. Data and information concerning elderly citizens are increasing and are not well organized. In addition, these unstructured data and information cause the problems for decision makers. Since we live in a digital world, Information Technology is considered to be a tool in order to solve problems. Data, information, and knowledge are crucial components to facilitate success in IT service system. Therefore, it is necessary to study how to organize or to govern data from various sources related elderly citizens. The research is conducted due to the fact that there is no internationally accepted holistic framework for governance of data. The research limits the scope to study on the healthcare domain; however, the results can be applied to the other areas. The research starts with an ongoing research of Dahlberg and Nokkala (2015) as a theory. It explains the classification of existing data sources and their characteristics with the focus on managerial perspectives. Then the studies of existing frameworks at international and national level organizations have been performed to show the current frameworks, which have been used and are useful in compiling data on elderly citizens. The international organizations in this research are selected based on their reputations and the reliability to obtain information. The selected countries at national level provide different point of views between two countries. Australia is a forerunner in IT governance while Thailand is the country which the author has familiar knowledge of the current situation. Considered the discussions of frameworks at international and national organizations level illustrate the main characteristics of each framework. At international organization level gives precedence to the interoperability of exchanging data and information between different parties. Whereas at national level shows the importance of the acknowledgement of using frameworks throughout the country in order to make the frameworks to be effective. After the studies of both international and national organization levels, the thesis shows the summarized tables to answer the fitness to the proposed framework by Dahlberg and Nokkala whether the framework help to consolidate data from various sources with different formats, hierarchies, structures, velocities, and other attributes of data storages. In addition, suggestions and recommendations will be proposed for the future research.