Purpose: This study follows a previous one based on a comparison of styles of thinking among university students from two Italian regions with substantial socio-economical and cultural differences (Sofo, Berzins, Colapinto & Ammirato, 2009). This paper explores whether university students at some European universities report markedly different thinking style preferences from each other. A sample of students from two universities of Western Finland were surveyed using the Thinking Style Inventory (TSI) (Sofo, 2008); statistical results have been analysed and compared with the data from the two Italian samples in the 2009 study.
Design/methodology/approach: The TSI approach is useful to identifying differences in thinking styles. The paper explores possible connections between thinking style and established different economic and socio-cultural variables. The TSI measures preferences for stylistic aspects of intellectual functioning and is based on the theory of reality construction (Sofo, 2008) whereby people create their own realities through their ways of thinking. A sample of total 624 European university students from Italy and Finland was tested and compared. The fifty items on the TSI require respondents to assess their ways of thinking using a likert-scale. To verify reliability and consistency of the TSI instrument, reported data have been studied calculating the Cronbach alpha coefficient.
Originality/value: This paper presents new results of a study which is the first of a kind in comparing thinking styles of students coming from three different EU regions. Over the past few decades, researchers have hypothesized that difference in socio-economic status impacts on thinking style. However our previous study (Sofo et al., 2009) affirms that other factors such as greater ease, freedom of mobility and the massive use of ICT can have a positive effect in mitigating difference in thinking style. This study offers a confirmation in the earlier study on a larger scale.
Practical implications: A practical significance of this study is that if economic and socio-cultural differences impact on preferred ways of thinking and learning of university students, the impacts may very well be mediated through various methods such as pedagogy or ICT. Student learning capability is a factor of thinking style. Differences do exist among three EU regions located in northern Italy, southern Italy and in western Finland. It is suggested that supporting a range of student thinking styles through a greater diversity and sensitivity of teaching styles can mitigate any deleterious effects emanating from the differences. This result unveils the rising significance of additional possible mediating variables that may have emerged as increasingly significant within the new global order.
If we critically look at the evolution of the Tourism Industry (TI), we can note that, in the past decade, nothing has changed as much as ICTs and the Internet which caused an extensive transformation of the TI. Both demand and supply of ICT, together with innovation in transportation and international trade agreements, have evolved the tourism sector in operational workflows, management and marketing of new of tourism experiences. The massive use of new technologies has facilitated the rise of new flat organizational models where traditional brokers have disappeared, replaced by direct connections between local providers and tourists, or they have been reconfigured into new forms of dynamic and web-based tourism package providers. The depicted industry evolution shows potential, unthinkable just a few years ago, for local service providers usually marginalized from main tourism flows, due to their small sizes, and who are unable to compete in the globalized market. In many regions characterized by a niche tourism vocation, local tourism operators have started organizing themselves spontaneously in Collaborative Networks in order to create aggregate tourism offers that are able to compete with big tourism operators thus transforming regions with potential and vocation in real tourism destinations. The main socialeffect of instantiating these tourism partnerships, is the stimulus towards Tourism Business Ecosystems (TBEs) giving local tourism service providers a means for economic growth. The aim of this paper is to describe how the organizational paradigm of CNs, applied to the TBEs knowledge management and supported by ICTs, can be the key means for the growth of emerging TBEs. Such models are able to reengineer the tourism destination management model in order to gain much more flexibility in service provision and provide tourists the possibility to live an augmented tourism experience. In this paper we point out that tourism destinations, in an effort to give services able to actively support each phase of the 2.0 tourist lifecycle, can benefit from collaborative network models.
Scholars and practitioners of knowledge management have paid increasing attention to the adoption of social media in business-to-business (B2B) setting for knowledge sharing; however, both the theoretical and empirical research in this domain are quite fragmented. The aim of this research is to deepen the understanding about the B2B companies’ awareness of the potentials of social media in improving their absorptive capacity and, consequently, if and how such companies deploy knowledge strategies based on social media adoption. We carried out an empirical survey of Finnish technology companies operating purely in B2B markets. Results highlight that social media adoption is still in a preliminary stage of development. Companies show a lack of awareness of the potentials of social media as a means for external knowledge acquisition and internal dissemination. Results suggest a strong need of a structured approach to the adoption of social media to overcome cultural and organisational barriers.
Purpose: Strong agreement in the extant business literature emphasizes that digital developments are key to economic growth internationally. This is in spite of the recorded high levels (up to 50 percent) of failure among digital companies and entrepreneurs. The purpose of this paper is to identify the digital debates in Italy, explore current policies and develop a typology that characterizes digital entrepreneurs (DEs) and their start-up companies in Italy.
Design/methodology/approach: The digital debates and policies are explored through an extensive telephone survey of the self-perceptions and identified supports required by 348 Italian active DEs. Quantitative statistical techniques were used including factor analysis, cluster analysis and ANOVA, to identify motivations, profiles and critical success factors relevant to the sample.
Findings: The study identifies three main clusters among the DEs: emerging very young; emerging business focused and experienced. These clusters vary with the entrepreneurs’ background and competence base, motivation and satisfaction factors. The different kinds of profiles require specific kinds of supporting policies identified by the sample that focus on financial, educational and/or networking provision.
Originality/value: The paper affirms the central role of digital entities in modern economies expressed in the current literature and increases knowledge of the perceived success factors identified by DEs. The identification and classification of self-reported characteristics of Italian DEs and to what extent these characterizations might be useful for tailored interventions to support their success are the main contributions of this study. Accordingly, an authentic, original and self-reported portrayal has been constructed of the self-perceptions of Italian DEs. Finally, the study explores the implications for actions and new policies considering self-perceived profiles, needs and expectations of DEs.
Purpose of the paper - This paper introduces design methods as a mediating process and the produced artefact as a boundary object between different stakeholders in the management of idea generation among non-designers. This paper is multi-disciplinary, based on studies in innovation management, knowledge management and utilization of design processes in industrial management. The concepts of the boundary object and the mediating process as understood in activity theory are introduced in the conceptual part of the paper (Vygotsky, 1978). This paper seeks the answer to the explorative qualitative research question: What kinds of advantages were found when using design methods (in art-based interventions) in idea generation among non-designer engineers? At the end of the paper, some results are revealed along with an analysis of the results.
The research design and method is a qualitative approach in order to explore the usability of collaboratively made artefacts as boundary objects in idea generation situations. Furthermore, it was recognized during our study that the design methods used functioned as mediating processes between the stakeholders involved in the workshops. The data has been collected from workshop observations and survey questionnaires among the attendees. The research was conducted between 2009-2012 among non-designer engineers from industry (Aramo-Immonen and Toikka, 2009; 2010).
Originality and value of research - This methodology provides evidence that design workshops, which can be categorized as art-based interventions on a continuum of art-based initiatives (ABIs by Schiuma, 2011, p. 48), function as mediating processes and the artefacts created act as boundary objects in idea generation in the scope of innovation management.
Practical implications - The outcomes of this research can be utilized as guidelines in designing idea generation sessions in industrial management among non-designer engineers.
The objective of this paper is to introduce qualitative analysing method and learning model for project management. The new understanding gained by this analysis is needed in the steering of the project organisation's maintaining systems: control system, working system, information system and support system. The overall aim is to model a method of project learning focused on the organisation's system critical parameters. The conceptual part of this paper deals with organisational learning, activity theory, knowledge management and systems theories. Finally, some case results from industry are introduced in this article.
Mixed methods research is an approach to inquiry that combines or associates both qualitative and quantitative forms. Mixed methods designs provide researchers, across research disciplines, with a rigorous approach to answering research questions. In the case of holistic analysis of complex systems, such as the mega-project, this is a relevant approach. Mixing the data, the specific types of research designs, the notation system, terminology, diagrams of procedures includes a risk of entering to chaos. Therefore research design has to be clearly articulated to readers. Triangulation is an important part of research design. Denzin [10] has identified four basic types of triangulation. In this exploratory paper are discussed mixed method research, theory triangulation, economic science, design science and systems development. Finally is introduced utilization of mixed methods in multiple-case study conducted in industry.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, the chief executive of Royal Dutch Shell, Mr. Jeroen van der Veer, said he “keeps faith in ‘elephant’ projects” referring to the Russian gas mega-project that Shell had fallen eight months behind schedule with and had cost overruns twice the original estimate. Mr. van der Veer partially blamed industry-wide factors for this such as an increase in raw material prices, more expensive contractors and exchange rate pressure. But he also implied that the original assessment of the project in 2003 had been too optimistic and that the scope of the mega-project had to be revised. The wisdom he said was that scope changes are basically because you didn’t do enough homework in advance. Even though it is rather easy to feel miserable after such a statement, there is faith left as the chief executive says - if only we had been able to do our homework. This gives me reason enough to concentrate in this research on the construction of a proactive qualitative decision support aid for mega-project management. The main research topic of the dissertation is organizational learning in the field of project management (PM). This study explores project management by providing a PM ontology for managers. The managerial value of the ontology is, for example, lower potential for time and cost overruns and poor project quality, and higher potential for effective and efficient execution of complex projects. Project management essentially aims to combine learning and performance within the project organization to serve the project owners’ strategy. Therefore a proactive vision and co-evolutionary touch is needed to evolve project processes. Project management under high pressure often means utilizing explicit quantitative methods, usually based on reactive calculations. However, the management of uncertainties and risks demands a versatile, qualitative point of view. With quantitative methods we can “price” the risks. With qualitative methods we are able to realize and shape the risks in advance. Therefore project management is the challenge to move the organization towards the common qualitative and quantitative goals during a project lifecycle, i.e. to support organizational learning throughout a long-lasting project. This study introduces a project management ontology – a classification of management disciplines for project managers and a project learning model. Knowledge management theory, activity theory, systems theory and various management practices are discussed in the conceptual part of this thesis. The empirical part of the research concerns a multiple-case study conducted in ten project organizations participating in two large mega-projects. The mega-projects were in the offshore industry and shipbuilding industry. Altogether more than fifty project managers and project team members participated in this research. The empirical results are presented at the end of the introductory essay and in the original publications enclosed in this thesis. Appendixes available from: heli.aramo-immonen@tut.fi
Co-learning, also known as collaborative learning, is a method of learning and teaching in which a team of learners together explore a significant question or create a meaningful project. A group of learners working together over the Internet on a shared assignment of creating a blog is an example of a virtual co-learning environment [1]. According to Jarvenpaa et al. [2], a virtual team member's trust in his/her team operates as a moderator, indirectly affecting the relationships between team communication and perceptual learning outcomes. Therefore, we first executed team-building exercises in virtual teams. Secondly, we instructed students to use blogging tools and create their own blog pages. Thirdly, we carried out a survey among students to assess the learning experiences in such a virtual co-learning environment. We have experimented with blogging as a co-learning environment among university students in the international course context. These experiments were conducted among a group of 39 students enrolled on an international knowledge management graduate course. We observed team building in virtual teams via team-building exercises [2]. We assessed the content of the blog pages and conducted a survey at the end of the course. In the paper, we discuss co-learning in virtual teams, introduce the results from the survey questionnaire and introduce live links to some sample blog pages.
Radically new ideas, or disruptive innovations, would expect to come from inside companies, or possibly in their collaboration with other parties. However, they may also be 'forced' on a company from outside, and then be so without necessarily bringing any solutions on how to deal with the new situation. The energy sector is bound to deal with major changes. For SMEs acting in the sector, their ability to take on, or even invent, new solutions to meet such pressures may be limited. The sector is marked by high investment costs and the sector is also highly regulated in terms of what to produce. In this study we explore how prepared SMEs are to meet radical change in the energy sector. Managers from ten SMEs in Finland completed an Innovation Fitness survey and were interviewed. The study indicates how the SME managers are unprepared for new external requirements and need to better orient themselves before actually being able to tackle arising issues. The paper points to the importance of actively searching the environment for changes. It contributes to the innovation literature through pointing to how innovation may be forced from the outside, and deal with fighting for its survival, rather than be seen as a competitive advantage from inside out.
The objective of this article is to help align higher education of future project managers to the contemporary requirements of global project business. The perspective is project managers' competencies in knowledge intensive industry, such as in IT branch. In this paper, it is considered that a holistic view of competence self-evaluation helps to assess the current intentional change. The system introduced supports decision making by measuring and capturing the actual drivers designed specifically for the role of project manager. Generalizing the competence identification process appears to be more constructive than detailing about competence content itself. This study brings valuable and novel empirical data using a sample of students acting as project managers in Spain and a sample of experienced project managers from Finland. A number of possible future studies using the same experimental set up are apparent.
IMP research is often treated as an empirical perspective describing complexities of repeated business-to-business exchanges and their embeddedness. While building on some common understandings and concepts, this paper asks: How homogeneous is the IMP research? This paper uses cluster analysis to capture the roots and various sub-groups of IMP research as means to depict the question of homogeneity (i.e. a core focus in the research) or heterogeneity (i.e. using references from other fields or specific to sub-fields) of the IMP thought. In this scientific work in progress paper we introduce how we design to use bibliographical methods in order to harvest data from an extensive amount of IMP-related articles written from the 1970’s onwards. In this first attempt to reveal IMP we used overall 294 articles yielded to 10,615 co-citation relationships. A threshold of minimum number of citations of a cited reference was set to five (5) to capture such references that have been cited in multiple publications. We introduce visual mapping of defined subject area clusters and as an example we describe shortly clusters. Perhaps not surprisingly our findings suggest that IMP research is not so homogenous, with at least four clear clusters of IMP-research each utilizing different key references.
The acknowledgement of a research tradition by other disciplines shows its contribution to the development of the broader body of scientific knowledge. This paper investigates the contribution of IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) research to broader research disciplines by analyzing how researchers within and beyond IMP have cited core IMP articles. First, through quantitative bibliometric analysis, the paper identifies the diffusion to other research disciplines. Thereafter, through qualitative analysis, the impact of the IMP perspective is captured to understand how strong these imprints are. The analyses show that IMP research has been noticed among a range of adjacent research disciplines. However, the use of IMP references has generally been rudimentary, and without a deeper understanding of the IMP ontology, meaning that IMP still has some “weak ties” to the other disciplines. Establishing IMP's contribution through enduring imprints would need further engagement with researchers from other research disciplines and publications in top journals. The paper contributes empirically with how the IMP perspective has spread beyond the IMP Group and theoretically by adding insight into how research ideas travel and transform to other disciplines.
The purpose of this study was to explore the factors through which the project implementation phase could be enhanced by cultural knowledge. The importance of studying this subject is that the exploitation of cultural knowledge (Hofstede & Hofstede 2005, Schwartz 1999, Ng et al. 2006, Hall 1976, Lewis 2006) and competence (Koskinen 2001) is still limited in the constantly increasing project-based business (Turner 1999, Artto et al. 2011, PMBOK 2004) in the international field. Two objectives exist in this study: understanding project complexity through the main challenges in project implementation and evaluating the impacts of the cultural factors behind them.
We propose the multiple case study approach (Eisenhard & Graebner 2007, Yin 2014).The prominence of cultural knowledge in project implementation is difficult to determine, so the research design has exploratory features. Case project A was implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa and Case project B in the Near East. Interviewed managers worked either from distance and only visited the target country periodically or represented the perspective of an operational level manager working in the host country. The main cultural challenges that occurred in the projects are defined by these interviewees.
This methodology gives evidence of the main challenges in the two case projects and clarifies the multiplicity of cultural issues in the project context. The importance of the subject was highlighted and the interviewed managers demonstrated that cultural knowledge can offer benefits. Numerous studies exist concerning the challenges in the project business (Deresky 2014, Turner 1999).
The outcomes of the research stressed the uniqueness of projects and the situational need for cultural knowledge. The results highlighted the pervasive nature of culture in the international playing field. Companies are obliged to adjust their operations according to environments with multifaceted requirements. National cultures not only prevail within the borders of geographical areas, but are also reflected in company procedures. Therefore, their overall impact needs to be considered in international projects.
Productivity management is a challenge for software engineering companies and, in this regard, there is a current trend toward globalization. Via acquisitions and mergers, business has become international and employs different national cultures. Therefore, the focus of this article is on the understanding of cultural differences affecting productivity in globalized software production. The relation between productivity and non coding activities in software development projects has not been proven. Software development is expert work, typically made in closely collaborating local teams and global distribution of expert work increases the degree of difficulty. In this paper, the authors analyze multicultural ICT companies from their productivity perspective through the lens of cultural differences. The purpose of this study is to report findings based on general cultural studies and reported experiences that seem to affect productivity in the software industry. Some company cases are also described and analyzed.
Commitment is the manifestation of trust. Therefore the building of trust in global software engineering (SE) companies is a relevant question to study. The objective of this research is to explore the trust-building processes in global SE from a cultural perspective. In this research, staff from five large multinational SE companies were interviewed. In the conceptual part of the article, firstly the domain of SE is introduced, secondly there is a discussion on the concept of trust and trust-building processes and thirdly, cultural dimensions affecting trust-building processes are examined. Finally, findings from the case companies are discussed.
The objective of this study is to explore value creation in the shipbuilding supply network in Europe. The mixed methods research utilized combines or associates both qualitative and quantitative forms. Firstly, an analysis was conducted of financial statements spanning 3 years among supply chain companies in the network; secondly, a survey questionnaire was carried out (n >300 suppliers); and thirdly, a focused interview was conducted with managers from one shipyard in order to answer the research question. This exploratory paper discusses mixed method research, theory triangulation, and trust building processes in a supply network. Finally, the empirical results of the marine industry network research study are introduced.
The purpose of the paper is to explore storytelling as a potential lever to gain intellectual capital (IC) in project-based companies. The aim is to open up new ways to understand stories and the role of storytelling in increasing IC in project-based companies. Stories are a manifestation of collective knowledge. Often not documented but embedded in individual minds and forming the valuable human capital. We present essential theoretical information, reviewing the concepts of the project-based company and the project work context, and describing the notion of IC (human, structural and relational) in relation to storytelling. The temporary nature of projects is challenge in IC management of project-based companies. Since each project is unique and may have temporary organization the transfer of knowledge is more challenging for project-based companies than for those operating in stable environments. The existing relational capital may not apply to new project and thus new relational capital must be created and accumulated to company. Considering structural capital, the processes and systems and the documented knowledge may be unique to each project and as such difficult to leverage. Storytelling can provide some ways to overcome these challenges. Storytelling is currently little understood and researched in the context of project-based companies, especially from the perspective of IC. Conceptual part of the article is followed by descriptions of stories and storytelling as a vehicle in increasing IC in project-based companies. We suggest that stories and storytelling are effective modes of human knowledge transfer and learning. Storytelling plays a role in advancing informal learning in project-based companies. Projects are unique and project teams are temporary. Therefore the IC management of project-based companies deserves extended research in academia. Originality and value of the paper is on finding a viable perspective and approach with which project-based companies can understand how they can increase IC through storytelling.
Knowledge management has acknowledged organizational learning as a key factor for creating competitive advantage for companies already from early 1990. However, the studies of co-learning in this connection are in their infancy. This article contributes to an emerging field of 'smart data' research on Twitter by presenting a case study of how community managers in Finland used this social media platform to construct a co-learning environment around an annually organized conference. In this empirical study we explore the co-learning behavior in project contexts especially by analyzing and visualizing co-learning behavior from conference participants Twitter data.
Knowledge Management acknowledged organizational learning as a key factor for creating competitive advantage for companies in early 1990. However, studies on informal learning in this connection are still in their infancy. This article contributes to an emerging field of 'small data' research on Twitter by presenting a case study of how community managers in Finland used this social media platform to construct an informal learning environment around an annually organized conference. In this empirical study we explore informal learning behavior in project contexts especially by analyzing and visualizing informal learning behavior from Twitter data from conference participants.
This research was conducted in order to explore the attitude towards social media use among students in technical university. In particular, there is a need for novel interaction means in order to co-create and learn informally also beyond the traditional classroom. The motivation for seeking answer to the research question: "What risks students experience in social media use?" derived from the need to discover learning barriers in social media based learning environments, such as learning games, blogs and wikis for example. The assumptions, beliefs and attitudes towards social media are studied from the perspective of perceived risks of the students. The study was conducted among graduate students attending "Knowledge Management" course between the years 2014-2016. A web-based survey was executed annually, with a total of 206 respondents. Based on the results we were able to categorize the perceived risks and derive implications on how to lower learning barriers of students in social media based learning environments.
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of formal training in project‐based companies.
Design/methodology/approach: First the discussion deals with the concepts of learning, the learning environment, and the motivation to learn in a way in which special focus is on the project team members' motivation to learn. The hypothesis, “People working for project‐based companies are not interested in formal training” is tested by an empirical study, which was conducted on ten Finnish marine and offshore industry companies. Altogether, 54 project team members and project managers attended the multiple‐case study.
Findings: According to the results of the study, formal training is not seen as a necessity among the people working for project‐based companies. This seems to mean that nowadays formal training does not play a significant role in the development of project‐based companies. Further, the people do not necessarily have time to reflect because they are being bombarded by urgent problems and pressing deadlines. A lack of time and a feeling of heavy work load seem to be a normal practise.
Originality/value: Based upon the paper's findings, further research is suggested that would be focussed first on designing integrated learning environments in project‐based companies' processes, and/or second on the training methods utilized, interaction between trainers and project people, and relevancy and efficiency of formal training offered by training organizations to the project‐based companies.
Network analysis is a valuable method for investigating and mapping the phenomena driving the social structure and sharing the findings with others. This article contributes to an emerging field of 'smart data' research on Twitter by presenting a case study of how community managers in Finland used this social media platform to construct an informal learning environment around an annually organized conference. In this empirical study we explore informal learning behavior in the project context, especially by analyzing and visualizing informal learning behavior from Twitter data using the Ostinato Model introduced in this paper. Ostinato is an iterative, user-centric, process-automated model for data-driven visual network analytics.
The aim of the presented green ICT project is primarily to start new and advance existing innovation development in SME networks, secondly to accelerate innovation diffusion in B2B networks and thirdly to improve the operational environment of enterprises through green ICT solutions that support sustainable development. Various technology development projects - and also ideas for further projects - have arisen as a result of this project. In order to answer our research question - how to improve innovation diffusion in SME networks in collaboration with academia -in this article we introduce an academia-driven innovation management model and green ICT pilot case. In the conceptual part of this paper we discuss the process of innovation diffusion and the mediator's role in value creation for SME networks.
The diffusion of new innovations into a business ecosystem is an interesting phenomenon. In order to gain competitive advantage for SMEs and also to add value in SME networks, the dynamic nature of the business ecosystem demands the capability to adapt new ideas. On the other hand, the risk-bearing ability of SMEs alone can be a barrier to the utilisation of novel innovations. In order to answer our research question - how to improve innovation diffusion in a business ecosystem via SME networks in collaboration with academia? - in this article we introduce the mediator-assisted innovation diffusion (MAID) model. The model was tested in multiple case studies where a total of 18 organisations participated. In the conceptual part of this paper we discuss the context of business and innovation ecosystems, the process of innovation diffusion and the mediator's role in value creation for SME networks in such an evolving ecosystem.
Tämä tutkimus on esiselvitys suomalaisen meriteollisuuden verkostotoiminnan tilasta. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, mitä aihealueita meriklusterin verkoston toiminnassa kannattaisi jatkotutkia.
Tutkimuksen aikana suoritettiin kaksi kohdennettua kyselytutkimusta meriklusterin verkoston toimijoille. Kyselyt lähetettiin 392:en sähköpostiosoitteeseen vuoden 2009 lopulla ja kakkosvaiheessa vuoden 2010 alkupuolella. Vastausprosentti tutkimuskyselyyn oli 12 %. Tutkimuksen suunnitteli ja tutkimuskysymykset laati Tampereen teknillisen yliopiston tuotantotalouden sekä tiedonhallinnan ja logistiikan laitoksen yhteinen tutkimusryhmä. Yoso Oy avusti kyselyn laatimisessa ja kyselytutkimuksen tulosten analysoinnissa. Kysely toteutettiin Yoso Oy:n Internet-pohjaisella kyselytyökalulla.
Tutkimuksessa löytyi useita tutkimuksen kannalta mielenkiintoisia osa-alueita koskien verkoston toimintaa. Tässä raportissa julkaistaan tutkimuksen tulokset ja raportin lopussa pohditaan johtopäätöksiä tuloksista. Yleisesti voidaan todeta, että meriklusterin verkoston toiminta on suomalaisen meriteollisuuden kilpailukyvyn näkökulmasta avainasemassa. Verkoston kilpailukykyyn vaikuttavia havaittuja potentiaalisia tutkimusalueita ovat mm. miten verkostossa synnytetään ja vaalitaan kilpailukykyä edistäviä innovaatioita (liiketoiminta- sekä teknologiainnovaatiot), miten arvontuotossa ilmeneviä ongelmia verkostossa kommunikoidaan sekä esim. kilpailukykyisen toiminnan vaatiman integraation aste verkostossa. Verkoston tehokkuuteen ja tuottavuuteen vaikuttavia tutkimuksen arvoisia tekijöitä havaittiin olevan mm. toimintojen kypsyys, horisontaalinen ja vertikaalinen dynamiikka verkostossa sekä arvonmuodostuksen mekanismit. Tulevaisuuteen tähtäävän globaalin verkottuneen toiminnan näkökulmasta tutkimisen arvoista olisi mm. luottamuksen synnyttäminen virtuaalisessa verkostossa (toimijat ovat maantieteellisesti ja kulttuurisesti etäällä toisistaan), verkostotoiminnan kypsyys pk-sektorilla sekä arvontuottokyvykkyys verkoston välityksellä.
Tämä esseekokoelman aiheena on projektiliiketoiminta ja siihen liittyvät aiheet. Idea esseekokoelman toimittamiseen on syntynyt vuonna 2013 ja tämä on sarjassa ilmestyvä toinen esseekokoelma. Kirjoitukset ovat Tampereen teknillisen yliopiston Porin laitoksen tuotantotalouden maisteriohjelman projektiliiketoimintakurssille 2014 osallistuneiden opiskelijoiden tuottamia. Tämä syventävä kurssi on toteutettu Porin yliopistokeskuksessa, joka on monitieteinen yhteisö. Kurssille osallistuneet kauppatieteen ja tekniikan opiskelijat ovat muodostaneet monialaisia asiantuntijaryhmiä. Lukija voikin itse todeta, miten monipuolisia esseet ovat. Koska kyseessä ovat pääosin maisteriohjelman opiskelijat, on joukossa monia työelämässä projektitehtäviin kouliintuneita ammattilaisia. Tämä näkyykin esseiden reflektiivisyydessä ja aiheiden käsittelyn mielekkyydessä työelämän näkökulmasta.
Tämä esseekokoelma on sarjan kolmas ja aiheena on projektiliiketoiminta ja siihen liittyvät aiheet. Aikaisemmat esseekokoelmat vuosilta 2013 ja 2014 löytyvät verkosta. Idea esseekokoelman toimittamiseen on syntynyt siitä innostuksesta ja antaumuksesta, jolla opiskelijat ovat aiheeseen joka vuosi suhtautuneet. Kirjoitukset ovat Tampereen teknillisen yliopiston Porin laitoksen Johtamisen ja tietotekniikan maisteriohjelman projektiliiketoimintakurssille 2015 osallistuneiden opiskelijoiden tuottamia. Tämä kurssi on toteutettu Porin yliopistokeskuksessa, joka on monitieteinen yhteisö. Kurssille osallistuneet kauppatieteen ja tekniikan opiskelijat ovat muodostaneet monialaisia asiantuntijaryhmiä. Lukija voikin itse todeta, miten monipuolisia esseet ovat. Koska kyseessä ovat pääosin maisteriohjelman opiskelijat, on joukossa monia työelämässä projektitehtäviin kouliintuneitaammattilaisia. Tämä näkyykin esseiden reflektiivisyydessä ja aiheiden käsittelyn mielekkyydessä työelämän näkökulmasta.
Miten esseet syntyvät? Menetelmänä on käytetty aiheiden yhteiskehittelyä kurssin aikana. Opiskelijat ovat työstäneet aihetta pienryhmissä. Aiheeseen liittyviä artikkeleita ja linkkejä on pohdittu ja aihetta analysoitu usean viikon ajan. Opettaja on myös voinut osallistua kehittelyyn ja antaa vinkkejä työskentelyn edetessä. Kurssin päätteeksi jokainen ryhmä tuotti valitsemastaan aiheesta esseen, jonka lukija löytää tästä Projektimestarit koosteesta.
Miksi kirjoitukset ovat suomenkielisiä? Suurin osa yliopiston kurssimateriaaleista on englanninkielistä. Pedagogisesta näkökulmasta käsitteet ja aineisto eivät avaudu opiskelijalle ilman analyyttistä keskustelua. Englanninkielisestä lähdeaineistosta omalle äidinkielelle muokattu synteesi aihepiiristä auttaa omaksumaan ja syvällisesti ymmärtämään aihetta.
Opiskelijoiden yhteisellä suostumuksella esseet koottiin yksiin kansiin. Tätä e-kirjaa voidaan hyödyntää tulevien kurssien oppimateriaalina. Esseekokoelma muodostaa tekijöilleen mielekkään tietopaketin kurssin sisällöstä ja tekijät voivat viitata tähän kokoelmaan tulevissa opinnäytetöissään.
Tähän kirjaan on kerätty kokemuksia monipolviselta matkalta luovuuden ja innovatiivisuuden sekä teollisuuden toimijoiden kohtauspaikalle Kaleidoskooppi-hankkeeseen. Kirjaan on koottu eri alojen asiantuntijoiden kirjoituksia ja esseitä hankkeen kokemuksista, joita lukija hyödyntää uusien ideoiden lähteenä. Ajatuksena on ollut kuvata monipuolisesti Kaleidoskoopissa kokeiltuja luovia menetelmiä ja pohtia niiden tuloksellisuutta ja merkitystä. Koska mukana on eri alojen toimijoita, ovat myös kirjoitelmat eri tutkimusnäkökulmien ja opetusmetodien muodostama kaleidoskooppi neljään eri aiheeseen. Kirja on pyritty tekemään helppolukuiseksi erottelemalla teemat toisistaan värein. Kirjan loppuun on kerätty linkkejä luovan talouden maailmaan. Lopusta löytyvät myös mukana olleiden tutkijoiden ja asiantuntijoiden esittelyt. Kirjaa voi käyttää oppimateriaalina, hakuteoksena ja lähdeteoksena. Ensisijaisesti verkossa jaettavaksi suunniteltua teosta on lupa jakaa ja hyödyntää yrityksissä ja opetuksessa.
This research explores the strategic management of operations and innovation capability in the Finnish car retail and service business. In order to develop customer satisfaction and competitive edge, companies need innovative capability to plan and manage operational strategy. Novel collaborative thinking with stakeholders is needed to predict and meet customer needs. Therefore, the ability to create process and service innovations is important. A survey was executed among CEOs and top managers of 147 companies. Data analysis results revealed significant clustering and differences in companies’ capabilities. The practical implication from this study is direct performance development proposals for managers
Increased focus in popular press has been directed at how individuals born at different times differ in their preferences and ways of acting. Generation Z (Gen Z) refers to individuals born in the 1990s that are often described to be self-centred but also entrepreneurial, potentially based on how the abilities to get at permanent position has changed during the last decades. The purpose of this study is to investigate: What does Gen Z consider important organizational innovation factors at a future workplace? Based on a questionnaire directed at individuals as part of Gen Z, we focus our analysis on innovation enablers, to thereby also see how Gen Z’s expectations fit with needs to continuously and increasingly rapidly renew operations. With this study we contribute to a greater academic understanding of a new and in Sweden relatively unexplored Gen Z. The practical implication of the study is to provide employers with guidelines on how to create successful innovation incubation environments at their workplace.
Software engineer should see himself as a business process designer in enterprise resource planning system (ERP) re-engineering project. Software engineers and managers should have design dialogue. The objective of this paper is to discuss the motives to study the design research in connection of management education in order to envision and understand the soft human issues in the management context. Second goal is to develop means of practicing social skills between designers and managers. This article explores the affective components of design thinking in industrial management domain. In the conceptual part of this paper are discussed concepts of network and project economy, creativity, communication, use of metaphors, and design thinking. Finally is introduced empirical research plan and first empirical results from design method experiments among the multi-disciplined groups of the master-level students of industrial engineering and management and software engineering.
The present paper explores competence assessment and development in the field of adult education. An ICT-based tool was used on two samples of subjects in order to be able to contrast our results among young students and adults students. Our results show differences for the sample of adult students in terms of issues such as trust, commitment and trustworthiness. A series of implications are discussed in the final part of the paper.
Conventionally, different company-supplier relationship areas have been illustrated by distinguishing five different relationship categories between the supplier or subcontractor and the buyer company, namely adversarial leverage, preferred supplier, single sourcing, network sourcing partnership, and strategic supplier alliance. This implies that the supplier’s importance to the buyer company also changes and vice versa. One delaying element which retards the evolution of a supply relationship is a lack of trust. This element manifests itself as poor information flows, restricted knowledge sharing, and suspicion between stakeholders. Therefore trust is one of the most important elements in improving dyadic relationships. Trust is becoming an ever more essential managing element between companies when they integrate their activities, form and maintain their dyadic relationship, and create control systems.
In the paper is discussed personal trust and system-based trust affecting supplier relationships in the supply chain context. Empirical material was collected by means of a survey and interviews. The managers of the case company estimated how they trust and trusted their suppliers and how reliable their suppliers actually are or were. The case company is involved with complicated projects that include several hundred suppliers.
We introduce some results from the survey study (sample n=392 persons) and from the interviews with the focus group, in order to explore how the company’s defined company-supplier relationshipis related to the expected level of trust and how the expected trust varies in different supplier relationships. The results indicate that different aspects and expectation of trust in the case company has led to the situation where the supplier categorization is unclear in the company’s organization,which can lead to confusion in supply management. This in turn implies that organization’s own attitudes and changes in trust may be a source of dynamics that impedes efficient and effective supply network management.
Digitalization is spreading across our current society and is a major source of the changes - incremental and also radical - encountered in daily life. It changes the content of jobs: some jobs are no longer needed, and new jobs are also needed. Digitalization in universities has several implications - in teaching, research, and in administration. The opportunities provided by digitalization are manifold. In our paper, we separate two digitalization related topic areas - i.e., networking and digitalization itself. Our paper focuses on academic publishing and we will analyze its role in the current academic world. The approach selected emphasizes the role of an individual researcher and, in particular, publishing the results of their work in academic forums. Digitalization provides a wide variety of new forums but also the means to recognize the impact of the forums and affect it. Networking as a phenomenon is also based on digitalization - physical networks and social networking related applications can be beneficial for researchers. Because teaching is the most visible work of universities, the role of digitalization in this sector is also addressed briefly in this paper.
Social media and the data it produces lend itself to being visualised as a network. Individual Twitter users can be represented as nodes and retweeted by another Twitter user, thereby forming a relationship, an edge, between users. However, an unbounded network is a sprawling mass of nodes and edges. Boundary settings are typically applied, for example, a time period, a hashtag, a keyword search or a network substructure of a phenomenon of interest. Thus, the particular visualisation created is dependent upon the boundaries applied, enabling productive visual consumption, but concealing its social shaping. To explore this question of boundary setting and its associated issues, we draw on an example from the Twitter discussions about the UK Minister for Health, Jeremy Hunt, and the media debate surrounding the contractual hours of junior doctors during 2015–2016. We discuss the role and impact differing stakeholders have in setting these boundaries. We seek to provide a set of ‘questioning lenses’ in which we ask why these boundary settings were selected, what effect they have, and what are the potential implications of these boundary setting techniques on the visualisation consumer.