Käsitteellinen lähestymistapa organisatoristen verkostojen tutkimukseen

Tutkimusympäristöt joissa eri tieteenalojen tutkijat toimivat yhdessä ratkaistakseen verkostoissa toimivien kumppaniyritysten ongelmia ovat haasteellisia tiedonvaihdon ja tutkimustiedon keräämisen kannalta. Vaikka tutkimuskohde on yhteinen, tutkijat lähestyvät sitä omien tieteidensä näkökulmasta käyttäen siihen teorioita ja menetelmiä jotka eivät ole yhteensopiva muiden kanssa. Lapin yliopistossa tehdyn tutkimustyön aikana nämä ongelmat tulivat esiin, kun useissa monialaisissa projekteissa tarkasteltiin liiketoimintaverkostoja sekä teollisuusliiketoiminnan että matkailun alalta. Projektien kohteina olevissa verkostoissa yritykset pyrkivät tyypillisesti hakemaan verkostotoiminnasta hyötyjä informaatioteknologian avulla tehostaakseen liiketoimintasuhteitaan ja siten edesauttamaan johtamiseen ja operatiiviseen toimintaan liittyvää tiedonkulkua. Pääasiallinen ongelma näissä ympäristöissä tapahtuvassa tutkimuksessa on, että uudet projektit eivät helposti pysty hyödyntämään edellisten projektien tuotoksia, koska aikaisemmin kerättyä tutkimustietoa, analyysejä tai luotuja ratkaisumalleja ei ole saatavilla siinä muodossa että ne voitaisiin ottaa uuden tutkimuksen pohjaksi. Tässä työssä on tarkasteltu ja kehitetty käsitteellisiä malleja ja niihin liittyviä menetelmiä, jotka tukevat monitieteistä liiketoimintaverkostojen tutkimusta, ja samalla tekevät mahdolliseksi hyödyntää jo olemassa olevaa tutkimustietoa. Tässä diplomityössä kehitetty ratkaisu perustuu liiketoimintaverkostojen analysointiin käsitemallintamisen avulla. Tämän tuloksena on luotu organisatoristen ympäristöjen käsitemalli, joka keskittyy integraatiota edistäviin yhteistoimintasuhteisiin, ja kuvattu siihen liittyvä tutkimuksellinen prosessi joka mahdollistaa projektin aikana syntyvän tutkimusaineiston käsitteellistämisen ja lisätiedon liitämisen niihin. Tämä helpottaa tutkimustiedon jäsentämistä ja sen jakamista tutkijoiden ja kohdealueen toimijoiden välillä. Lisäksi työssä määritellään metatietokuvauksia ja rajattuja sanastoja jotka perustuvat semanttisen webin tekniikoihin, joilla voidaan luokitella eri projektien aikana syntyviä tutkimusartefakteja ja hallinnoida tutkimustietoa.The research settings, where project teams consisting of researchers from different scientific fields, and working together to provide solutions to the issues of networked partner organizations, are challenging in terms of communicating and accumulating research knowledge. Although the focus of the research is shared, difficulties emerge because it is explored from different scientific perspectives, relying on theories and methods that do not match with others. This observation was made during research work conducted at the University of Lapland in projects that concentrated on business networks in the manufacturing and tourism industries. The organizations in these commercial environments typically seek benefits from information technology to intensify the network-wide business relationships and to improve knowledge-intensive operations and management. The main problem is that new projects cannot easily benefit from the results of past projects because the collected research materials, analyses and models are not easily found and they are difficult to align with the objectives of new projects. In this work, to resolve theses issues, conceptual models and related approaches have been analyzed and elaborated to support cross disciplinary research on business networks, and at the same time enable the re-use and sharing of research knowledge. The solution presented in this Master's thesis has been developed by relying on conceptual modelling approaches to analyze business networks. As a result, general concept model of inter-organizational environments has been built that focuses on the integrative relationships in them. Further, accompanying research process that enabies the conceptualization and annotating of the project research outcomes has been constructed. This helps in organizing and sharing research information between researchers and stakeholders. Additionally, metadata descriptions and controlled vocabularies based on semantic web technologies are defined to align research constructs originating from different projects and to support research knowledge management

Toward a process theory of entrepreneurship: revisiting opportunity identification and entrepreneurial actions

This dissertation studies the early development of new ventures and small business and the entrepreneurship process from initial ideas to viable ventures. I unpack the micro-foundations of entrepreneurial actions and new ventures’ investor communications through quality signals to finance their growth path. This dissertation includes two qualitative papers and one quantitative study. The qualitative papers employ an inductive multiple-case approach and include seven medical equipment manufacturers (new ventures) in a nascent market context (the mobile health industry) across six U.S. states and a secondary data analysis to understand the emergence of opportunities and the early development of new ventures. The quantitative research chapter includes 770 IPOs in the manufacturing industries in the U.S. and investigates the legitimation strategies of young ventures to gain resources from targeted resource-holders.Open Acces

Context-aware information delivery for mobile construction workers

The potential of mobile Information Technology (IT) applications to support the information needs of mobile construction workers has long been understood. However, existing mobile IT applications in the construction industry have underlined limitations, including their inability to respond to the changing user context, lack of semantic awareness and poor integration with the desktop-based infrastructure. This research argues that awareness of the user context (such as user role, preferences, task-at-hand, location, etc.) can enhance mobile IT applications in the construction industry by providing a mechanism to deliver highly specific information to mobile workers by intelligent interpretation of their context. Against this this background, the aim of this research was to investigate the applicability of context-aware information delivery (CAID) technologies in the construction industry. The research methodology adopted consisted of various methods. A literature review on context-aware and enabling technologies was undertaken and a conceptual framework developed, which addressed the key issues of context-capture, contextinference and context-integration. To illustrate the application of CAID in realistic construction situations, five futuristic deployment scenarios were developed which were analysed with several industry and technology experts. From the analysis, a common set of user needs was drawn up. These needs were subsequently translated into the system design goals, which acted as a key input to the design and evaluation of a prototype system, which was implemented on a Pocket-PC platform. The main achievements of this research include development of a CAID framework for mobile construction workers, demonstration of CAID concepts in realistic construction scenarios, analysis of the Construction industry needs for CAID and implementation and validation of the prototype to demonstrate the CAID concepts. The research concludes that CAID has the potential to significantly improve support for mobile construction workers and identifies the requirements for its effective deployment in the construction project delivery process. However, the industry needs to address various identified barriers to enable the realisation of the full potential of CAID

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

The development and implementation of e-health services for the Libyan NHS: case studies of hospitals and clinics in both urban and rural areas

This thesis provides an assessment of the readiness levels within both urban and rural hospitals and clinics in Libya for the implementation of E-health systems. This then enabled the construction of a framework for E-health implementation in the Libyan National Health Service (LNHS). The E-health readiness study assessed how medications were prescribed, how patients were referred, how information communication technology (ICT) was utilised in recording patient records, how healthcare staff were trained to use ICT, and how the ways in which consultations were carried out by healthcare staff. The research was done in five rural clinics and five urban medical centres and focused on the E-health readiness levels of the technology, social attitudes, engagement levels and any other needs that were apparent. Collection of the data was carried out using a mixed methods approach with qualitative interviews and quantitative questionnaires. The study indicated that any IT equipment present was not being utilised for clinical purposes and there was no evidence of any E-health technologies being employed. This implies that the maturity level of the healthcare institutions studied was at level zero in the E-health maturity model used in this thesis. In order for the LNHS to raise its maturity levels for the implementation of E-health systems, it needs to persuade LNHS staff and patients to adopt E-health systems. This can be carried out at a local level throughout the LNHS, though this will need to be coordinated at a national level through training, education and programmes to encourage compliance and providing incentives. In order to move E-health technology usage in the participating Libyan healthcare institutions from Level 0 to Level 2 in the E-health Maturity Model levels, an E-health framework was created that is based on the findings of this research study. The primary aim of the LNHS E-Health Framework is the integration of E-health services for improving the delivery of healthcare within the LNHS. To construct the framework and ensure that it was creditable and applicable, work on it was informed directly by the findings from document analysis, literature review, and expert feedback, in conjunction with the primary research findings presented in Chapter Five. When the LNHS E-Health Framework was compiled there were several things taken into consideration, such as: the abilities of healthcare staff, the needs of healthcare institutions and the existing ICT infrastructure that had been recorded in the E-readiness assessment which was carried out in the healthcare institutions (Chapter 5). The framework also provides proposals for E-health systems based on the infrastructure network that will be developed. The processes addressed are electronic health records, E-consultations, E-prescriptions, E-referrals and E-training. The researcher has received very positive, even enthusiastic, feedback from the LNHS and other officals, and that expect the framework to be further developed and implemented by the LNHS in the near future