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This paper examines how environmental sustainability is addressed, acted on, measured and communicated by the performance management system of a government agency. The Finnish Transport Safety Agency (Trafi) is the researched object, the activities and services of which cover a wide range of environmental sustainability goals set at different levels. The goals originate from international agreements, national strategies, performance agreements between the agency and the governing ministry, as well as from in-agency strategies and managerial planning. The results of the case research suggest that, instead of balanced and holistic addressing the different environmental sustainability dimensions, the agency’s portfolio of activities focused on climate change. More extensive sustainability goals did not trickle down to action or performance measurement metrics, but topical political discussions and pressures had narrowed the scope down. The analysis concludes with suggestions on how the existing performance management systems could be improved in the future.

Preparing drawings and documents for a construction project entails coordination and numerous revisions among various segments, such as architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic,...

The purpose of this study is twofold: to create the foundation for the application development capable to connect rescuers to the victims of earthquake disaster and to determine who needs help the most. To achieve these objectives, the fuzzy expert method, decision tree, and expert knowledge bases are used. The results from fuzzy logic and decision tree analysis show that there is a high accuracy in the decision used to determine the prioritized victims that urgently need to be rescued during emergency response phase of disaster management.

The industry is providing vehicles with advanced features and technologies that allows vehicles to connect and communicate with their nearby environment. These technologies’ umbrella term, Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS) are aimed to enhance road traffic efficiency, safety and assist the drivers in multiple ways. The C-ITS communication system should be able to offer the functional benefits to different sets of use-cases, each having a particular sub-set of requirements. In this paper some of the relevant use-case scenarios utilizing road weather and traffic information are studied in terms of communication technology. The key requirements for C-ITS use-case scenarios are analyzed and an evaluation of the ITS-G5 protocol stack is performed. The performance of ITS-G5 in use-case scenarios is considered testing messages (alerts) on road weather and traffic information in realistic environments. The results indicate that the performance of ITS-G5 in tested use-case scenarios offers 90-98% success rate in the delivery of safety messages at a transmission frequency of 10Hz. Also, ITS-G5 delivers safety alerts with a minimum delay so that it satisfies the C-ITS use-case requirements in real environments. The C-ITS pilot platform also performs efficiently in terms of transmitting packets from a safe distance with minimum network latency and packet loss between vehicles and infrastructure. C-ITS pilot use-cases were tested on the platform developed and tailored by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).

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Open government data (OGD) is expected to generate economic growth and boost innovation. To demonstrate how open government data was utilised by business actors and how the data translated into economic gross value added, the case of Finnish Transport Safety Agency's data is shown. The estimated annual increased marginal turnover enabled by the OGD of the private companies yielded to a minimum of 102 million EUR. The estimated annual gross value added to the economy based on the use of OGD was 41 million EUR. The industries benefitting the most from open data policy were the insurance and financial services, marketing and publishing.

The aim of this contribution is to present the design as well as findings of a survey targeted assessing the needs of stakeholders in the transportation domain with respect to climate change driven damages. This ‘User needs survey’ is one of the major objectives of multifarious collaborations investigating anticipatory asset protection strategies under accelerated climate change. The viability of these efforts is guaranteed by pairing up the scientific community (CIT, University of Vienna, BOKU, TU Vienna) with notable stakeholders (F&L, WMO, BMNT).The ‘User needs’ survey, was carried out in cooperation between the Climate Impact Team (CIT) the European Transport, Freight and Logistics Leaders Forum (F&L) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The aim of the survey is to identify services that stakeholders in the realm of transportation themselves consider significant and beneficial. Therefore, findings should be of vital importance for -- (i) setting up meaningful climate services; (ii) selecting sustainable protection measures strengthening transportation system resilience in the face of future climate change; (iii) compiling the chapter on 'Land Transport' in WMO’s new Service Delivery Guide -- as they ensure the expediency of the services described.Presented results encompass: (i) an assessment of extreme events in terms of their damaging impacts on transport, freight and logistics by stakeholders; (ii) an assessment of the vulnerability of assets in transport, freight and logistics by stakeholders; (iii) an illustration of the extent of impacts climate-change (through shifts in extremes and associated threats) has had on transport, freight and logistics over the past decades; (iv) the stakeholders' expectations regarding future developments towards advancing climate-change and (v) an evaluation of time horizons (short, medium and long term) at which stakeholders need services. A summary completes this contribution.

This paper features a two-country study on digitalisation: Australia and Finland. The empirical data was acquired from the national accounts for 1995–2015 in Australia and for 1998–2012 in Finland. This data was averaged for a cross-sectional comparison of industries and then for the two countries. Different industries’ advancement in digitalisation seems to follow approximately the same pacing in both countries. Financial and insurance services, telecommunications and media, and professional, technical and scientific services are the most active digitalisers. The empirical testing of the a priori assumption that digitalisation over a long period of time leads to greater productivity shows that the observed correlation between information and communication technology (ICT) investment and productivity is weak. The results partly confirm Solow’s productivity paradox.

The entire transport sector is experiencing disruption on a global scale due to a number of drivers. These include the drivers of technology, changes in governance structures, a range of environmental challenges, and the need to provide mobility and accessibility regardless of social status or income level. To realize socio-economically worthwhile investments in the transport system, particularly where new technologies are involved, fresh views of the economy and investment are needed. This paper explores the relationship between business models, value chains and business ecosystems, and demonstrates a meta-model for transport-related services that involve profound incorporation of new technologies. The meta-model consists of four elements: end customer value (value proposition to the end user), business value (shareholder value), collaborative value (business value to the supply chain) and societal value (value creation in the supply chain and control of negative externalities). The meta-model is tested with a case study.

Output-oriented resource control in the traditional planning methods is still prevalent in construction industry. It frequently causes unpredictable wastes leading to deterioration of the sequenced supply chains. On the other hand, the use of feed-forward control offers the opportunity for prevention by ensuring the high quality of necessary process resources. This paper, in turn, presents a dynamic control approach that highlights the effectiveness of feed-forward control on minimising process wastes. The field experiment in this paper presents the rebar supply and placement on an actual construction site. It aims to measure the responsiveness of pre-controlled resources to ever-changing process performance. Collected data during this field study provided the basic data for establishing statistical relationships between resource logistics quality and process performance. The research experiments found out two of the critical resource logistics: (1) Available number of workers; and (2) Distance between resource and final place. Finally the proactive control on these entities resulted in a dramatic reduction of process waste, leading to the improvement of productive work rate (31.0 to 53.3%). The main contribution of the research lies on the first-hand investigation from a very probable situation, which would benefit practical engineers and construction managers.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on the early development of eHealth service start-ups. To elaborate the research problem, the study addresses the following research questions: How do managerial experiences in eHealth service start-ups relate to the central findings of the recent empirically based stages-of-growth literature? What context-specific viewpoints should be considered when using the stage framework in relation to eHealth service start-ups? Design/methodology/approach In this explorative multiple case study, the authors test a growth framework describing the early stages of eHealth service firms through eight case studies. The authors utilise the critical incident technique and semi-structured interviews in the data collection. Findings When taking into account the key contradictions assessed in the study as well as context-specific features of eHealth businesses, the empirically based stage framework seems to be a useful starting point for reflecting on and predicting the challenges faced during the early development of eHealth service start-ups. Slow growth due to several factors and the essential role of the public sector were commonly emphasised elements of the context-specific viewpoints of the eHealth service business. Practical implications The results may be used in start-ups and intermediary organisations as a framework for predicting managerial challenges during the start-up stage of an eHealth service business. Originality/value Numerous universal models and frameworks have attempted to clarify management priorities during the early stages of business. However, context-specific viewpoints and their effects on start-ups have not been broadly studied. This study provides new insights into growth management in the eHealth context.

Small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policies tend traditionally to focus on supply-side support instruments. However, public procurement provides a potential demand-side SME policy tool to enhance SMEs and maintain competition in the market. SMEs are often under-represented in public procurement compared to their overall economic weight. Existing literature provides limited information on the instruments of public service providers to create business opportunities for SMEs. The aim of this single case study is to describe the role of SMEs in the statutory public service provision of primary social and healthcare. The study also provides insight into the public service provider’s ability to facilitate SME access to public procurement and thereby to enhance the efficiency of the local market. We found that a service voucher system could be an additional option for public procurement, as it allows more flexibility in involving small businesses in the production of public services.

This study analyses the Finnish road weather and maintenance business ecosystem and its development potential. The ecosystem proposes value by combining complementary expertise through which the participating companies can achieve competitive advantages. In order to facilitate value co-creation, public authorities must support and stimulate these ecosystems.The bottlenecks and obstacles identified by the companies and public authorities in value creation clearly indicate that there is significant potential to be realised in the future. In sum, the main challenges are related to rigid procurement models, lack of collaboration, and finding the right people and organisations to work together. In the end, a list of recommendations on how to tackle the constraints for new innovations is presented, e.g., innovative procurement methods, long-term committed collaboration, mutually set objectives supporting shared benefits and risks, and agile piloting on a larger scale. Basically, the same recommendations can be considered for more general innovation strategies.

The mining industry produces significant amounts of waste materials, with the greatest volumes generated during enrichment. These waste materials or by-products, tailings, may be used as alternative civil engineering materials, reducing the need for natural resources. In cold climates, the frost behaviour of materials is one critical functional requirement in civil engineering applications. The frost behaviour of tailings classified as sand, silty sand, or sandy clayey silt (EN ISO), from four metal mines located in northern Finland and Sweden, was evaluated in this study using basic laboratory characterisation and one-dimensional freezing tests. The laboratory results were compared with existing guidelines on estimating the frost susceptibility of natural soils. Based on grain size distribution, the tailings samples were characterised as non-susceptible or frost-susceptible. Capillary rise values indicated that the frost susceptibility of the samples ranged from negligible to strong. In the one-dimensional frost heave test, measured frost heave after 96 h was 0.1–23.1 mm and calculated segregation potential (SP) was 0–9.7 mm²/Kh. Based on the frost heave test, the frost susceptibility of the samples ranged from low to strong. The results indicated that the finest samples classified as sandy clayey silt (L1−L3) generated the majority measured amount of frost heave and were classified as frost-susceptible material. The coarser tailings samples (K1-K3 and AK1) classified as sand or silty sand were classified non-susceptible, and measured frost heave amounts were low

Pressures to cut public expenditure and to reach high value for money of projects that use scarce public money are evident across the globe. At the same time there seems to be a lack of decision support tools for pin-pointing whether public services are yielding net benefits. Accountability is called for but the ‘accounting systems’ that validate the right choices in service delivery are not yet thoroughly established. As a response, an impact evaluation via a real-world case study of a multi-modal transport safety agency is presented. The main contribution of this article is methodological, including a summary of study cordoning; description of methods to map impact mechanisms; quantification of socio-economic impacts of services; the benefit to cost (B/C) appraisal of services and service bundles, and evaluation of an agency's overall B/C ratio by applying the findings to systems level. The described analytical process is repeatable elsewhere with modifications or as it stands.

The most significant current technological trend is digitization, the impacts of which will be faced by all levels of society. This paper addresses how the Australian construction industry has kept up with the pace of digitization compared with other industries in Australia. The data is drawn mainly from the national accounts hosted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, within the time period of 1995–2015. Construction has developed into one of the most important industries in Australia. Together with mining and the financial and insurance sector, it has contributed to a significant gross added value (GVA) in the economy. The construction industry has invested around 1% or less in information and communication technologies (ICT) as their share of GVA; however, it has invested about 15% in ICT of their total investments (gross fixed capital formation). Among the selected industries, construction's labour productivity measured by GVA per hour was the third highest, despite low level of investments in digitization. The observed correlation between ICT investments and productivity is weak when using industry level data from the national accounts. Any big leap towards digitization is not recognised for the construction industry; rather there appears to be steady acceptance of the technology.

ITS products and services have been aggressively developed and they are expected to offer multiple benefits, such as traveler convenience and cutting of societal costs through a reduction in fatalities, injuries and emissions. However, technological possibilities and developments have often failed to translate into customer value and successful business to companies. This paper focuses on two issues: 1) filling some holes in empirical knowledge by providing an example of ITS and mobility business platform implementation, and 2) to identify potential business models and ecosystem for an international B2B2C ITS platform.

The purpose of this paper is to construct an analytical cash flow-based project model to facilitate project appraisal of both private investors and public sector. With the help of the model that focuses on ecosystem and its stakeholders, it is simpler to identify potential conflicts usually encountered in public–private partnership (PPP) projects. The model construct is based on classical cash flow accounting and cost–benefit analysis. In the model, the flows of cash (private investors) and the flows of costs and benefits (public investors) are integrated in a single framework. The model shows that within the ecosystem the investors' (public vs. private) social, economic and financial targets are not necessarily coinciding. Prospecting of common ground and win–win situations becomes a crucial success factor for any PPP project. The paper discusses the policy and investment strategy implications for successful PPPs.

To overcome the seemingly chronic funding gap for public infrastructure investments, well over thousand Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been carried out around the world with varying success in terms of investor returns and socio-economic sustainability. This paper proposes an integrated model that assesses PPP projects at three levels of observation: i) the market; ii) the cash-flow of a project; and iii) the ecosystem around PPPs. The aim is to build a more holistic yet comprehensible framework that links these three levels to better understand PPPs especially in the context of infrastructure projects. It can also be modified to fit multiple contexts and used as a tool for analysing PPPs in their early stages.

Digitalization is changing our everyday lives and all sectors of human activities. The education system is amidst of this change. There is a growing demand for digital learning services and applications. Due to this underlying societal and technological change the education must be regarded as an ecosystem, where the different interacting organizations and individuals co-create applications and services. Forceful introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) to schools and classrooms, while at the same time maintaining traditional processes and practices, creates a potential source of inefficiency, ineffectiveness and poor quality. Many schools and teachers complain that insufficient ICT equipment, such as interactive whiteboards and laptops, are major obstacles to effectively utilize ICT. This study presents a chronological development process of the Dream School -concept from Finland. The main purpose of the Dream School -project was to build an engaging and ubiquitous learning environment that utilizes a bottom-up approach to support students' growth and learning according to their needs - as well as according to identified societal future needs. The technologies exploited included open source code applications, open platforms, server -oriented and cloud -based ICT architectures. These technologies were developed and implemented in collaboration with private and public partners. This paper addresses three major aspects of innovation which define the nature of the Dream School -concept: 1) setting a vision for a future school, 2) building the ecosystem capable to deliver ICT services as a turnkey package; 3) innovative procurement. The impact of Dream School implementation on education system, decision makers and public-private partnerships is discussed

In the rail traffic industry, the utilisation of inexpensive real-time sensors and the industrial internet of things for proactive asset management is a relatively new concept with great potential. As railways are one of the longest-lasting infrastructure assets, even marginal efficiency and cost gains have a significant impact on the life-cycle cost. This paper shows how wireless three-dimensional acceleration sensor technology can be applied to monitor track condition. The data collection was carried out in October 2016 on a railway line operated by Finnish Railways. In the test, a sensor was attached to a train unit and the acceleration of the train on a track segment was repeatedly measured at variable speeds. The collected data set was enhanced using map-matching and Bayesian filtering in order to improve the Global Positioning System location accuracy of the data. The filtered acceleration signals were analysed, and detected anomalies were compared against known parameters such as bridges and switches. The results of the testing support the feasibility of the concept. Finally, the implications of the concept regarding proactive asset management of track networks and statistical process control-based monitoring of tracks’ condition are discussed.

This paper discusses and analyses public-private partnership (PPP) options within the framework of different ownership and governance (O&G) models of technical infrastructures. The O&G models in Finland are described and the market layers of ownership, operation, and services are studied. All infrastructure sectors have somewhat different O&G structures and they each have a different market context, not least because of ownership and the market structures that are "on" the infrastructure. Private companies, public companies, state and municipality owned enterprises and purely public-authority-type models can be found. Interestingly, the models seem not to affect too much the cash-based returns to the owners. However, the market structures will probably provide varying prospects for PPPs to be carried out, whether the PPPs are means of procuring projects or outsourcing of formerly public functions. The financial return capacity of the infrastructure is playing a key role. Some infrastructures have already a tradition of "good business" while others are considered as public goods on more or less sustainable grounds. The results imply that for some infrastructures there could be more natural markets for PPPs. The paper gives a topology for different market layers which can be identified for infrastructures and related services and businesses.

Business ecosystems aim to develop the capabilities of its participants through collaboration supporting new offerings, better fulfil customer requirements and eventually create new innovations. Acting in an ecosystem provides synergistic benefits to actors by increasing the total value of the output - the actors can achieve more than they would have achieved working independently. The main objective of both studied winter maintenance ecosystems, Finnish and Japanese, is to enhance safety and ensure good road conditions. These ecosystems are compared to analyse and discuss the potential ways to develop current value networks. As roads and streets are publicly owned in most cases and mobility services regarded as a public good, the role of the public sector mostly dictates the topology and ecosystem actors. In Finland, the role of the road authorities is reduced because of the restructuring of the public sector, whereas in Japan it has so far remained stronger although road authorities have enhanced cooperation with local residents. For authorities in both countries, the prevailing lack of resources for maintenance operations is a strong motivating factor for finding new, more efficient procurement and operating models. Understanding the roles of all actors involved in the winter maintenance ecosystem is essential in this search for efficiency.

Indonesia attempts to improve nation's competitiveness by increasing the quality and the availability of railway network. However, the infrastructure improperly managed by the operator in terms of the technical issue. One of the reasons for this problem is an unbalanced value of infrastructure charge. In 2000's track access charge and infrastructure maintenance and operation for Indonesia railways are equal and despite current formula of the infrastructure charge, issues of transparency and accountability still in question. This research aims to produce an alternative scheme of track access charge by considering marginal cost plus markup (MC+) approach. The research combines qualitative and quantitative method through an in-depth interview and financial analysis. The result will generate alternative formula of infrastructure charge in Indonesia's railway industry. The simulation also conducted to estimate track access charge for the operator and to forecast government support in terms of subsidy. The result is expected to enhance railway industry performance and competitiveness.

Three major projects initiated by the European Commission within its 7th Framework Programme that have studied the weather phenomena and their projections to the future in relation to their impacts and implications to the European transport systems have recently been concluded. All of the transport modes were covered, as well as all of the critical phenomena present within the European area. The three projects (that ran from 2009 and 2012) are as follows: (1) EWENT (Extreme Weather impacts on European Networks of Transport-www.ewent.vtt.fi); (2) ECCONET (Effects of climate change on the inland waterway networks-www.ecconet.eu); (3) WEATHER (Weather Extremes: Assessment of Impacts on Transport and Hazards for European Regions-www.weather-project.eu). In this Foreward to the Special Issue on "Vulnerability of Transportation to Extreme Weather and Climate Change," the key results of the above three projects are addressed concisely, offering the reader a broader view of their findings; since some of these are enveloped in the research papers hosted in this volume, they will not be covered in detail. However, the rich output of these projects in the form of "Project Deliverables" and "Reports" is also an important source of information on the findings and results from these three projects which are publicly available on the projects' Web sites. The purpose of this Foreward is to bring to the attention of the interested reader these sources and overview briefly some of the projects' outcomes. Also, a short comparative discussion on selected findings is made, outlining agreements and disagreements between the projects.

Industry competition is moving from the company-level towards business ecosystems, where organizations must develop mutually beneficial relationships with each other. This paper studies business ecosystem phenomena, focusing especially on the spatial (geographical) context within the health and life sciences industry. In addition, business ecosystem evolution and change dynamics are addressed. This study is literature-based; the findings and analysis provide a research frame for forthcoming empirical studies. Despite increasing attention, business ecosystem literature is still relatively immature, and previous studies have mostly focused on software and the information technology (it) industries. Hence, this paper provides new insights into the business ecosystem concept in a novel context.