Marja Naaranoja

Energy diversification in Finland: achievements and potential of renewable energy development

Finland was an early adopter of several alternative energy technologies, particularly in biomass and hydropower energy for many years. The main policy in the Finnish energy and climate sectors is to increase the exploitation of renewable energy sources while reducing CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, a successful energy policy should achieve three conflicting objectives: clean, cheap, and secure energy. The development of renewables in Finland has lagged that of other EU countries, particularly in fields such as wind power in recent years. This article discusses about the history, current status, and potentials of the major renewable and local energy in order of utilisation in Finland. It is seen that the major contributors to replacing carbon-based fuels are likely to be biomass and wind power, with geothermal and solar energy sources to play a lesser role.

Launching Innovation in the Market Requires Competences in Dissemination and Exploitation

It is widely recognised that innovation is required for economic growth on a number of levels, such as in Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), large organisations, regions and nations. Innovation is an important driver for organisational survival, sustainability, improvement, long-term productivity and economic growth. However, innovation in isolation is not only wasteful but also not useful. All projects, and in particular innovation projects, need to disseminate and exploit their results for maximising achievements and increasing sustainability after their completion. This includes launching of the innovation to market, transfer of results and best practices to different and broader contexts; potential tailoring to the needs of others; continuation after the funding period has finished; influences on policy and practice; as well as serving the public good. The emphasis should be on optimising the value of the project and on boosting its impact.

Application of Creativity Techniques in the Creation of Organizational Strategies

The majority of studies in the field of organizational strategies have concentrated on strategy formulation, distinct from strategy implementation. Disunion of these two processes often leads to disappointing results in the implementation of strategy. In such a condition, the creation of a suitable strategy in a way that could resolve the divergence of formulation from implementation is suggested by researchers. This means that the implementers of a strategy turn into the formulators. Therefore, presenting creative ideas and solutions is encouraged between related organizational staff at different levels. Noting that the possibility of emerging creative ideas in organizational meetings between persons from different organizational levels is low, fostering creativity and innovation techniques can be an ideal solution for successful group meetings. In this paper, after introducing the effective criteria that should be considered in the creation of collective action strategies in organizations, the suitable techniques for fostering creativity in this kind of meeting will be ranked based on the Fuzzy MADM approach.

Family Businesses in the New Economy: How to Survive and Develop in Times of Financial Crisis☆

Abstract The family businesses play an important role regarding the dynamism and strength of the European economy, long-term stability and sustainability. Many of the challenges facing family businesses also concern Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), but due to the fact that family businesses involve three overlapping elements (the family, the business, and the ownership) they are different from other types of businesses. In Europe the family business sector is dominated by particularly micro enterprises with less than 10 employees and SMEs. Across Europe around 70-80% of all enterprises are family businesses. The current financial crisis has influenced negatively the majority of business activities and many family businesses found themselves in a new turbulent financial environment where uncertainty dominates and the market characteristics are radically reversed. This paper recognizes the importance of family businesses in both the Finnish and the Greek economy and the need for in-depth research about the dynamics of family businesses, the difficulties they face (strategy, succession, internal conflicts etc.) and factors influencing their survival (endurance) and sustainability. Despite the differences in economic structure and culture both Finland and Greece are small countries in the outskirts of Europe with a high percentage of family businesses. Finland counts on a highly industrialized manufacturing sector and is one of the economically and politically most stable countries in the world, whilst Greece relies on the service sector and in particular on tourism. Currently a cross-cultural study between Greece and Finland is undertaken. It includes an extensive literature review for deeper understanding of the research variables. In addition it incorporates a qualitative and quantitative research methodology. This paper describes mainly the results of a qualitative study carried out in 60 family businesses in the North-western part of Thessaloniki, Greece. The aims of the study were to record the new conditions that prevail concerning business operations in family businesses. The main findings from our study show that family businesses can combine sentiments with business dexterity and create unique dynamics towards business decisions. The financial crisis can be perceived as pushed “opportunity” in many functional areas of the business for reformation towards business sustainability and the creation of competitive advantage. It converts into a cause of reorganization of business plans and helps the company to adopt more formal management procedures for decision making. The combination of emotion with entrepreneurship also brings family members around a common goal of survival and due to the two separate systems of “family” and “business” resulting in a dynamic growth in the middle of the crisis. The adoption of a lean and flexible budget is an important parameter in responding to the financial crisis. Family firms have the advantage of being motivated and supported by all family members who are involved in the family business (e.g. willingness to work long days under difficult conditions with limitedly rewards), while in non-family businesses such commitment is more difficult to obtain. Other incentives for surviving the financial crisis can be contributed to the considerable consequence that a failure of a family business may have on the leader; there is a high risk regarding the family property, negative publicity of the familys name, and the sense of cancellation of the familys legacy. Managers of a non-family business do not encounter such pressures.

Co-creation of value for a public service

The service sectors now represent 80% of the developed economies. To remain competitive, firms must innovate. The demand for high-quality service in public sectors has become increasingly greater. Service innovation is not only confined to firms, but also applies to public sectors such as government. Citizens of countries nowadays are increasingly demanding that their governments provide better and high-quality services that meet their needs in all areas. Governments must innovate to improve the lives of their citizens. The service provided should offer value and positive experiences to the people. In order to meet the needs and provide value to the people, it is necessary that we understand service and co-creation of value. This paper describes the co-creation of value for a public park in Finland.

Knowledge management system for construction projects in Finland

Construction projects are often running late, exceed the budget and, in many cases, result in failure. This is not different in Finland. The authors have been asked by the Finnish local government to investigate the causes of failure and suggest ways to improve the problems. Studies we have conducted revealed several reasons for the failures. One of the main reasons given for the failure was that there was a lack of management in construction projects. Knowledge is now perceived by most organisations in the construction industry as a vital organisational resource and the source of competitiveness. It was perceived by stakeholders (and us) that there was an urgent need to help the construction industry to deliver their projects efficiently in the face of tight budgets. We have developed an Open Application Sharing Knowledge Management System (OASKMS) to support the project design and the development and evaluation of the OASKMS system for Vaasa city construction department. This paper describes the development and principles of OASKMS.

Analysis of photovoltaic technology development based on technology life cycle approach

Increasing energy demand has created the challenge of supplying safe, economical, and durable energy with minimal impact on the environment. Therefore, governments have developed and executed several strategies such as increasing efficiency in energy systems in addition to replacing existing sources with renewable energies. One of the most important renewable energy sources that have a competitive advantage compared with other resources is solar energy and its related technologies. However, development of this technology, its related products, and their competitiveness in the market has created a plethora of challenges. In this study, the focus is on the analysis of photovoltaic technology development in the context of different technology generations. The S-shape curve of each generation and sub-technologies of photovoltaic is designed and analyzed. Results show that the first generation of photovoltaic technology is in growth and early maturity stage. The second generation is also in growth stage, but t...

Characters of Innovation Management in the Primary Health Care Centers

Innovation management in the primary health care centers is one of the important debates among the governments and academic forums. Although the number of studies in the field of innovation in health care sectors has increased over the last 10 years, little is known about the conditions for the successful implementation of innovations in the health care centers. In this paper, we review and assess the situation of Finnish health care centers from innovation management viewpoint. We try to answer one of the important questions designed by policy makers: “How can Finnish health care centers move toward systems that continuously improve their innovation and creativity?” The presented framework describes the main characters and dimensions of diffusion of ideation and innovation in the health care centers.

The Role of Trust in Effective Knowledge Capture for Project Initiation

The challenge in service project management is gathering business requirements from stakeholders. Requirements are often vague because it is difficult for customers to articulate their needs before they see the end product. This is especially difficult when different stakeholders are involved. Only when projects are built on trust can they work. This paper studies the importance of trust in the initiation of university project.

Evaluation of renewable energy development in power generation in Finland

Renewable energy resources have historically played an important role for heat/electricity generation in Finland. Although diffusion costs of renewable energy utilization are higher than fossil fuels and nuclear power plants, other policy aspects and operation costs of renewables cover this gap particularly in high dependent countries to fossil fuels. The current paper discusses the role of renewable portfolio in the Finlands energy action plan during 2011–2020. A system dynamics model is constructed to evaluate different costs of renewable energy utilization by 2020. Results show that total costs of new capacities of renewable energy systems as well as operation and maintenance costs of current systems bring 7% saving compared to total costs of new natural gas power plants (as a sample for second scenario) in Finland.