Emergence of Mobility Market Platforms - Case: Mobility as a Service in Finland

This master’s thesis studies Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – a recent phenomenon in the Finnish public transportation industry that has gained widespread interest both in Finland and globally. At the core of MaaS are new mobility operators that facilitate interaction between transportation service providers and users by bundling existing services into mobility packages that enable so-called door-to-door travel. This bundling is facilitated by digital platforms, which allow users to compare alternative transportation services and purchase travel chains in one go. The empirical purpose of this master’s thesis was to describe and analyze the concept of Mobility as a Service and its development in Finland. Two primary research questions were asked: (1) What kind of mobility systems are currently emerging around the Mobility as a Service ideology inFinland? (2) How do the emerging mobility systems co-create value with their end users? To this end, two MaaS pilots and two startups were studied. The purpose was on one hand to describe these initiatives at a general level, and on the other hand to analyze how they co-create value with their end users. The research was conducted as a qualitative, multiple-case study, and the primary data collection method was semi-structured interviews. The theoretical purpose of this research was to bridge two streams of literature: platform theory and Service Science. Both literatures are relevant to studying Mobility as a Service, as both are involved in exploring services and the role of ICT and data in service innovation. Both literatures were reviewed in an effort to find relevant concepts and theory frameworks that could allow creating conceptual links between the two theories. As a result, a theory framework was created that brings together the technological-managerial perspective of platform theory and the value co-creation perspective of Service Science. The framework was then tested through analyzing the MaaS cases. The main empirical finding of this master’s thesis was that the all four MaaS cases can be classified as market platforms. According to platform theory, market platforms facilitate direct interaction between two or more actors that are affiliated with the platform. The MaaS cases co-create value with their end users by facilitating efficient resource exchange and integration between end users and transportation service providers. They do so by providing information about alternatives as well as maps, ticketing and payment tools and other structures that allow the users to view alternatives, plan journeys, and purchase service bundles. The findings are in line with extant platform and Service Science theories. With that being said, the cases are all at pre-market-penetration stage, and overall, MaaS is still mostly an ideology that awaits testing. Empirically, this master’s thesis increases our understanding of existing MaaS platforms and their development. Theoretically, the main contribution was the development of the platform framework that combines platform theory with Service Science

Unpacking the circular economy: A problematizing review

Transitioning to a circular economy(CE) model has been proposed to solve many grand environmental challenges. While research on CE has been extensivelyreviewed, less is known about the implicit underlying assumptions of this work.Understanding these assumptions is critical as they typically go unchallengedyet play a significant role in shaping research fields. In this paper we conduct a problematizing review to critically analyse and make explicit the in-house, root metaphor and ideological assumptions that inform the framing of CE. Firstly, we demonstrate various in-house assumptions about CE, such as an emphasis on the business case for CE and the relationship between CE and corporate sustain-ability. Secondly, root metaphor assumptions include circularity and industrial relationships resembling biological metabolisms. Finally, the dominant ideo-logical assumptions-neoliberalism and ecological modernization-guide scholarly thinking about growth, consumption and profit maximization. Based on our analysis and drawing on the ongoing CE debates within broader environmental studies, we suggest new agendas for future research. We contribute to the growing literature on CE in business, management and organization studies by identifying assumptions that may be misleading or limiting for future CE research, as well as to the conversations on grand challenges by discussing the implications of how challenges and solutions are framed

Renewal of forest based manufacturing towards a sustainable circular bioeconomy

Environmental problems, combined with European Union environmental and energy policies shaped to address them, have created pressures for change. Some of these open significant opportunities to renew industries. This report delivers new understanding of the potential of circular economy for sustainable renewal of manufacturing in bio-based industries. With particular focus on novel value chains, it provides novel insights into the role of innovation policies in facilitating the shift towards sustainable, circular bioeconomy in Finland and Sweden. The textile and multi-storey wood construction sectors, and emergent biorefineries are utilised as case studies that deepen understanding of the circular bioeconomy, its opportunities, barriers, and impacts, and the policies that affect its emergence. Recent developments of bioeconomy and circular economy solutions and governance in the Netherlands are also summarised in order to deliver contrasting context to the Nordic focus countries. In this work, the bioeconomy is conceptualised as an economy where the basic building blocks for materials, chemicals and energy are derived from renewable biological resources, such as plant and animal biomass. The essence of the circular economy, that is used here, lies in maximisation of added value and in making the best use of any extracted raw material. This analysis shows that to date discussions and activities related to the promotion of bioeconomy and circular economy have largely been separate efforts, but there are signs that the discussions may converge. It finds that while the form of developments are similar in Finland and in Sweden in the case areas (i.e. textiles, wood construction and biorefineries), there are also clear differences in the strengths of the countries. Evidence is found that such strengths offer potential to develop world leadership in a circular bioeconomy. The report identifies policy recommendations to support renewal of manufacturing in the wood based industries towards a sustainable circular bioeconomy

Large-scale data integration framework provides a comprehensive view on glioblastoma multiforme

Peer reviewe

Framing circular economy: a problematizing review of the assumptions

This paper reviews the diagnostic, motivational and prognostic circular economy framing of business and management scholars and makes the assumptions embedded in their framing explicit benefiting from a problematizing review. The review demonstrates various in-house assumptions about the circular economy with emphasis business models, business case, circular economy-corporate sustainability relationship, root metaphor assumptions about circularity, industrial relationships resembling that of biological metabolisms, and waste, finally ideological assumptions of natural capitalism that guide scholarly thinking about growth, profit maximization, consumption, ownership. The paper discusses these assumptions' implications for the growing circular economy literature within business and management and opens this domain with new conversations drawing on ecological economics and industrial ecology