Series of configurational movements : User activities in technology generalization

The detailed studies of adoption and user activities indicate that continuous alterations accompany the proliferation of new technology, yet diffusion theory and system change-oriented frameworks portray the spread of technologies across a social or sociotechnical system with relatively few changes. To better reconcile the two orientations, we introduce a series of configurational movements (SCM) as a conceptual register for the generalization of new technology in society. We elaborate on the SCM with an over-a-decade-long investigation into heat pumps in Finland, one of the globally furthest progressed energy transitions. The process has thus far involved nine configurational movements, each featuring a change in the character of the technology, the ecology of actors relevant to it, and the contexts in which the technology spreads. SCM analysis further surfaces eight user activity types that have shaped how the technology, its deployment, and its markets have evolved: Adoption and routine use, adaption and adjustment, championing, user innovation, community building, peer intermediation, market creation and production of legitimating discourse on heat pumps. In all, the generalization features significant shifts in user practices, the technology, and societal impact throughout the process, not only during its early phases, instilling energy system wide change.© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Navigating doctoral studies in Operations Management and Industrial Engineering

This short guidebook aims to address some frequently asked questions about doctoral studies in industrial management/industrial engineering and the related subjects. The purpose of this guide is to provide practical information with some background justification for each of the items. This is not a replacement for any university official instructions, degree structures or courses offered by the university. The contents of the guide consist of following: positioning what is our field of study, writing and defending a research plan, conducting a literature review and founding on theoretical framework, addressing questions related to research methods, discussing academic publications in conferences and journals, and outlining what constitutes a dissertation in a doctoral level. We hope that this book will demystify the process of doctoral studies, give practical advice of selecting the right journals, conferences, helping to handle review feedback, and other essential parts of the doctoral studies.fi=vertaisarvioimaton|en=nonPeerReviewed

Business models for enhanced solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption : Transforming customer interaction and engagement practices

Solar energy can play an important role in meeting global energy needs in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. However, despite solar energy’s accelerated growth in recent years, its level of diffusion is highly uneven when looked at on a global scale. The solar photovoltaic (PV) companies involved in the sales of PV systems are central to fostering diffusion. A company’s ability to devise and deliver value offerings that match customers’ needs is vital in encouraging the adoption of solar PV technology. The extent to which a company can address market needs and deliver value often depends on the business model it has adopted. The extant research has explored business models based on ownership structures, financing options, the effect of regulatory regimes and policies, industry practices, alliances, and business models for distributed generation and large-scale utility companies. However, the research to date, has mostly neglected the business models of solar companies involved in the sales and installation of solar PV. This qualitative study based on twenty semi-structured interviews contributes to the existing knowledge by exploring how sales and installation companies can enhance solar photovoltaic adoption by transforming customer interactions and engagement practices, which is a key element of a company’s business model. Companies’ ability to communicate value offerings and address consumer concerns is important in enhancing diffusion. The study highlights that transforming customer interaction and engagement practices can help companies broaden customer reach, improve the dissemination of information, reduce transaction costs and efficiently utilise market insights and trends.© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Solar Energy Society. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

(No) Time for Change : When and Why Entrepreneurs Act During Underperforming Fundraising Attempts

Entrepreneurs need to mobilize funds, but they do so under considerable uncertainty about resource holders’ preferences, leading often to fundraising attempts that perform below entrepreneurs’ aspirations. Past research has offered contrasting theorizing and evidence for why entrepreneurs then make changes to their product offering during such attempts as well as for why entrepreneurs refrain from taking such action. This paper develops and tests behavioral theory to reconcile this tension, explicating when and why entrepreneurs change their product offering during underperforming fundraising attempts. Specifically, we argue that entrepreneurs draw on three sources of information that are inherent to fundraising attempts and that inform the extent of their actions to change their product offering: the degree to which they perform below their own fundraising aspirations, the degree to which they fall below peer fundraising performance, and the time that remains until the deadline for the fundraising attempt. Longitudinal data on 576 fundraising campaigns (6,758 observations) published on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter support our theory. By developing novel behavioral theory on when and why entrepreneurs take action during resource mobilization, we offer contributions to research on entrepreneurial resource mobilization, the crowdfunding literature, and the Behavioral Theory of the Firm.© 2023 The Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You are free to download this work and share with others, but cannot change in any way or use commercially without permission, and you must attribute this work as Organization Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2020.13803, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Mountaineering – A Combinatory Approach for Identifying Lead Users and Other Rare Research Subjects

User innovation is common in many domains, and has been found concentrated in few individuals, lead users. Particularly with regard to a given product or service development project, such rare research subjects can be difficult and resource intensive to identify. Several alternative methods are common in the lead-user identification process, but according to dominant practitioner experience, the searches tend not to follow just one of them, but rather are inclined to involve the integration of several methods. This integration of alternative search methods has not, however, been discussed properly to date. The present state of affairs can make the lead-user identification process appear either as simple recipe following or as a mysterious process. We argue for a realistic middle ground between these extreme depictions, and propose an integrative search strategy labeled “mountaineering” towards users with the sought-after characteristics, lead userness in case of lead users. Through four principal and two supportive cases of mountaineering search, we elaborate some of the alternatives and choices in moving from one search method to another as responses to contingencies in particular searches. This elaboration of actual search experiences complements established depictions of ideal search processes and analytical comparisons between particular search methods

Everyday experimentation in energy transition:A practice-theoretical view

Research on sustainable practices has attracted increasing interest as a way to understand energy demand and transitions towards sustainability. In this paper we elaborate on how practice theories can inform the discussion of experimentation. Practice theory suggests that the everyday life of people appears recalcitrant. Practices are robust, resilient and have multiple, historically formed constituents and are thereby difficult to destabilize and change quickly. The making and breaking of links inside and between practices is highlighted, as is the need for enduring, multi-sited change efforts. Practice theory further helps us to better understand the constitution of new, levelled forms of expertise, the distributed nature of experimentation and the enrolment of citizens as active participants in sustainability transitions. We have operationalized and examined these suggestions in a Finnish research project related to climate change mitigation and energy use in detached houses. We report specific modes of experimentation and innovation, including user innovations, and the shared resources of situated expertise, the collective and shared processes of empowerment and the ways in which normality is challenged by ruptures in everyday life. Based on the results, we derive suggestions for effective policy interventions. We also bring forward a set of generic suggestions for more sensitive, appreciative and effective public policies on sustainability transitions and cast experimentation in a particular and partial role in such policies

Energy internet forums as acceleration phase transition intermediaries

Citizen users play important roles in the acceleration phase of energy transitions, during which small-scale renewable energy technologies (S-RET) become taken up more widely. From users’ perspective, turning the early, and typically slow, proliferation into a more rapid and widespread diffusion requires not only the adoption of S-RET but also the adaptation, adjustment, intermediation and advocacy of S-RETs. These activities become necessary because S-RET face a variety of market, institutional, cultural and environmental conditions in dif- ferent countries. New Internet-based energy communities have emerged and acted as key user-side transition intermediaries that catalyse these activities by qualifying market information, articulating demand and helping citizen users to reconfigure the standard technology to meet the specificities of different local contexts. In doing so, Internet communities foster an appreciatively critical discourse on technology. Such user intermediation is important in expanding the markets for S-RET beyond that of enthusiasts, environmentalists and other early adopters, to the early majority of adopters who demand more exposure, clearer information and less uncertainty about new technology options

Kuluttajat tuottajina - Käyttäjäinnovointi ja uudet energiayhteisöt uusiutuvan energian pientuotannossa

In the energy sector, the end-user role is changing from passive consumer to active co-provider with decentralized technologies. This enables new forms of collaboration and active engagement with technology. This thesis examines energy prosumers' active engagement with renewable micro-generation technologies and draws from and contributes primarily to research on energy consumption, social shaping of technology, and user innovation research. Based on 52 interviews and ethnography on large Finnish online forums conducted during years 2011-2012, this study addresses the following question: What kind of forms of active energy usership emerge with renewable micro-generation?  The key findings demonstrate how homeowners have an evolutionary approach in building and configuring residential energy systems. The trust in new small-scale renewable energy technologies is built gradually and capacity is scaled up along with accumulating trust. New micro-generation technologies tend to become supporting sources besides existing technology and the use of one renewable technology easily leads to the use of other renewable sources later on. The concept of 'domestication pathways' describes this phenomenon. Furthermore, the findings reveal the emergence of new types of energy communities. Traditionally, community energy has been seen as local activity. However, user-run online forums play key role by providing advanced peer support and demonstrate how community energy can take highly dispersed structure and virtual form. These Internet communities support both domestication of micro-generation technology and creative user projects, which range from do-it-yourself copy systems to new inventions spreading out in various ways. The study charted user inventions in heat pump and wood pellet burning systems and found 192 inventions or modifications that improved either efficiency, suitability, usability, maintenance, or price of the micro-generation systems.  The gradual development of domestic energy systems should be recognized in energy policy. Flexibility to adapt to changes is an important factor and it fosters sustainable development pathways for housing energy systems and proliferation of renewable energy generation in households. Regulatory actions can open the existing lock-ins and support hybridization of the systems and the use of various renewable energy sources. Consequently, for the manufacturers hybridization points towards increased importance of modularity and multi-purposing of micro-generation products.Loppukäyttäjien rooli energiamarkkinoilla on muuttunut passiivisesta kuluttajasta aktiiviseksi energian yhteistuottajaksi. Muutoksen taustalla ovat energian pientuotantoteknologiat, jotka muuttavat kotitalouksien roolia energiajärjestelmässä. Tässä väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan energian tuottaja-kuluttajien ja pientuotantoteknologioiden välistä aktiivista vuorovaikutusta sekä järjestelmien ympärille rakentuneita uudenlaisia yhteistyömuotoja. Työ perustuu ja kontribuoi energian kulutusta, teknologian sosiaalista rakentumista ja käyttäjäinnovaatioita koskevaan tutkimukseen. Sen aineisto muodostuu 52 haastattelusta ja suomalaisilla käyttäjäfoorumeilla vuosina 2011–2012 toteutetusta etnografiasta. Tutkimus pyrkii selvittämään, millaisia uudenlaisia aktiivisen käyttäjyyden muotoja uusiutuvan energian pientuotanto synnyttää.   Tutkimus osoittaa, että kotitalouksien energiajärjestelmät rakentuvat evolutionaarisesti: luottamus uusiin pientuotantoteknologioihin kasvaa vähitellen ja tuotantokapasiteettia kasvatetaan luottamuksen vahvistuessa. Uudet pientuotantoteknologiat tulevat usein lisälähteiksi vanhojen rinnalle, ja yhden uusiutuvan energiantuotantoteknologian käyttö johtaa helposti muiden uusiutuvien energialähteiden käyttöönottoon. Kyseistä ilmiötä voidaan kutsua kotouttamispoluksi.  Tutkimus valottaa lisäksi uudenlaisten energiayhteisöjen syntymistä käyttäjätukea tarjoavien internetin keskusteluryhmien pohjalta. Perinteisesti paikallisena pidetty yhteisöenergia voi ottaa hajautetun, virtuaalisen toimintamuodon. Yhteisöt tukevat pientuotantoteknologian kotouttamista ja käyttäjien innovatiivisia projekteja, jotka vaihtelevat tee-se-itse-kopioinnista täysin uusiin keksintöihin. Tässä tutkimuksessa tunnistettiin 192 keksintöä tai muutosta, jotka joko paransivat pientuotantoteknologian järjestelmien tuottavuutta, sopivuutta, käytettävyyttä tai huollettavuutta tai alensivat niiden kustannuksia.   Kestävän kehityksen tukemisen ja uusiutuvan energian käytön lisäämisen kannalta on olennaista ottaa huomioon joustava sopeutuminen muutoksiin kotitalouksien energiajärjestelmissä. Energiapoliittisten säännösten avulla tulisi tukea järjestelmien riippuvuussuhteiden avaamista ja sellaisten järjestelmien käyttöä, jotka hyödyntävät useita uusiutuvia energialähteitä. Energiajärjestelmien valmistajille tämä tarkoittaa modulaarisuuden ja monikäyttöisyyden merkityksen kasvamista energian pientuotantoteknologioiden kehittämisessä

Internet Forums and the Rise of the Inventive Energy User

While climate and energy policy voice concerns about citizen’s lack of improving their houses and heating systems, some citizens by far exceed the expectations. Our research on heat pumps revealed over a hundred inventions by citizen users in Finland alone, despite the technology being in many respects uninviting to modify. Users’ capacity to carry out these modifications owes much to their exchanges at userrun Internet forums, a new and proliferating type of setting. These online forums help otherwise dispersed and heterogeneous users to create a specific kind of learning space that helps some users to “grow inventive” even as the majority of users therein remain indifferent towards their specific projects. These findings open a discussion on how the actions of typically a small group of inventive users are embedded in and supported by the activities of a broader user base