Kaisu Jansson, Juha Tuunainen and Tuija Mainela
While previous health-care-related hybridity research has focused on macro- and micro-level investigations, this paper aims to study hybridization at the organizational level…
Abstract
Purpose
While previous health-care-related hybridity research has focused on macro- and micro-level investigations, this paper aims to study hybridization at the organizational level, with a specific focus on decision-making. The authors investigate how new politico-economic expectations toward a university hospital as a hybrid organization become internalized via organizational decision-making, resulting in the establishment of a new business collaboration and innovation-oriented unit.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employed a social systems theoretical framework to explore organizational decision-making processes involved in the establishment of the new hybrid hospital unit. Drawing on 15 interviews and nine organizational documents, the authors describe and analyze three decision-making cycles using the concepts of complexity, decision and justification.
Findings
The findings reveal the challenging nature of decision-making during hybridization, as decisions regarding unprecedented organizational structures and activities cannot be justified by traditional decision premises. The authors show that decision-makers use a combination of novel justification strategies, namely, justification by problems, by examples and by obligations, to legitimize decisions oriented at non-traditional activities. Further, the analysis reveals how expectations of several societal systems, i.e. health care, education, science, law, economy and politics, are considered in decision-making taking place in hybrid organizations.
Originality/value
The study draws attention to the complexity of decision-making in a hybrid context and highlights the role of justification strategies in partially reducing complexity by concealing the paradoxical nature of decision-making and ensuring the credibility of resulting decisions. Also, the study presents a move beyond the dualism inherent in many previous hybridity studies by illustrating the involvement of several societal systems in hybridization.
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Sakari Luukkainen, Mikko Karjalainen, Juha Winter and Mehrdad Bagheri Majdabadi
The aim of this paper is to identify promoting and restraining factors of a novel mobile service in the pedestrian safety area.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to identify promoting and restraining factors of a novel mobile service in the pedestrian safety area.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses the case study methodology that focus on analyzing a specific case of mobile safety services in depth. A case study is especially suitable for an emerging case, such as pedestrian safety, where the aim is to identify relevant influencing factors of the particular case and not to generalize the findings. To gather data for case study analysis, several expert interviews were performed. Because they provided a large volume of data, the Service, Technology, Organization, and Finance business model framework was used as a way of structuring the analysis.
Findings
The main restraining factors are end-user value proposition, battery life, accuracy of GPS positioning and the revenue model. However, the service could improve traffic safety considerably and it should be introduced first locally in places, where many accidents take place. There is a great interest on driver data, which could be the main advantage for this service in the future. Integration to navigation products would complement the service significantly.
Originality/value
Current traffic safety-related literature covers mainly technical issues, and there are only few papers related to business model issues on that particular service. Observations of the various factors affecting the related evolution at an early phase of the life-cycle support further service design process.
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Vesa Kämäräinen, Juha Saranen and Jan Holmström
Home delivery of groceries is not yet a very popular service among consumers. One reason for the slow progress has been the time‐consuming and expensive ordering process. In…
Abstract
Home delivery of groceries is not yet a very popular service among consumers. One reason for the slow progress has been the time‐consuming and expensive ordering process. In recent years, Internet‐based solutions have solved most of the problems related to the order transaction process – making ordering simpler, cheaper and faster. However, there are still a lot of unsolved problems in the e‐grocery business. One of the biggest obstacles is inefficient home delivery. This paper examines how different solutions for goods receipt affect home‐delivery efficiency. Different alternatives for receiving the goods are presented and the service levels of these concepts are described from the consumer’s point of view. In addition, the costs for the e‐grocer are studied. The efficiency of using a reception box is demonstrated by simulating two alternative receiving concepts.