Tarinan seuraajasta sen ohjaajaksi: Käyttäjäkokemus videopelien interaktiivisessa tarinankerronnassa

Interaktiivinen tarinankerronta, joka sallii tarinan seuraajan vaikuttaa tarinan kulkuun, on 2010-luvulla yleistynyt videopeleissä. Interaktiivisen tarinankerronnan käyttäjäkokemuksen tutkimus on kuitenkin vähäistä. Aikaisempien tutkimusten perusteella on havaittavissa, että pelinkehittäjillä ei välttämättä ole tietämystä, millaisia reaktioita ja tuntemuksia interaktiivinen tarinankerronta pelaajissa herättää. Käyttäen The Walking Dead: 400 Days -peliä (Telltale Games 2013) tapaustutkimuksena tutkielma selvittää, miten pelaajat kokevat mahdollisuudet vaikuttaa videopelien tarinaan valinnoillaan. Lisäksi tutkielma analysoi, millaiset suunnittelutekijät vaikuttavat käyttäjäkokemukseen pelaajien tarinallisista valinnoista sekä valintojen seurauksista. Tutkimus perustuu käyttäjälähtöiseen pelitestaukseen, tutkimukseen osallistuneiden pelaajien haastatteluihin sekä pelitilanteen observointiin. Kokemuksen herättämien tuntemusten tukena hyödynnettiin SCI-immersiokyselyä. Testitilanteen observoinnin, haastatteluiden ja SCI-kyselyn perusteella valintatilanteet herättivät osallistujissa voimakkaita keskittymiseen ja jännitykseen liittyviä tuntemuksia. Osallistujien kokemuksissa korostuivat valintojen kautta muodostuva tunneside pelin sivuhahmoihin sekä haasteellisuus pohtia valintojen seurauksia. Tutkimustuloksissa on havaittavissa valintojen teossa osallistujien oman näkökulman ja hahmojen roolin ottamisen vaihtelu. On kuitenkin todettavissa, että osallistujat pystyivät saavuttamaan valintojen kautta omakohtaisia tavoitteitaan sekä luomaan valinnoillaan suhdetta tapaustutkimuspelin sivuhahmoihin. Tutkimuksen myötä on nähtävissä, että kokemukseen tarinallisista valinnoista sekä valintojen seurauksista vaikuttavat laaja-alaiset suunnittelutekijät. Tulosten pohjalta tarinallisten vaikuttamismahdollisuuksien ohella uskottavat hahmojen sosiaaliset reaktiot, valintavaihtoehtojen selkeät ja seurauksia vastaavat kuvaukset, hyvätasoinen käytettävyys sekä valintojen vaikutuksen tunnetta vahvistavat käyttöliittymät ovat keskeisiä elementtejä tarinallisen vaikuttavuuden tuntemusten luomisessa. Tutkimustuloksia on mahdollista hyödyntää videopelien interaktiivisen tarinankerronnan suunnittelussa ja käyttäjäkokemukseen vaikuttavien tekijöiden tunnistamisessa

Organisaatiota ohjaavan informaation laadun parantaminen

This Master's Thesis focuses on written information that controls organizations. In large organizations, common practices are often disseminated through written instructions or guidelines. However, it is not clear how well these instructions succeed in altering already established practices. This study clarifies how written instructions affect established practices in the case company, HUS, a large organization in the Finnish health sector, and what are the main problems hindering the impact of the instructions. The research problem of this study can be presented with the following question, what is the instruction-process of HUS like and how can it be improved? The instruction-process is defined as the process that produces the written instructions. The following objectives can be derived from the research problem:. 1) To model the instruction-process. 2) To find the problems related to the process and to find the effects of these problems. 3) To clarify how the instructions affect the established practices and what are the relevant tasks related to the interpretation of the instructions. 4) To compare the instruction-process of HUS to another organization in the Finnish health sector. 5) To suggest how the process should be improved. The literature review focuses on the concept of information quality and process modeling theory. The mainly qualitative research material of this study was collected with interviews, four workshops and a questionnaire. Altogether, the research material represents the views of more than 50 HUS employees. During the study, a visual model of the instruction-process is created and several problems hindering the impact of the instructions are discovered. Most significant of these problems are the lack of a feedback-loop between the respondents of the instructions and the instruction-process, and the opacity of the instructions. The effects of the instructions on the established practices are discovered to be highly variable. Senior management support is discovered to significantly increase the potential impact of written instructions. Based on the results of the study, concrete suggestions for improvement are made. Most importantly, the structure of the instructions should be defined explicitly and a feedback-loop between the respondents of the instructions and the instruction-process should be established. Additionally, suggestions for future research are made.Tässä diplomityössä tarkastellaan organisaatiota ohjaavaa kirjallista informaatiota. Suurissa organisaatioissa yhteisiä käytäntöjä ohjeistetaan usein kirjallisesti. On kuitenkin epäselvää, miten hyvin nämä ohjeet vaikuttavat voimassa oleviin käytäntöihin. Tässä diplomityössä selvitetään miten kirjalliset ohjeet ohjaavat käytäntöjä kohdeyrityksessä, Helsingin ja Uudenmaan sairaanhoitopiirissä (HUS), ja mitkä ovat keskeisimmät kirjalliseen ohjeistukseen liittyvät ongelmat. Tutkimusongelma voidaan esittää kysymyksenä, millainen on HUS-kuntayhtymän ohjauskirjeprosessi ja miten sitä voitaisiin parantaa? Ohjauskirjeprosessilla tarkoitetaan sitä prosessia, joka tuottaa kirjalliset ohjeet. Tutkimusongelman ratkaisemiseksi muodostettiin seuraavat tavoitteet:. 1) Ohjauskirjeprosessin mallintaminen. 2) Prosessin ongelmien selvittäminen, ongelmien vaikutusten ja kustannusten selvittäminen. 3) Ohjauskirjeiden ohjausvaikutuksen selvittäminen ja niiden tulkintaan liittyvien työvaiheiden selvittäminen. 4) HUS:n kirjallisten ohjauskäytäntöjen vertaaminen Päijät-Hämeen keskussairaalan ohjauskäytäntöihin. 5) Parannusehdotusten muodostaminen. Kirjallisuustutkimuksessa tarkastellaan informaation laadun käsitettä sekä prosessien mallintamisen teoriaa. Pääosin kvalitatiivinen tutkimusaineisto kerättiin haastatteluilla, neljässä workshop-tilaisuudessa, sekä lomakekyselyllä. Kokonaisuutena kerätty aineisto edustaa yli 50 HUS:n työntekijän näkemyksiä. Tutkimuksessa muodostetaan visuaalinen malli ohjeita tuottavasta ohjauskirjeprosessista ja havaitaan useita merkittäviä kirjalliseen ohjeistukseen liittyviä ongelmia. Merkittävimpiä näistä ongelmista on takaisinkytkennän puute ohjeiden valmistelijoiden ja vastaanottajien väliltä, sekä ohjeiden vaikeaselkoisuus. Lisäksi arvioidaan näiden ongelmien aiheuttamia vaikutuksia HUS:lle, sekä havaitaan kirjeiden toteutuneen ohjausvaikutuksen vaihtelevan suuresti. Organisaation ylimmän johdon sitoutumisen kirjalliseen ohjeistukseen havaitaan lisäävän sen toimivuutta. Saatujen tulosten perusteella muodostetaan konkreettisia parannusehdotuksia, joiden avulla kirjallisen ohjeistuksen ohjaavaa vaikutusta voitaisiin parantaa nykyisestään. Keskeisimmät parannusehdotukset ovat ohjeistuksen struktuurin kokonaisvaltainen määritteleminen, sekä takaisinkytkennän muodostaminen ohjeiden valmistelijoiden ja vastaanottajien välille. Saatujen tulosten perusteella esitetään myös suosituksia jatkotutkimukselle

Efficiency in project networks : the role of inter-organizational relationships in project implementation

In many project-based industries such as construction and shipbuilding, the delivery of projects requires the participation of multiple heterogeneous firms. The objective of this dissertation is to explore how inter-organizational relationships influence the efficiency of the implementation phase in project networks. Project networks are defined as temporary inter-organizational networks set up for delivering a project to a client. Furthermore, it is examined how project implementation influences the development of inter-organizational relationships between firms involved in project networks. Based on a review of literature on project business, inter-organizational relationships, transaction cost economics, and critical incidents, a conceptual framework is developed to guide the multiple case study involving four project networks from the Finnish shipbuilding industry. Altogether, the empirical data analyzed in this study consists of a total of 40 personal interviews with individuals representing 13 different organizations, and a broad range of documentation including contracts, meeting memorandums and project plans. The results of this study demonstrate evidence of a relation between inter-organizational relationships and the efficiency of project implementation. Critical incidents unforeseen by the participating actors were analyzed in the four project networks. A part of these critical incidents was found to be related to inter-organizational relationships and to contribute to the efficiency of project implementation by affecting the ex post transaction costs of monitoring, planning, and adapting transactions between involved firms. Furthermore, the contribution of critical incidents on the efficiency of project implementation was found to be predominantly unfavorable as increases, as opposed to decreases, in transaction costs were found as frequent. In two studied project networks, in which inter-organizational relationships between project network actors were characterized by high degrees of trust and dependence, inter-organizational relationships were found to frequently constitute strengths which reduced the unfavorable contribution of critical incidents to the efficiency of project implementation. In all four studied project networks, inter-organizational relationships were also found to frequently constitute weaknesses which increased the unfavorable contribution of critical incidents to efficiency of project implementation. The results of this study also illustrate that the influence of project implementation on the development of inter-organizational relationships between project network actors can often be characterized as modest, as inter-organizational relationships in three studied project networks were rather stable across the observed one year period. However, when project network actors assess the responses of each other to critical incidents as unacceptable, even highly established inter-organizational relationships may deteriorate rapidly as occurred in one of the four studied project networks. This dissertation complements existing knowledge concerning the relatedness of inter-organizational relationships and efficiency of economic transactions by describing how critical incidents function as a mechanism relating these two concepts in project network contexts. In addition, this study contributes to our understanding of how inter-organizational relationships develop between firms operating in project-based industries. Further, this dissertation sheds new light to our understanding of the factors that contribute to the efficiency of work carried out in project contexts by emphasizing the importance of transaction costs that incur between involved firms during the implementation phase of the project life cycle. The results of this study have also implications for practitioners responsible for marketing and managing inter-firm projects who can be considered, to a considerable extent, accountable for both the development of inter-organizational relationships between firms they are employed by and other firms in the surrounding business environment, and the efficiency of work carried out in projects in which their employing firms participate

Vanguard projects as relay races: A historical case study on the building of Eurocan pulp and paper mill, 1965–1970

Previous research recognises the strategic role of vanguard projects in providing their initiators with avenues for entering new markets or gaining mastery over innovative technologies. This study makes a contribution to this research by focusing on the extent to which vanguard projects are under control and serve the interests of their principal initiators and the other actors involved. Simultaneously, the present study contributes to project management research by applying historical case study methodology on Eurocan, a vanguard project that a major Finnish forest industry firm Enso established in the mid-1960s to the wilderness of British Columbia, Canada. Our historical analysis encourages regarding vanguard projects as relay races in which several actors participate, largely in unanticipated ways. This is especially because the initiation of vanguard projects appears to be characterised by both the heterogeneity of the actors involved, a wide variety of actions taken by these actors to increase their centrality in the project organisation as well as abrupt changes among them and their relative importance over the project lifecycle. Together these characteristics make vanguard projects particularly prone to influence from external actors and events.</p

Multi-project management in inter-organizational contexts

Multi-project management is typically considered an intra-organizational endeavor of implementing strategies through programs, portfolios, or lineages of change and development projects. Inter-organizational multi-project management takes place between project-based firms and other actors in project networks. The multi-project aspects in inter-organizational contexts cause significant management complexity, but their specific requirements are inadequately understood. This article explores the nature and requirements of project-based firms’ multi-project management in inter-organizational contexts. Parallel and sequential inter-organizational multi-project settings are proposed as an expansion to the dominant intra-organizational research. A thematic framework is developed based on stakeholder and agency theories and previous knowledge from portfolio and program management research complemented with an inductive analysis of extant literature. Consequently, we map and report previous research on multi-project management requirements relevant to inter-organizational contexts concerning strategy, resources, governance, and learning. Propositions are developed and future research is recommended in these domains.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Advancing Circular Business

In this world of scarce resources, circular economy (CE) has been identified as an important means for increasing resource efficiency and reducing the use of natural resources. What, however, does implementing circular business and operational models mean for companies’ business execution, mindsets, and competitive edges? This publication presents the practical case studies of several different CE business implementations. The focus on this exploration was to identify the role of information management in successful CE business implementation. The outcomes offer a chance for different representatives of different firms to learn from practical cases of CE implementation in operational and business models. This publication aims to show the pathway toward CE by providing 1. a description of CE 2. an explanation of its impact on business execution 3. stories about the role of information in the creation of CE business 4. practical tools for the creation of CE business The structure of the publication tracks similar logic to, and presents practical case examples from, the field of CE business. Tools and methods were applied and further developed within the case companies: BMH Technology, Fortum, Solita, and UPM. The publication presents the major results of research and development work performed within the “From Data to Wisdom—Approaches Enabling Circular Economy” project (D2W). The project was initiated in August 2016 and continued until January 2019. The research work was conducted by VTT, LUT University, and Tampere University as part of the BioNets program of Business Finland. The project provided a good overview of the demands of CE business in a multidisciplinary multi-company setting. It focused on three approaches for examining circular business: innovation and business models, relationships and networks, and data and wisdom. Since D2W had a broad scope, some of these approaches should be developed further to provide practical tools for business developers (companies and organizations). The work of D2W will therefore continue. Case-specific projects are being considered to develop practical results for the needs of practitioners interested in improving their capabilities for CE business creation. Examples of new topics for the subsequent steps of research include, for example: • Key performance indicators of CE and sustainable development • Governance of CE business ecosystems • New artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, opportunities and requirements in CE business implementationpublishedVersio

The effect of metal dissolution on carbon production by high-temperature molten salt electrolysis

High-temperature molten salt electrolysis is suitable for the production of carbon morphologies such as carbon nanotubes and nano-onions. In this study, CO2 was electrochemically reduced to solid carbon by molten lithium carbonate electrolysis in an Inconel 625 vessel at a fixed temperature of 750°C. Four different cathodes (clean nickel, used nickel, stainless steel, and galvanized steel) were used to determine the effect of the electrode material on the morphology produced. The carbonaceous products obtained were analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Raman microscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). With nickel cathodes, the dominant forms of carbon were spherical, whereas tubular structures dominated with steel-based cathodes. Nano-onion was the structure of carbon with the least metal impurities. Iron was discovered to promote carbon nanotube growth. In the presence of iron, nanotube wool was also found. A greater number of different morphologies were observed when the amount of metal impurities increased. The correlation found between XRD results and sample masses suggests that the amount of metal impurities in the sample varied more than the carbon content. Thus, the yield of the process can be expected to be fairly similar between parallel experiments.publishedVersionPeer reviewe