Janne Harkonen

University of Oulu · Department of Industrial Engineering and Management

Purpose The previous literature has indicated that the productisation of services may play a role in service management, although a certain level of obscurity still surrounds the concept. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the meaning of service productisation (SP) as well as to contribute to a greater understanding of the concept....

Productisation relates to the process of analysing a need, defining and combining suitable elements, tangible and/or intangible, into a product-like defined set of deliverables that is standardised, repeatable and comprehendible. This paper clarifies the concept of productisation by surveying the extant literature and reporting the origins, charact...

The main purpose of this study is to widen the scope of product portfolio management (PPM) targets and key performance indicators (KPIs) to cover all phases of the product life cycle. Earlier research mainly covers PPM performance management within new product development (NPD) life cycle only. In addition, current challenges relating to PPM perfor...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a tangible example of organisational solutions in effective design for manufacturing (DfM) in a large information and communications technology (ICT) company. Design/methodology/approach An interview study was carried out in a leading ICT company to clarify the practical realisation of DfM, and the c...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide tangible examples of product data management (PDM) practices in large high‐tech companies, and to highlight current challenges. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a qualitative interview study. First, a PDM system frame was defined to aid analyses. Second, an interview study was carried out in...

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) often lead to combined or supplementary offerings, where the products, or services of the merging or acquiring companies are integrated into a new combined product portfolio. Nevertheless, integrating the offerings can be challenging due to structural differences or inconsistencies in the products. Systematizing produ...

End-to-end traceability offers significant opportunities for product lifecycle visibility, sustainability enhancement, and regulatory compliance in product management. However, it faces challenges in data integration and management, supplier collaboration, cost and complexity, and the sharing of information across the supply chain. Productization r...

Corporate reputation, the collective perception of company attractiveness towards stakeholders, impacts business outcomes, while effective communication strategies play a critical role in shaping and maintaining the reputation. The role of communication is highlighted during crises, crisis communication being a strategic approach to managing and mi...

Productivity has been modest in construction due to many reasons, especially project-specific operations and fragmentation. The main aim of this research is to map the challenges toward industrialization in construction through a comparative study of the manufacturing industry. An inductive approach and a qualitative method are followed by applying...

Productivity has been modest in construction due to many reasons, especially project-specific operations and fragmentation. The main aim of this research is to map the challenges towards industrialization in construction through a comparative study of the manufacturing industry. An inductive approach and a qualitative method are followed by applyin...

In the engineer-to-order (ETO) business, companies provide customer value by customizing the products according to the customers’ needs in a project-like manner. As a result, the number of individual product designs tends to proliferate, causing challenges in company operations, and product portfolio and product lifecycle management. In addition, i...

This scoping review paper aims to identify and synthesize the existing literature on software product structure in the context of service-dominant (S-D) logic. The paper highlights the importance of software product structure as a critical aspect in the software industry especially in software development as it can help to ensure that the software...

Companies are increasingly leveraging AI (Artificial Intelligence), in attempts to gain competitive advantage. This paper focuses on the AI applications for analytics to enable automated decision-making. The AI applications are especially attractive to companies due to them potentially enabling process automation, and the wider adoption of RPA (Rob...

Purpose This study aims to facilitate consistency of information in building information modelling (BIM) and address the current BIM gaps through the perspectives of the productization concept and product structure (PS). Design/methodology/approach The study follows a conceptual research approach in conjunction with a single case study. First, the...

This study aims to analyze the general acceptance of solar power. The technology reputation has a potential impact on decision-making and affects technology market deployment and adoption, similarly to technical, legal, and economic factors. This acceptance is affected by how the technologies are discussed in the media. The media and any knowledge...

The opposition to a deployed technology in large construction projects can grow step by step when transferred from a global level to local project delivery. Large construction projects with specific technology implementations put pressure on local public acceptance andcommunity involvement. This pressure is transferred to project management, how to...

Purpose: The implementation of building information modeling (BIM) has been previously approached from various perspectives, but confusion regarding BIM's full potential and on how to apply it remains. The whole is viewed from distinct perspectives to reflect the full potential and explain the tentatively unused potential. Study design/methodology...

The objective is to conceptualise data-driven and fact-based product portfolio management (PPM). The study examines how PPM process is internalised in companies and proposes a concept that covers all PPM performance management areas (strategic fit, value maximisation, and portfolio balance) to transform profitability analysis from company-level to...

The objective of this study is to analyze the potential of company data assets for data-driven, fact-based decision-making in product portfolio management (PPM). Data assets are categorized from the PPM standpoint, including (product/customer/ …) master data, transactional data, and interaction data (e.g., IoT data). The study combines literature r...

In R&D many disciplines focus on different aspects of managing the product life cycle. Generally, the focus can be divided into technical aspects and business aspects. Combining these two views, and research areas can be beneficial in the context of productization. Productization links to the concept of product structure and relates to modelling of...

Purpose This study aims to focus on creating sales capability as part of new product development (NPD). The aim is to define generic requirements for building sales capability as a part of NPD and to propose a necessary process by defining key activities for sales readiness. Design/methodology/approach An inductive and qualitative research method...

Increasing product variety and expanding commercial offering create a challenge for companies in terms of keeping their product portfolio profitable and managing it through the entire lifecycle of products. Effective productization and product portfolio management (PPM) practices, supported by product structure considerations, may hold a key for pr...

The global pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) came mostly as a surprise and had a major effect on the global economy. These types of major events that can bring societies to nearly a total standstill are difficult to predict but have a significant impact on business activities. Nevertheless, weak signals might be possible to dete...

The global pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) came mostly as a surprise and had a major effect on the global economy. This type of major events that can bring societies to nearly a total standstill are difficult to predict but have a significant impact on business activities. Nevertheless, weak signals might be possible to detect...

Purpose The study aims to explore the benefits of service productisation to provide further understanding on the productisation concept as support for business processes and service management. The concept has been deficiently discussed regardless of the potential significance to the whole formed by service products, business processes, information...

Productization and product structure can be beneficial for companies in various product-related considerations. The focus on software business and software products, however, has been deficient. This study takes a specific software perspective to provide a software business perspective to productization discussion. Productization of software is con...

Digitalizing business analytics by generating relevant information from data to gain valuable insights and to enhance decision-making is a key ability for companies. We describe a potential concept for digitizing company analytics to enable data-driven approach by providing a path from information needs to visualizing the analysis results, includin...

A social media (SoMe) firestorm can present a liability for personal brands via the loss of reputation, as well as for the organisational brand image. The drastic measures often taken in these situations, especially in cases of negative media attention or a scandal, usually involve dismissal of the related persons. Hence, predicting, monitoring, an...

The construction industry suffers from low productivity, and the Building Information Modelling (BIM) has not been successful in enhancing the productivity and the flow of information throughout highly fragmented construction projects. Hence, this study aims to facilitate consistency in information and addresses the current gaps in BIM by applying...

Product Portfolio Management (PPM) is vital for companies to succeed. It aims to constitute a profitable entity for company products in the long term. The extant literature on PPM is, however, lacking in IT application-based discussion, which links to the potential of IT system independent analysis and reporting. One potential application is produc...

Purpose This study aims to improve understanding of companies’ motives and concerns in relation to cooperation through a joint commercial product portfolio. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative research method was used to study 17 companies based on two case projects. Findings The joint commercial product portfolio is introduced as a new t...

Product portfolio management (ppm) should define, which products to develop, sell, deliver, maintain, and remove based on company's strategic targets. Aligning the product portfolio with business strategy is, however, seen challenging. Hence, an approach for ppm target setting over life-cycle is needed. A single-case study was conducted to examine...

Companies considering a shift from manufacturing and selling physical products to selling services face several questions. The current and potential offerings should be compared in the light of commercial and technical portfolio. The commercial offering visible to the customer needs to be designed, as well as how it is technically structured, inclu...

Data are a strategic asset for companies but are not fully capitalized to serve the business. Company data assets that reside in the enterprise applications, the corporate business IT, have the potential to provide additional value aside serving the typical functional role of these applications. One possible application is the fact-based profitabil...

Harkonen, J., Mustonen, E., Haapasalo, H. (2019) "Construction Related Data Management – Classification and Description of Data from Different Perspectives", International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning. 8(2), 195-220.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse current challenges and to articulate the preconditions for data-driven, fact-based product portfolio management (PPM) based on commercial and technical product structures, critical business processes, corporate business IT and company data assets. Here, data assets were classified from a PPM perspective in te...

This study aimed to find a method to construct a customer-oriented joint commercial product portfolio for several independent companies to enable more effective market operations. The study also aimed to identify any related challenges. The findings indicate that a customer-oriented joint commercial product portfolio can be constructed through a fi...

This article analyses the potential of using opinion mining based on big data to calculate a brand index to reflect brand image in the media. The study is realised as a combination of analysing previous literature and applying a media monitoring tool to analyse editorial publications and social media to gain brand-related media sentiment. The poten...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to understand data management challenges in e-maintenance systems from a holistically viewpoint through summarizing the earlier scattered research in the field, and second, to present a conceptual approach for addressing these challenges in practice. Design/methodology/approach The study is real...

The challenge in today’s corporations is that even though the technology portfolio of a company plays a crucial role in delivering revenue—falling as a topic mainly under the area of technology management—technology may have a negative image due to observed risks or failing the sustainability criteria. It may influence the company’s image and brand...

The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between product portfolio management and business strategy to propose a practical approach for defining product portfolio management strategic targets and key performance indicators over life-cycle. The study is qualitative by nature and utilises a constructive research approach. The m...

Modelling of construction products and services has major impor- tance for effective productisation of construction companies’ of- fering. Productisation refers to the process of analysing customer needs and defining the offering both commercially and technically so that the efficiency of the productisation can be repeated and the offering is possibl...

The growing importance of product data management and master data necessitate companies to have practices for deriving product master data from their corporate strategy. Business drivers need to be understood from the perspective of corporate strategy to capture product master data in relevant systems in a straightforward manner. Ideally master dat...

Emphasis on maintenance, repair, and operations inventory (MRO inventory) can lead to improvements in inventory control and productivity while reducing operational costs. This study focuses on different approaches to optimising and reducing spare part inventories by addressing the development of MRO inventory operations and by analysing the develop...

The nature of media image, through either traditional or social media, may have an influence on public acceptance of energy technologies. The potential impact on decision-making can make media image a factor for technology market deployment, similar to technical, legal, and economic factors. Public acceptance tends to be shaped by how technologies...

Nuortimo, K., Härkönen, J. and Karvonen, E. (2018)"Linking public acceptance of wind power to technology deployment" , Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, Vol. 19, No. 3/4, pp.219-242.

This article discusses the market potential estimation results at different stages of second-generation oxy-fuel technology for carbon capture and storage, where oxygen content is increased in order to increase efficiency and product life cycle. The article highlights the challenges to commercializing an energy technology with long development lead...

This article describes how new product development (NPD) is critical to maintaining a strong market position. However, full-scale NPD may consume too much time and resources when necessary to react quickly to customer needs or emerging business opportunities. Rapid development (RaDe) is a type of incremental product development complementing the or...

Established companies need to take several aspects into account when considering the management of radical innovations and must simultaneously ensure the profitability and functioning of the existing business. The main contribution of this study lies in exploring how radical and incremental innovations are separated and managed. The paper intends t...

Rapid Development Handbook paves the footpath for companies facing challenges with their capability to response to urgent product development needs. This book brings together practices and tools researched in Product Management research group in University of Oulu, many of which have already been presented in scientific publications. As such, this...

Purpose: The article focuses on supply capability creation (SCC) within the new product development (NPD). The purpose is to establish an SCC process describing the main SCC activities and milestone criteria in preparing the supply process for new productsDesign/methodology/approach: The article analyses the earlier research, carries out current st...

The ever-increasing importance of creating and developing solutions and products that not only secure customer satisfaction but also enable cost efficient supply chain process are topical issues today. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to widen the scope of traditional new product development (NPD) process to cover the expected activitie...

This paper analyses the media image of solar power in order to understand the recent technology development trends. The increase in both solar PV panels as well as concentrated solar power plants has been influenced by decrease in solar power price, as well as subsidies and general public acceptance. This paper focuses to the latter, through quanti...

Product portfolio management (PPM) and supplier management (SM) are integrally linked through products, buy items and related suppliers. However, the connection and alignment between these important activities are not particularly highlighted in the extant literature. Hence, the main objective of this study is to clarify the challenges in connectin...

Product development sourcing is vital due to the significant impact on company and product success. Different technology life-cycle (TLC) stages also necessitate product development sourcing to focus accordingly. Understanding the dynamics of product development sourcing over TLC's can prove beneficial. This study analyses product development sourc...

This study aims to capture changes and priorities in product development activities over technology life-cycles. The product development activities are observed through the targets of performance maximising, cost reduction and customisation. Seven models of technology life-cycles are considered to keep track of technology changes over time by follo...

Data quality has significance to companies, but is an issue that can be challenging to approach and operationalise. This study focuses on data quality from the perspective of operationalisation by analysing the practices of a company that is a world leader in its business. A model is proposed for managing data quality to enable evaluation and opera...

This study aims to extend the product portfolio management (PPM) practices to cover all lifecycle phases and product portfolio layers by the means of comprehensively analysing the current PPM literature and the relevant practices of ten case companies. The principal results of this study include designing ontologies for the potential new business p...

Contemporary project risk management literature introduces uncertainty, i.e., the lack of information, as a fundamental basis of project risks. In this study the authors assert that equivocality, i.e., the existence of multiple and conflicting interpretations, can also serve as a basis of risks. With an in-depth empirical investigation of a large c...

Virtual new product development (NPD) teams integrated via information and communication technology (ICT), can offer effective solutions to higher quality, service, customer responsiveness and individualized productization. Experts in NPD teams usually collaborate across the globe and across time zones by e-mail, tele- and web-conferencing, as well...

The integration of health and safety, environmental and quality (HSEQ) management systems has become a current topic in the 21st century, as the need for systems thinking has grown along with the number of management system standards. This study aims to map current developments and trends in integrated HSEQ management. Three viewpoints are taken: t...

The growth in university–industry collaboration has resulted in an increasing demand for methods to evaluate it. This paper presents one way to evaluate an organization’s collaborative activities based on the European Foundation of Quality Management excellence model. Success factors of collaboration are derived from literature and compared against...

Product development is affected by various drivers and multiple stakeholders. This study assesses relationships between different external and internal stakeholders and product development drivers. The relationships between stakeholders and product development drivers are analysed at managerial level in NPD intensive companies, which operate in...

Evaluations, both internal and external, have become increasingly common and often compulsory in higher education. Nevertheless, utilising the evaluation results and linking the evaluations to the university’s quality assurance system often proves challenging. This article aims to analyse how internal evaluation should be conducted in order to...

The paper contributes towards improving the understanding over the potential of bioeconomy by focusing on a regional context. The study is realised by applying a combination of PESTEL analysis, resource analysis and analysing true and potential cases with high bioeconomy relevance and potential for substantial commercial volume. Hence, this art...

In virtual operating environments for new product development (NPD) increase the need to manage communication efficiently. The goal of communication is to reach a shared understanding; however, this is often challenging due to barriers that harm the communication process. Communication barriers typically cause misunderstandings and conflicts and hi...