The success factors of the Danish energy service industry

The objective of the research was to understand the success factors of the Danish energy service industry. The research phenomenon was studied greatly but the aim was to examine it from the service logic point of view. The research was threefold and it examined the phenomena from the company, industrial and national levels. The purpose of the multi-level study was to understand all the success factors and to examine how they are combined together. First, the research problem was approached through the literature review. After that, the empirical part of the study was conducted as a case study and the data was collected by theme interviews. The collected data was analyzed through theoretical point of view and compared with earlier studies. This study shows that the most important success factor was the country, because it has affected to the other aspects of the success. Because the actors of the industry are linked together tightly, communication and common understanding of business is essential to the industry success. The new energy technologies do not produce directly added value for the customers. This has sifted energy business towards service business, and the customers have been included in the value creation process.

Decision making and decision support in service systems

This thesis is a literature study that develops a conceptual model of decision making and decision support in service systems. The study is related to the Ä-Logi, Intelligent Service Logic for Welfare Sector Services research project, and the objective of the study is to develop the necessary theoretical framework to enable further research based on the research project results and material. The study first examines the concepts of service and service systems, focusing on understanding the characteristics of service systems and their implications for decision making and decision support to provide the basis for the development of the conceptual model. Based on the identified service system characteristics, an integrated model of service systems is proposed that views service systems through a number of interrelated perspectives that each offer different, but complementary, implications on the nature of decision making and the requirements for decision support in service systems. Based on the model, it is proposed that different types of decision making contexts can be identified in service systems that may be dominated by different types of decision making processes and where different types of decision support may be required, depending on the characteristics of the decision making context and its decision making processes. The proposed conceptual model of decision making and decision support in service systems examines the characteristics of decision making contexts and processes in service systems, and their typical requirements for decision support. First, a characterization of different types of decision making contexts in service systems is proposed based on the Cynefin framework and the identified service system characteristics. Second, the nature of decision making processes in service systems is proposed to be dual, with both rational and naturalistic decision making processes existing in service systems, and having an important and complementary role in decision making in service systems. Finally, a characterization of typical requirements for decision support in service systems is proposed that examines the decision support requirements associated with different types of decision making processes in characteristically different types of decision making contexts. It is proposed that decision support for the decision making processes that are based on rational decision making can be based on organizational decision support models, while decision support for the decision making processes that are based on naturalistic decision making should be based on supporting the decision makers’ situation awareness and facilitating the development of their tacit knowledge of the system and its tasks. Based on the proposed conceptual model a further research process is proposed. The study additionally provides a number of new perspectives on the characteristics of service systems, and the nature of decision making and requirements for decision support in service systems that can potentially provide a basis for further discussion and research, and support the practice alike.

Enhancing business-to-business relationship through value co-creation in traditional business sector: A case of building services engineering

This study discusses the significance of having service as a business logic, and more specifically, how value co-creation can be seen as an enhancing phenomenon to business-to-business relationships in traditional business sector. The purpose of this study is to investigate how value cocreation can enhance a business-to-business relationship in the heating, ventilation and airconditioning (HVAC) industry of building services engineering, through three sub-objectives: to identify what is value in the industry, how value is co-created in the industry, and what is value in a business-to-business relationship in the industry. The theoretical part this study consists of academic knowledge and literature related to the concepts of value, value co-creation and business-to-business relationships. In order to research value co-creation and business-to-business relationships in HVAC industry of building services engineering both, metaphorical and conceptual thinking of service dominant (S-D) logic and more managerial approach of service logic (SL), contributed to the theoretical part of the study. The empirical research conducted for this study is based on seven semi-structured interviews, which constituted the holistic, qualitative single case study method chosen for the research. The data was collected in September 2014 from CEOs, managers and owners representing six building services engineering firms. The interviews were analysed with the help of transcriptions, role-ordered matrices and thematic networks. The findings of this study indicate that value in HVAC industry consists of client expertise and supplier expertise. The result of applying client expertise and supplier expertise to the business-to- business relationship is characterized as value-in-reputation, when continuity, interaction, learning and rapport of the business relationship are ensured. As a result, value co-creation in the industry consists of mutual and separate elements, which the client and the supplier apply in the process, in addition to proactive interaction. The findings of this study, together with the final framework, enhance the understanding of the connection existing between value co-creation and business-to-business relationship. The findings suggest that value in the HVAC industry is characterized by both value-in-use and value-inreputation. Value-in-reputation enhances the formation of value-in-use, and consequently, value cocreation enhances the business-to-business relationship. This study thus contributes to the existing knowledge on the concepts of value and value co-creation in business-to-business relationships.

A organização do trabalho para o desenvolvimento de recursos imateriais em equipes de saúde da família: um estudo de caso no município de Caraguatatuba.

Em organizações que operam segundo a lógica de serviço há uma mudança estratégica, com o deslocamento da produção de um produto para um valor. Seguindo esta dinâmica, surgiram na Saúde Pública propostas de modelos de atenção alternativos ao hegemônico, centrado em procedimentos e equipamentos. O presente estudo analisou o modelo da Estratégia de Saúde da Família, cuja proposta centra-se nas necessidades do usuário e no vínculo usuário-equipe multiprofissional, tendo como objetivo investigar como a organização e as condições do trabalho influenciam na utilização de recursos imateriais pelas equipes. Consistiu em um estudo de caso realizado junto a oito equipes de saúde da família do município de Caraguatatuba/SP. A metodologia compreendeu observação direta e realização de grupos focais com os profissionais das equipes. A análise abrangeu a categorização dos temas mais relevantes, em especial aqueles que se relacionavam ao uso e desenvolvimento dos recursos imateriais. Os resultados indicaram que, embora os profissionais valorizassem os aspectos relacionais, o processo de trabalho das equipes encontrava-se centrado na produção de procedimentos e informações quantitativos dos atendimentos, não incorporadas às práticas do cuidado. Os recursos imateriais, bem como seus resultados, não encontravam uma forma sistematizada de avaliação. E, dessa forma, enfrentavam desafios para serem apropriados e desenvolvidos como conhecimento pela organização.

The implications of service-dominant logic and integrated solutions on the sales function

This study explores the implications of an organization moving toward service-dominant logic (S-D logic) on the sales function. Driven by its customers’ needs, a service orientation by its nature requires personal interaction and sales personnel are in an ideal position to develop offerings with the customer. However, the development of S-D logic may require sales staff to develop additional skills. Employing a single case study, the study identified that sales personnel are quick to appreciate the advantages of S-D logic for customer satisfaction and six specific skills were highlighted and explored. Further, three propositions were identified: in an organization adopting S-D logic, the sales process needs to elicit needs at both embedded-value and value-in-use levels. In addition, the sales process needs to coproduce not just goods and service attributes but also attributes of the customer’s usage processes. Further, the sales process needs to coproduce not just goods and service attributes but also attributes of the customer’s usage processes.

The service dominant logic:an MC21 project view

Vargo and Lusch propose a very exciting framework that aims in expanding the boundaries of the marketing discipline by moving away from the existing exchange paradigm towards a Service Dominant (S-D) logic. This new S-D logic has the potential to strengthen the theoretical grounds of marketing by establishing links to other disciplines. This commentary attempts to discuss some aspects of the foundational premises of the S-D logic from the perspective of the MC21 group with special emphases on innovation, value creation, and resource allocation.

Exploring value propositions and service innovation : a service-dominant logic study

This paper presents an eight-firm study, conducted from the service-dominant logic perspective, which makes a contribution regarding knowledge of the anatomy of value propositions and service innovation. The paper suggests that value propositions are configurations of several different practices and resources. The paper finds that ten common practices, organized in three main aggregates, constitute and fulfill value propositions: i.e. provision practices, representational practices, and management and organizational practices. Moreover, the paper suggests that service innovation can be equated with the creation of new value propositions by means of developing existing or creating new practices and/or resources, or by means of integrating practices and resources in new ways. It identifies four types of service innovation (adaptation, resource-based innovation, practice-based innovation, and combinative innovation) and three types of service innovation processes (practice-based, resource-based, and combinative). The key managerial insight provided by the paper is that service innovation must be conducted and value propositions must be evaluated from the perspective of the customers’ value creation, the service that the customer experiences. Successful service innovation is not only contingent on having the right resources, established methods and practices for integrating these resources into attractive value propositions are also needed.

Dweller perception using fuzzy logic for slum upgrading

A large number of initiatives in cities in Brazil - including slum clearance and upgrading - have been undertaken over the years in an effort to ameliorate the problems arising from informal occupation; unfortunately, however, little is known about the related performance outcomes. Careful appraisal of the results of such initiatives is thus called for, covering evaluations of dwellers` perceptions of the upgraded environments. Among the available evaluation methods, post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is commonly employed, although it fails adequately to reflect prevailing subjective concepts of quality. The present paper contains the partial findings of a research exercise aimed at developing an original method, using fuzzy logic, for urban environmental quality evaluation in informally occupied areas on the basis of combining quantitative indicators and dweller perception. It combines POE with fuzzy logic in order to develop tools that can better model the uncertain information that emerges from that kind of study. This paper aims to introduce an uncertainty measure used in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of slum upgrading projects. The results show that it is possible to quantify certainty degrees in the findings and to define if additional information is needed.

Expert system for the assessment of power transformer insulation condition based on type-2 fuzzy logic systems

An efficient expert system for the power transformer condition assessment is presented in this paper. Through the application of Duval`s triangle and the method of the gas ratios a first assessment of the transformer condition is obtained in the form of a dissolved gas analysis (DGA) diagnosis according IEC 60599. As a second step, a knowledge mining procedure is performed, by conducting surveys whose results are fed into a first Type-2 Fuzzy Logic System (T2-FLS), in order to initially evaluate the condition of the equipment taking only the results of dissolved gas analysis into account. The output of this first T2-FLS is used as the input of a second T2-FLS, which additionally weighs up the condition of the paper-oil system. The output of this last T2-FLS is given in terms of words easily understandable by the maintenance personnel. The proposed assessing methodology has been validated for several cases of transformers in service. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Benchmarking de uma aproximação de ticketing as a service (Taas)

Dissertação de natureza científica realizada para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia de Redes de Computadores e Multimédia

Quality-of-service aware routing for static and mobile IPv6-based low-power and lossy sensor networks using RPL

The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a paradigm over the last few years as a result of the tight integration of the computing and the physical world. The requirement of remote sensing makes low-power wireless sensor networks one of the key enabling technologies of IoT. These networks encompass several challenges, especially in communication and networking, due to their inherent constraints of low-power features, deployment in harsh and lossy environments, and limited computing and storage resources. The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL) [1] was proposed by the IETF ROLL (Routing Over Low-power Lossy links) working group and is currently adopted as an IETF standard in the RFC 6550 since March 2012. Although RPL greatly satisfied the requirements of low-power and lossy sensor networks, several issues remain open for improvement and specification, in particular with respect to Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees and support for mobility. In this paper, we focus mainly on the RPL routing protocol. We propose some enhancements to the standard specification in order to provide QoS guarantees for static as well as mobile LLNs. For this purpose, we propose OF-FL (Objective Function based on Fuzzy Logic), a new objective function that overcomes the limitations of the standardized objective functions that were designed for RPL by considering important link and node metrics, namely end-to-end delay, number of hops, ETX (Expected transmission count) and LQL (Link Quality Level). In addition, we present the design of Co-RPL, an extension to RPL based on the corona mechanism that supports mobility in order to overcome the problem of slow reactivity to frequent topology changes and thus providing a better quality of service mainly in dynamic networks application. Performance evaluation results show that both OF-FL and Co-RPL allow a great improvement when compared to the standard specification, mainly in terms of packet loss ratio and average network latency. 2015 Elsevier B.V. Al

Revenue Logic inSoftware Business Context

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää ohjelmistotoimialan avaintekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat yrityksen ansaintalogiikkaan sekä lisätä tietoisuutta ansaintalogiikan muodostumisesta pienissä ja keskisuurissa ohjelmistoyrityksissä. Tutkimuksen teoreettisessa osassa keskityttiin tarkastelemaan ansaintalogiikan, strategian ja liiketoimintamallin käsitteiden suhteita sekä arvioitiin toimialan osatekijöiden, hinnoitteluperiaatteiden ja ansaintamallien vaikutusta ansainnan muodostumiseen ohjelmistotoimialalla. Ohjelmistotuote ja - palveluliiketoimintaa koskien oli merkityksellistä tutkia tuotteistamisasteen ja arvoketjujen vaikutusta ansaintalogiikan muodostumisessa sekä esitellä erilaisia, tyypillisiä ohjelmistotoimialalla käytettäviä hinnoittelumenetelmiä. Työn empiirisessä osassa tarkasteltiin 23 suomalaisen ohjelmistoalan yrityksen ansaintalogiikkaa. Tiedot kerättiin haastatteluin ja analysoitiin laadullisen tutkimuksen keinoin. Tutkimustulokset korostivat ansaintalogiikan 'epämääräisyyttä' terminä mutta osoittivat, että ydinliiketoimintaan keskittyminen, tuote-, palvelu-, tai projektiliiketoiminnan osaaminen, tuotteistusaste ja kanavavalinnat ovat avaintekijöitä ansaintalogiikanmuodostumisessa. Ansaintalogiikan muodostamiseen liittyy paljon yrityksen sisäisiä ja ulkoisia haasteita sekä muutospaineita, eikä ohjelmistotoimialalla ole todennettavissa yhtä yleismaailmallista, menestyksen takaavaa ansaintalogiikkaa.