Magnus Hellström

• Dr. (Tech.)
• Professor at Åbo Akademi University

The transition towards smart cities demands a multifaceted approach, which becomes particularly challenging in port cities, where urban life intersects with global logistics. While ports serve as critical logistic nodes, they hold the potential for diverse urban uses beyond mere ship traffic. This study investigates the integration of physical and...

There is increasing pressure to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transport sector, with a specific focus on maritime transportation. Green maritime corridors, originally introduced in the Clydebank Declaration, represent a bottom-up approach for potentially effective decarbonization of maritime transportation. The premise of the researc...

RoPax ports are confronted with approaching urban development. Therefore, planning for port expansion is increasingly restricted, while the challenges of more traffic due to increased handling volumes in the form of congestion and handling times are growing. Hence, access to RoPax ports is an increasingly challenging task requiring due attention fr...

The transformative impact of autonomous shipping requires a call for changes in the workforce and necessitates a shift in curricula. This study explores the state of higher education in Finland within the context of autonomous shipping and Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS). The research presented in this article is based on the collaboration...

The application of hydrogen in modern farming is transitioning from a conceptual idea to a practical reality, poised to meet future agricultural machinery requirements and transition goals. Increasing tensions between farmers and various institutions underscore the growing sensitivity around fossil fuel dependency in the agricultural sector, partic...

We explore the dynamic landscape of practice-oriented teaching in higher education, focusing on effectively integrating educational games (serious games) to impart management and economic concepts. The effects of and reasons for using games and simulations in management teaching is relatively well known, but the varied impact and use of different t...

This study examines the sustainability potential of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) in achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. By engaging various stakeholders through a poll and interviews, the research explores both the anticipated benefits and possible negative impacts of MASS, as well as the potential for failed pr...

The relationship between a region’s dependency on variable renewable energy (VRE) and the viability of long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies is recognised through various electricity grid modelling efforts in the contemporary literature. Numerous studies state a specific VRE penetration level in total electricity generation as an indicat...

Digitalization and automation are reshaping the maritime industry, particularly through advancements in designing Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) and the expected proliferation of autonomous shipping. These innovations are altering traditional roles in ship design, operations, and the maritime sector in general. The influx of cybersecurity...

The reduction of emissions from shipping is necessary to combat climate change. One viable option is to change the fuels utilized. In this study, we investigate the environmental and economic performance of marine diesel oil (MDO), liquified natural gas (LNG), liquified biogas (LBG), and a mixture of LNG and LBG. We study a real case of a roll-on/r...

This article explores digitalisation’s potential to change traditional business models in the context of RoPax (roll-on, roll-off passenger vessels) ports in four Northern European countries. The study examines digitalisation’s role in addressing business model change drivers, focusing on the perspective of port authorities (PAs). While digitalisat...

Sea logistics is slow to adopt digitalisation technologies and still relies heavily on old communication and data exchange methods. However, digitalising activities in RoPax ports can improve logistic chains. Managing and combining flows and services of cargo and passengers leads to several specific challenges, creating digitalisation opportunities...

This study addresses the development of new integrated product–service systems (PSSs). Most empirical research on the organisation of development processes has focussed on new product development, new service development, software development and new business model development in isolation; however, the development of new, complex PSSs that require...

The EU has launched a series of ambitious plans to accelerate the energy transition, notable the ’Fit for 55’ package that was presented by the Commission in July 2021. The target of the package is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the year 2030. Climate change mitigation through phasing out fossil fuels and becoming energy independent a...

Project management education is well suited for active learning through serious games, and a lot of research has been published on the use of serious games for project management education. Earlier reviews have focused on the content and features of project management serious games. The objectives for using those serious games have been less review...

The cruise shipping industry has existed for centuries. However, sustainability is a relatively new trend that could make a big difference and someday impact the industry. A growing body of research on sustainable cruise tourism includes studying changes among industry stakeholders, internal and external processes, and more. However, until now, the...

Open access available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102205

Despite the focus on collaborative project delivery models (CPDMs) in the construction industry, it remains unclear how it promises bases for delivering better value for money than many traditional models. In view of the importance of knowledge about CPDM delivery, this study aims to explore governance mechanisms that underline the relationship bet...

The expected benefits of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) include increased safety, reduced costs and increased earning potential due to operational efficiencies and reduction in vessel manning. However, autonomous shipping enabled by such ships bears a greater potential than just replacing humans with machines. Rather, MASS can play a role...

The existing corporate entrepenurship (CE) literature is based on the understanding that CE rests on social ontological individualism, claiming that social life is an aggregate of individuals' actions. To further enhance our knowledge of CE activities as a social phenomena, this chapter uses practice theory to uncover the interrelated activities of...

While many studies have been published about project management serious games, most of them mainly describe characteristics and features of the games themselves. In those studies, little is found on the pedagogical implementation of serious games and on how they have impacted project management education. In this article, we both discuss how they h...

The COVID-19 pandemic devastated substantial portions of the tourism industry; the cruise industry particularly suffered from negative publicity as the virus spread rapidly on cruise ships. The pandemic is a disaster that the industry has been forced to adapt to. This study illustrates, through a mixed-methods research design, what factors cruisefe...

Introducing product-service-software systems (PSSS) to the market requires forming an enabling ecosystem, which can be largely based on incumbent business ecosystems. Creating value through PSSS with autonomous capabilities will likely encounter numerous challenges related to the lock-ins in current ecosystem structure. We use institutional theory...

This article expands the discussion of Baltic Sea environmental governance by examining the implications of climate change on governance. It scrutinizes the physical challenges posed by climate change and analyses how the existing governing system can meet these challenges. The findings indicate that the present governing system is limited and cann...

Business models for the circular economy, or circular business models, is a growing field of research applied in various industries. Global sustainability trends, such as electrification of the transport sector and increased energy consumption from renewable sources, have led to rapid growth in the number of batteries produced, especially lithium-i...

Sustainability involves multiple environmental, technical, social and economic factors, and such complex analysis requires systemic solutions. Delivery models are key to achieving system benefits and enhancing sustainable development in infrastructure investments. They define the phases of a project, incentive structures, risk sharing and the relat...

Highlight The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the cruise and ferry industry as the passenger numbers and revenues have plummeted. Therefore, we developed a holistic approach for mitigating COVID-19 during seaborne transportation in a cost-efficient way by combining behavioral changes, procedural workflows, and technical innovation...

New technologies are at the heart of industry transformation. Virtual and augmented reality companies provide fundamentally new ways of communication, treatment, education, and specialist training within the medical industry. However, business models for new ventures that target the medical industry have received scant attention within academic res...

Purpose This study aims to identify how the personal social capital of opinion leaders contributes to the market adoption of start-up innovations. Design/methodology/approach A design-oriented case study is undertaken with a start-up company focusing on the development and commercialization of innovations in the veterinary market. Based on a liter...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the conservative business ecosystem and to identify opportunities for new companies to create value. Authors used a design-oriented case study with a start-up concentrating on the commercialization of the university research. The authors consider a novel business model used by the start-up company. By ana...

A stream of servitisation research has focused on the construction of taxonomies and typologies of product–service system business models (BMs). However, their relevance in the context of increased utilisation of digital technologies may be questioned. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to empirically revisit the existing product–service system BM...

Purpose: This paper focuses on medical device university spin-offs, taking into account the peculiarities of financial and non-financial support and intellectual property rights. We declare that these parameters play a significant role in business development at the early stages. Design/methodology/approach: Our empirical data consist of individua...

White paper fokusoi autonomisiin järjestelmiin ja liiketoiminnan muutokseen

Purpose Business accelerators have recently received increasing attention as important cogs in business ecosystem development. However, their exact role in the ecosystem is not yet well known, especially outside the IT sector. The purpose of this study is, therefore, twofold: to determine the position of life science accelerators in the business ec...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the conservative business ecosystem and to identify opportunities for new companies to create value. Authors used a design-oriented case study with a start-up concentrating on the commercialization of the university research. The authors consider a novel business model used by the start-up company. By ana...

There exists little research into how value is effectively generated by temporary projects from the wider perspective of a permanent organisation. This paper investigates empirically how ‘Governance of Projects’ – the way in which a single, permanent organisation identifies, creates, and subsequently harvests value through multiple projects – occur...

What is the value of evidence-based interventions in addressing “Grand Challenges”? Building upon the EPOS Grand Challenges work (Sakhrani et al., 2017), this paper explores whether evidence-based approaches developed for management and policy are relevant to addressing Grand Challenges. It discusses the criticisms of the Evidence-based Management...

This article develops a conceptual framework to analyze the governance of projects within a business ecosystem. The framework is applied to the case of a vessel delivery project in the short sea shipping business ecosystem, which is a cargo and logistics infrastructure service at sea. We develop a model that identifies contentious lock-ins among th...

This empirical paper assesses the change process of transforming business models from product- to service oriented. In particular, we investigate the role of management in the development and implementation of a servitization strategy. Extant research suggest that this process can be understood as either top-down or bottom-up driven. Our study reve...

The transition from product- to service-oriented business models is very challenging due to the fact that companies need to develop new services that are not yet in the marketplace. The literature suggests that the strategy practices behind such pervasive transformation, necessitate the involvement of both suppliers and customers, and are likely to...

Service delivery and solution selling both strive to achieve increased value through co-creation. However, the concept of value co-creation is a macro concept that still lacks precise empirical grounding and accurate operationalisation. To uncover the microlevel processes of co-creation, we examined 15 sales cases via the lens of uncertainty manage...

We conceptualize a networks-as-practice model by grounding our systems framework in the resource-based view (RBV), on the one hand, and in the strategy-as-practice perspective, on the other. From the RBV, we adopt the idea of valuable resources that are developed or deployed through activities. These activities are analogous to the practices in the...

Companies producing large capital goods often extend their goods offerings with various project-related services. However, they often struggle with properly productizing these services due to a limited understanding of which customer needs the services fulfill. To solve this problem, a service configurator was developed to identify challenges in th...

In this chapter, we put forth a decision support system that aims to increase cognitive ergonomics of actual, routine sourcing praxis in operative procurement work. The tool is motivated by a lack of academic methods as well as practical tools for evaluating suppliers’ actual, tangible appropriateness for specific supply tasks, as opposed to the fi...

In order to achieve business goals, companies are more and more seeking help from their external relationships. In some cases, these relationships form a system of their own with a common goal (i.e., a meta-goal). Such system-level goals, on the one hand, require input from more than one company and, on the other hand, they come with an expectation...

The need to distribute leadership beyond top management is particularly pertinent in project-based organizations (PBOs). PBOs rely on semi-autonomic teams that provide their customers with the complex goods and services they have ordered. The teams are often faced with uncertainty both when it comes to changes in customer demands and in the surroun...

The objective of this paper is to discuss the challenges and opportunities involved in the pricing of industrial IT solutions and to propose practical advice on how to implement value-driven strategy in pricing. A case study of an organisation moving towards value-based pricing is presented. The results provide clarification of new pricing strategi...

In the introductory chapter of the book we present the framework for network dynamics and management based on a comprehensive practice-based perspective. The framework serves as platform through which it is possible to figure out the holistic system-like nature of networking. In the framework, we use ideas adapted from the strategy-as-practice rese...

Presenting 17 tools developed through rigorous design science research, this book bridges the relevance gap within network management. In so doing, it proposes a novel system-framework and establishes a path towards a networks-as-practice view on inter-organizational relationships. The systems-framework builds on three institutionalized business pr...

Like services in general project execution services ought to be marketed and sold based on the value they add rather than the cost they accrue. Project services are typically complex and abstract, and hence their benefits are difficult to directly explicate. The aim is to investigate how contractors and suppliers can overcome this dilemma and exerc...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to outline a business model for product system solutions that is based on functional modularity. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs an illustrative case study design. The cases constitute two action research projects in two organisations delivering complex product systems. Findings – The paper il...

Distributed energy systems are key in building a sustainable energy economy. Biofuels are an example of an industry that needs to be based on a system of rather small-scale local production units due to the limited transportation radius of biomass. Moreover, the benefits of biofuels are greater if their production is based on the integration of loc...

In this paper we focus on the early stages of projects and their governance implications by investigating the introduction of nuclear power in Finland. We look at the early stages through the lens of path dependence and illustrate how early decisions may lead the project down the wrong path. However, we also develop a path creation perspective in o...

This paper analyses drivers, barriers and business logic used to include services in the business model of a project-based firm. The empirical study includes six project supplier firms from different industries. Differences in the complexity of project delivery and variations in the project suppliers’ degree of maturity in delivering services, serv...

Project supplier firms are solution providers. A solution may consist of a core project delivery with specific service contents, and/or of separate service deliveries. This paper analyzes the role of services in the business model of a project-based firm. The empirical study focuses on the business models of five project supplier firms, and on the...

This paper presents and analyses integration as a project management concept in industrial system deliveries. Attention is given to the aspect of integrating products and services as a functional whole, i.e. a solution. The study is based on interviews regarding the commissioning process in a number of different project companies. Commissioning is...

Well-structured products, delivery processes and project management functions have become pre-requisites and a means for competing for many project companies. These structures should take into account the unique customer needs and the continuously emerging situations that are characteristic to project business. In this paper, project companies are...

The importance of product paths on assembly lines have since long been acknowledged. What if the same idea was applied to the paths of project supplies? Could the description and perception of such journeys, reaching throughout the supply chain to the already operating outcome of the whole project, be of interest in management science? This study a...