Givemore Muchenje, Marko Seppänen and Hongxiu Li
The study explores the extent to which business analytics can address business problems using the task-technology fit theory.
Abstract
Purpose
The study explores the extent to which business analytics can address business problems using the task-technology fit theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative research approach of pattern matching was adopted for data analysis and 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Four propositions derived from the literature on task-technology fit are compared to emerging core themes from the empirical data.
Findings
The study establishes the relationships between various forms of fit, arguing that the iterative application of business analytics improves problem understanding and solutions, and contends that both under-fit and over-fit can be acceptable due to the increasing costs of achieving ideal fit and potential unaffected outcomes, respectively. The study demonstrates that managers should appreciate that there may be a distinction between those who create business analytics solutions and those who apply business analytics solutions to solve problems.
Originality/value
Extant studies on business analytics have not focused on how the match between business analytics and tasks affects the level to which problems can be addressed that determines business value. This study enriches the literature on business analytics by linking business analytics and business value through problem resolution demonstrated by task-technology fit. To the authors’ knowledge, this study might be the first to apply pattern matching to study the fit between technology and tasks.
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Arho Suominen, Marko Seppänen and Ozgur Dedehayir
The ecosystem perspective on innovation and business has emerged as the secret sauce of innovative organizations. While its theoretical foundations are premised on innovation…
Abstract
Purpose
The ecosystem perspective on innovation and business has emerged as the secret sauce of innovative organizations. While its theoretical foundations are premised on innovation system literature, the broad adoption of the ecosystem concept has resulted in conceptual ambiguity. The purpose of this paper is to tackle the ambiguous use of innovation ecosystem terminology and structure a conceptual frame for the field, identifying definitions of an innovation ecosystem and how the concept has been established in previous literature.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines the ambiguous use of terminology by reviewing the literature with bibliometric coupling and co-citation analysis by which thematic differences in ecosystem literature were identified. The study gathered the scientific publications from Thomson Reuters Web of Sciences Core Collection (n=4,681) from 1990 to 2015.
Findings
Six major bibliometrically coupled clusters were identified, of which the three largest clusters are innovation system studies, regional innovation studies and technological innovation studies. In addition, further analysis shows an emerging cluster that is focused on ecosystems, having its roots in eight seminal papers. This ecosystem research cluster includes seven sub-clusters, such as innovation ecosystem studies, business ecosystem studies and studies focusing on ecosystem development.
Research limitations/implications
The authors’ approach highlights how a lot of recent ecosystem studies actually belong to previous, well-developed research streams. However, there is also a separate, emergent research stream that includes the innovation and ecosystem studies. As a research implication, the paper concludes by suggesting the research agenda for further studies.
Originality/value
Even though literature on innovation systems and ecosystems is extensive literature, no studies have captured the emergence of the ecosystems approach and its relation with the systems of innovation literature.
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Saku Mäkinen and Marko Seppänen
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize taxonomical criteria that can be used for assessing research constructs and assess current business model conceptualizations. The paper…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize taxonomical criteria that can be used for assessing research constructs and assess current business model conceptualizations. The paper attempts to show how the criticism plaguing current business model conceptualizations could be removed with future conceptual development against these taxonomical criteria.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper synthesizes taxonomical criteria and assesses current business model conceptualizations.
Findings
The results of the paper revealed that the current business model concepts comply poorly with the taxonomical criteria. The assessment of taxonomical compliance in this paper exposed major opportunities for enhancements in the existing conceptualizations of business model.
Research limitations/implications
The findings of the paper outline novel avenues for future research in developing more coherent and rigorous business model conceptualizations.
Practical implications
The practical implications of the paper are that current conceptualizations of a business model are at best incommensurate and at worst even misleading. This paper presents criteria that may be used in guiding the necessary caution and careful deliberation when practical application of the current business model conceptualizations is enforced.
Originality/value
The paper is original in that it establishes the taxonomical criteria, which may be used in research seeking to develop more sound and rigorous business model conceptualizations. To advance this new field the paper concludes that the taxonomical criteria can aid in the future research endeavors to design relevant business model conceptualizations.
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Mikko Varila, Marko Seppänen and Petri Suomala
The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of different drivers for assigning activity costs to products in warehouse logistics environment.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of different drivers for assigning activity costs to products in warehouse logistics environment.
Design/methodology/approach
An action research case study in the warehouse logistics of an electronics wholesaler. Data were collected from a single activity which was analysed in depth.
Findings
The study illustrates that there may be significant variation in activity costs that cannot be traced with any single transaction‐based driver. Automatic data collection methods can be used to support cost accounting in such a situation. It was clearly demonstrated that in certain environments it is possible to significantly increase the accuracy and versatility of accounting by measuring the actual durations together with other variables.
Research limitations/implications
The results are derived from a single company and activity.
Practical implications
Gives accountants in environments where data is rich and plentiful examples of methods for analysing the data for obtaining a deeper understanding of the cost behaviour of activities and products.
Originality/value
Complements the discussion on activity cost drivers and logistics costing.
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Arho Suominen and Marko Seppänen
Motivated with the ever growing number of bibliometric trend extrapolation studies, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate through two technologies how the selection of an…
Abstract
Purpose
Motivated with the ever growing number of bibliometric trend extrapolation studies, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate through two technologies how the selection of an upper limit of growth affects the correlation and causality of technology development measured with bibliometric data.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses Gompertz and Fisher-Pry curves to model the technological development of white light emitting diodes and flash memory, and show with extrapolation results from several bibliometric sources how a typical bias is caused in trend extrapolations.
Findings
The paper shows how drastic an effect the decision to set an upper bound has on trend extrapolations, to be used as a reference for applications. The paper recommends carefully examining the interconnection of actual development and bibliometric activity.
Originality/value
Despite increasing interest in modelling technological data using this method, reports rarely discuss basic assumptions and their effects on outcomes. Since trend extrapolations are applied more widely in different disciplines, the basic limitations of methods should be explicitly expressed.
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Aija Tapaninen, Marko Seppänen and Saku Mäkinen
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the criteria influencing the adoption of innovation in the empirical context of renewable residential energy solutions, particularly…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the criteria influencing the adoption of innovation in the empirical context of renewable residential energy solutions, particularly the wood pellet heating system.
Design/methodology/approach
The study carried out an extensive literature review on Rogers’ characteristics of innovation theory and then complemented it with a content analysis on empirically perceived characteristics of wood pellet heating systems.
Findings
The literature review shows that most of the previous studies employ the characteristics of innovation but do not confirm the usability of the Rogers framework as a whole. In addition, our empirical results demonstrate that relative advantage is the predominant characteristic in the adoption of residential energy systems.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations of the literature review and the biases of empirical findings are discussed. For instance, there are limitations that the study is based on single country data and its theoretical approach relies on only one theory, Rogers’ characteristics of innovation.
Practical implications
In order to achieve sustainable strategic advantage, firms providing renewable energy solutions should attempt to communicate clearly the relative advantages instead of attempting to, for instance, offer an opportunity for trialling such green energy systems.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the use of characteristics of innovation and further empirically examines the perceived characteristics of an innovation considering green investments in residential heating systems. Owing to the exploratory nature of the study, the results provide a gateway to a number of possible avenues for future research.
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Jacob Mickelsson, Ulla Särkikangas, Tore Strandvik and Kristina Heinonen
People with complex health conditions must often navigate landscapes of uncoordinated public, private and voluntary health-care providers to obtain the care they need. Complex…
Abstract
Purpose
People with complex health conditions must often navigate landscapes of uncoordinated public, private and voluntary health-care providers to obtain the care they need. Complex health conditions frequently transcend the scope of typical health-care service systems. The purpose of this paper is to explore and characterize such unique assemblages of actors and services as “user-defined ecosystems”.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on literature on customer ecosystems, this paper introduces the concept of the user-defined ecosystem (UDE). Using an abductive approach, the authors apply the concept in an interpretive, qualitative study of ten families with special needs children.
Findings
This study uncovers complex UDEs, where families actively combine a broad range of services. These ecosystems are unique for each family and extend beyond the scope of designed service ecosystems. Thus, the families are forced to assume an active, coordinating role.
Research limitations/implications
This paper shows how to identify ecosystems from the user’s point of view, based on the selected user unit (such as a family) and the focal value-creating function of the ecosystem for the user.
Social implications
This paper highlights how service providers can support and adapt to UDEs and, thus, contribute to user value and well-being. This can be used to understand users’ perspectives on service and systems in health and social care.
Originality/value
This study develops the concept of the UDE, which represents a customer-focused perspective on actor ecosystems and contrasts it with a provider-focused and a distributed perspective on ecosystems. This study demonstrates the practical usefulness of the conceptualization and provides a foundation for further research on the user’s perspective on ecosystems.
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Negar Jalilian and Seyed Mahmood Zanjirchi
Development of each domain of knowledge depends on aggregation of knowledge and documentation of available research. This paper aims to review the articles in the field of…
Abstract
Purpose
Development of each domain of knowledge depends on aggregation of knowledge and documentation of available research. This paper aims to review the articles in the field of innovation ecosystem (IE), do a bibliographic analysis of the information available about each document, explain the process of developing the concept of IE in research during the past years and introduce the forerunner countries, major, top journals, main scientific documents and authors contributing so far to the development of the concept of IE.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, 1,233 papers published between 1990 and 2021 April were collected and analyzed by applying life-cycle analysis, bibliometrics and content analysis to provide a full thematic overview of the IE filed.
Findings
Results showed that initial concepts of IE emerged in 1990 and entered its life-cycle growth period in 2006 due to being accepted by researchers. This growth will continue until 2035. Moreover, top 20 countries (i.e. the most influential and productive countries), most frequently cited journals, top publishing authors and the most important topics as considered by researchers are also identified by employing bibliometrics and content analysis. According coincidence of key words, the most important topics in IE field categorized into four groups.
Originality/value
Unlike other works recruiting content analysis solely to identify theoretical areas within this concept, the present study used content analysis in the field of scientific research methodology, and then the most popular tools to develop the concept of IE were identified.
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Employee burnout is increasingly coming under attention due to its negative impact on employee well-being and organisational effectiveness. This study, a systematic review, aims…
Abstract
Purpose
Employee burnout is increasingly coming under attention due to its negative impact on employee well-being and organisational effectiveness. This study, a systematic review, aims to evaluate the role of servant leadership and its mediators in preventing and mitigating against burnout experiences in organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
A preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analyses (PRISMA) was conducted using three databases, Academic search Complete, Embase and Scopus, in addition to bibliography searches. Articles were included if they reported on primary data, in English from inception to 2023. The mixed methods critical appraisal tool was used to assess the quality of articles, and a narrative synthesis was used to report results.
Findings
The search strategy yielded 4,045 articles, of which (N = 17), with total sample size of (N = 10,444) are included. Findings suggest that servant leadership is predictive of burnout, and that several mediators impact this relationship. Most studies were conducted in health care (n = 8) and banking (n = 3), and while the quality of the studies was mostly high (64%), the methods used were mainly descriptive and cross-sectional, which limits the extent to which causality can be inferred. A theory of change is provided based on the findings from this review and integrated with the extant literature on servant leadership theory, and can be used by organisations to support the policy, training and practice of servant leadership to reduce burnout.
Originality/value
Servant leadership is predictive of burnout; however, further research needs to be undertaken in this important emerging area.