Multiple research efforts are currently unfolding to advance the wide-scale sustainability transformation of services and service ecosystems to address the United Nations Sustainable Development ...Goals (SDGs). While “how” to create service ecosystems and “whom” and “what” these service ecosystems serve have been receiving increasing scholarly attention, current research leaves the “where” question relatively underexplored. Thus, precise theoretical conceptualizations of the role of spaces and places in sustainable service ecosystem design (SED) are lacking. By longitudinally investigating two in-depth case studies, we illuminate the spatial aspects of sustainable SED. Our findings suggest five spatial mechanisms that enlighten how sustainable SED unfolds in relation to spaces and places. We also identify three tensions that affect the implementation of sustainable SED, each tension having both enabling and constraining manifestations. The study contributes to the service research on sustainability by illuminating the previously under-researched spatial aspects of sustainable SED. Results have implications for a broad set of actors involved in sustainable SED, providing advice on how to design new and utilize existing spaces and places to maximize their potential in addressing sustainability challenges.
Graphical Abstract
Full text
Available for:
NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
2.
Markets as configurations Storbacka, Kaj; Nenonen, Suvi
European journal of marketing,
02/2011, Volume:
45, Issue:
1/2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of a general theory of the market, by defining markets as configurations and exploring: how market configurations emerge and ...evolve in a business-to-business context; how a market actor can influence market configurations; and what kinds of market configuration capabilities actors need to develop.Design methodology approach - The topic is approached by theoretical analysis and conceptual development.Findings - Markets can be viewed as configurations of market actors engaging in market practices. Market configurations are perpetually dynamic as new actors enter the context, and as actors introduce ideas and business model elements to the network. As a result the configuration's marketness evolves towards higher levels of configurational fit, resulting in increased value co-creation opportunities. An actor wanting to influence the market configuration can do so by working on its mental models and business models. The power of the actor's mental and business models is mediated by the actor's network position, its clout, and the fact that a change in any element evokes reactions from other actors. Actors need to develop new sets of market capabilities, such as value sensing, the ability to measure markets, price formation and pricing logics, and market scripting.Originality value - For a scholarly audience the paper contributes to the discussion on how markets are redefined from being places where demand and supply meet and reach equilibrium, to being spaces where actors integrate resources to co-create value. For a practitioner audience it offers ideas on how firms can shape their markets in their favour.
Purpose
Future places for learning and working are digitally and physically integrated hybrid environments. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the co-creation process of the remote ...presence-based digital and physical co-working and co-learning place. The context is cross-cultural when Finnish space approach is applied and further developed in Namibia.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case study is conducted of the Future Tech Lab (FT Lab) in the University of Namibia’s main campus. The case study of the FT Lab is about 200m2 space with three different zones in the University of Namibia’s main campus. The physical solution encourages collaboration and technical solutions interlink the place overseas by using the remote presence. The data are gathered by using document analysis, observations, participatory workshops and interviews including structured questionnaire.
Findings
The action design research approach is a functional framework to co-create hybrid environments in two ways. It helps to design digital and physical solutions as integrated entity. Additionally, it provides a tool to analyse decision-making processes as well as design initiatives, also from the cultural perspective. Both Finnish and Namibian cultures are normative and feminine, which helped the realisation of the project based on mutual trust. However, the differences in power distance were affecting the process fluency and decision-making processes.
Research limitations/implications
The findings indicate that the co-design of the hybrid-learning environment sets requirements for the physical solution such as surface materials for premises and retrofitting of technology, which need to be considered by co-creation from the shared vision to realisation of the space. The co-creation involves many stakeholders, and cultural differences have a different impact on various stages of the co-creation process.
Originality/value
The cultural context in the case study provides an interesting comparison between the Finnish and Namibian approach. The remote presence and its requirements provide new knowledge and guidelines for co-creation of hybrid environments.
Nations and cities are eagerly joining the global trend of transition to digitized society. Through digitalization, societies aim to streamline their key functions and to develop modern services to ...inhabitants. 5G wireless networks are being built globally with lots of expectations put on them. It is anticipated that at the first phase of 5G, the technology will benefit the most different verticals like factories, hospitals and campuses. Universities have likewise awoken to establish digitalization projects to respond to the disruption of education and to overcome in the growing global competition. The transition to digital campus will inevitably rely on campus ICT and IoT infrastructures. Additionally, the number of terminals, devices, sensors and robots will multiply. This article proposes a technical architecture for future Smart Campus consisting of 5G and IoT networks complemented by distributed computing and data analytics. Increasing complexity of digital environment calls for a specific actor to operate the Smart Campus infrastructure and also services, which has not been widely discussed. It is foreseen that the university IT Administration is probably not willing to adopt the responsibility of enlarging infra and growing number of devices. Similarly, mobile network operators are not seen appropriate to take this role being commonly profiled to offer merely connectivity. To tackle this question, a novel operational model for the Smart Campuses is presented based on the recently proposed micro operator concept. Moreover, a case study of the University of Oulu campus is presented, where smart technology in the form of 5G test network has been deployed.
Full text
Available for:
EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Purpose - A common thread in the modern marketing theories, such as service-dominant logic and viable systems approach, is the notion value co-creation: the locus of value creation is no longer ...perceived to reside within firm boundaries but value is considered to be co-created among various actors within the networked market. The evolution of value creation, from value creation by the manufacturing firm to value co-creation in a network, necessitates a corresponding change in the concepts used to depict value creation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate business models as a broader conceptualization of value co-creation that captures this change.Design methodology approach - The topic is approached by a combination of literature review and interactive research, including interactions with managers from 12 international companies.Findings - Business models are defined as configurations of 12 interrelated elements, covering market, offering, operational, and management viewpoints. The effectiveness of a business model in value co-creation is defined by the internal configurational fit between all business model elements and the external configurational fit between provider's and customers' business models.Research limitations implications - The paper contributes to the understanding on value co-creation by providing a conceptualization of the business model construct depicting value co-creation in a network. Of the 12 companies providing the empirical data, ten are within business-to-business which limits the applicability to business in general. Further, the paper indicates that within a single firm multiple parallel business models are in use.Practical implications - A firm can radically improve value co-creation by designing business models that have a high degree of internal and external configurational fit.Originality value - The originality and value of this paper lies in its analysis and discussion of co-creation of value within a business model.
Background: Future places for learning and working are digitally and physically integrated hybrid environments. The archetypical context of learning is the classroom, and context of working is the ...office; especially in knowledge work. New information and communication technologies enable the spatial reconfiguration of work opening possibilities for work to take place across multiple locations. This paper aims to explore how the conceptual framework of design-science research in Information Systems can be applied when the design object is a hybrid working environment. Methods: The case study method as a qualitative approach was chosen; because it involves an empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context using multiple sources of evidence. The empirical analysis of two hybrid working environments is based on Action Design Research (ADR)-entry points; where one analyzes two case studies stage by stage. By analyzing various stages in both case studies; one can identify co-designing challenges of hybrid working environments. Results: The results present four recommendations for co-designing of hybrid working environments. The use of hybrid working environment; the design of spatial solution; the identification of iterative processes; and the user experiences of presence and distance are significant. The Entry Point Analysis-tool can be used and further developed in analyzing and developing hybrid working environments. Conclusion: The results contribute to the tradition of usability studies. The usability briefing approach can be further developed by identifying the iterative processes inside the linear project management models. Additionally, design science research can find new insights from identification of the large stakeholder iterations more precisely.
In addition to being resilient and adaptive, firms should also utilize shocks such as COVID-19 to generate new business opportunities. Two processes make markets and other economic systems more ...malleable during times of crises: (1) as the stasis of the market system is interrupted, it forces the system “into movement” - and it requires less effort to nudge an already moving system in a specific direction; and (2) as deeply-rooted mental models are challenged during crises, any market-shaping initiative which promises a credible end to current instability with a new equilibrium will appeal to the natural human craving for stability. This malleability, in turn, creates multiple opportunities for firms to shape their markets and hence drive the market's development in favorable directions. We outline a generic process of market-shaping, comprising eight steps: (1) determining whether to act now or actively wait, (2) deciding whether to be a shaper or a supporter, (3) developing a scalable vision for the future market, (4) recognizing the minimum viable system linked to this vision, (5) driving changes in market-level properties, (6) securing that value is quantified and shared, (7) inviting actor engagement for implementation, and (8) defending against possible retaliations from threatened market systems.
•Strategic responses to external crises are not limited to resilience and adaptation.•Crises make markets more malleable and allow proactive market-shaping strategies.•Firms can adopt either a shaper or supporter role in market-shaping.•Market-shaping requires firms to define and reconfigure their minimum viable system.
Full text
Available for:
GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Viewing markets as socially constructed, and thus consciously reconstructable value-creating systems, opens interesting avenues for managerial practice. Strategic decisions regarding markets are no ...longer limited to market selection or positioning in an existing space; for in addition, markets themselves can be shaped for higher value creation, growth and profitability. Based on an abductive research process that was founded on a continuous literature review and involved 63 executives from 16 firms in two countries, we identified 12 distinct levers that a focal firm wanting to shape their markets can focus on. These managerial levers are further categorized into four themes (1) reworking the exchange process by which the focal firm connects with customers, (2) reshaping the network that supports the exchange process and customers' use practices, (3) revising the representations that are used to symbolize the market, and (4) reforming the norms that guide all interactions in the market. The developed framework provides an organized and actionable overview of the elements that can form the content of market-shaping strategies, thus illuminating the "black box" between previously explored antecedents and outcomes of such strategies.
Full text
Available for:
BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Applying grounded theory, we comprehensively categorize capabilities needed for market-shaping and synthesize them into a conceptual framework that describes the process and its outcomes. We ...establish that in order to improve value creation in a market, market-shapers must consider a larger system of relevant stakeholders, recognize the institutional arrangements governing their behaviors, and foster new resource linkages within and across stakeholders. Based on our analysis, we identify eight triggering capabilities, which generate new intra- and inter-stakeholder resource linkages by directly influencing various characteristics of the market, and four facilitating capabilities, which enable market-shaping by discovering the value potential of new resource linkages and augment the impact of the triggering capabilities by mobilizing relevant resources. We show that triggering capabilities are context-specific, whereas facilitating capabilities are generic. We conclude that there are performance outcomes of market-shaping not only for the shaping firm, but also for other stakeholders, and at overall market level.
Purpose
Today, academic work includes increasingly informal and collaborative activities. This research attempts to determine whether stakeholders in the development of learning spaces in higher ...education could benefit from the principles of co-working space. This paper aims to determine whether a need exists for co-working space as a learning space solution from the viewpoint of academic space users. This determination will be made by examining the following research question: How does the co-working space concept meet user expectations regarding academic space?
Design/methodology/approach
The research question is answered by investigating users’ experiences of existing learning spaces in higher education in light of future workplace needs. Users’ requirements are examined by analysing user experience survey and interviews. The results are confirmed by focus group interviews and examined in the light of co-working space characteristics that are identified in the literature from the viewpoint of workplace management by searching for similarities between descriptions in the literature and the empirical data.
Findings
This research suggests that academic space users would appreciate it if the spaces they use would reflect some of the co-working space characteristics. These characteristics are community, multipurpose office, high accessibility and attractive workplace. A less applicable co-working space characteristic is space as service.
Research limitations/implications
The results of this study are based on one case, which limits the generalisability of the results.
Practical implications
The results provide suggestions for corporate real estate management and stakeholders in academic institutions to consider when renovating outdated spaces.
Originality/value
The paper expands the literature on learning spaces in higher education and related practices by linking it with co-working spaces, thereby contributing to a field that has not yet been explored in depth.
PDF
