Browsing by Author "Laine, Lauri"
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- Cost optimization of flight profiles and tracks for a regional jet
Helsinki University of Technology | Master's thesis(2006) Snåre, Ann-Sofie LinneaThe main purpose of this study was to determine cost-optimized flight procedures for a commuter jet, ERJ 145 LU. The aim was to provide the operator, Finnish Commuter Airlines Oy, for whom this investigation was done, with documentation to improve cost efficiency in their ERJ 145 LU flight operations. Knowledge of company cost structure and cost drivers is of significant value in determining the airline strategy in cost optimization. For this purpose, this thesis reviews operating costs, cost drivers and cost reduction potential. In the performance calculations, Embraer performance programs were used. Validation of the programs was done as comparison between program performance data and actual aircraft performance. Actual aircraft performance data was obtained through performance monitoring on flights. The cost optimization of flight procedures was divided into vertical and lateral flight path optimization. First, the vertical flight path was studied by dividing the flight profile into climb, cruise and descent segments. Climb and descent schedules were evaluated for the most cost-efficient procedure in different conditions. In cruise stage, consideration was given to optimum flight altitude considering wind, as well as economic cruise speed. By combining the flight profile segments, route-specific flight profile recommendations could be presented to enable the operator to choose the most cost-efficient flight profile for different optimization purposes. Lateral, or track, optimization was performed for flight planning purposes. Tracks between Helsinki and Stuttgart were examined in order to define conditions when the standard route track should be changed due to wind conditions. The results of track optimization may initiate dynamic flight planning, and this part of the investigation can easily be expanded to concern other destinations in Central Europe. Other aspects affecting fuel consumption, e.g. excessive weight, atmospheric conditions and center of gravity, are briefly reviewed in this study. - Counternarrating entrepreneurship
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2024-02) Kibler, Ewald; Laine, LauriSchumpeter envisioned entrepreneurship research as a way to examine and understand how capitalism changes. This notwithstanding, contemporary entrepreneurship studies predominantly explore the emergence and growth of new business firms, thus adopting a view that assumes a positive macro-level role for entrepreneurship in society even as it neglects the destructivity which was key to Schumpeter’s theory. To bring capitalism back into entrepreneurship, we suggest a narrative approach to entrepreneurial history. Specifically, we introduce counternarratives to discuss new ways of thinking about the micro-macro linkage in entrepreneurship and to open up fresh understandings of creative destruction within, and beyond, capitalism. We conclude the paper with practical suggestions for new entrepreneurial histories that develop alternative narratives. - Nurmijärven energiantuotannossa syntyvien hiilidioksidipäästöjen vähentämisen taloudelliset mahdollisuudet
Helsinki University of Technology | Master's thesis(1999) Laine, Lauri - An eternal journey into an endless house: entrepreneurship as a hero-myth of the capitalist West
School of Business | Master's thesis(2017) Laine, LauriAbstract This thesis builds an argument of the entrepreneur as a mythical hero of the capitalist West. Entrepreneurship as a contemporary hero-myth is analyzed through the logic of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey theory, with evidence from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and an article about a Finnish entrepreneur Jyri Lipponen published in Kauppalehti. By engaging in a genealogical study of entrepreneurship implicit in the myths of contemporary Western culture, and in its academic treatment, propositions are made for the future consideration of the phenomenon. These are: 1) the entrepreneur is the central hero character of modern Western mythology of capitalism; 2) entrepreneurship is a metaphor that connects the legalistic and practical implications of the term and the abstract conceptual understanding of the infinite connections and interdependencies that the term implies; 3) entrepreneurship is political in it's replacement of other myths of creation; 4) the study of entrepreneurship benefits from acknowledging its sensitivity to the possibilities of cross-domain research; 5) naturalism offers a just philosophical basis of assumptions with which to critically approach entrepreneurship research; 6) a genealogical approach to entrepreneurship enables the domain to focus on the cultural preconditions under which the phenomenon occurs; 7) the cognitive root of entrepreneurship is the initiation of purposeful actions; 8) entrepreneurship could have a special role of diplomacy and translation in the intercommunication of academic studies of economic and social phenomena of the peoples of the world; 9) should the domain of entrepreneurship require a house of its own, let that house be an “endless” one. These propositions lay a foundation wherefrom to embark into further critical studies of entrepreneurship as a cultural and social phenomenon. - An exploration of sustainable innovation in the plastics industry
School of Business | Master's thesis(2024) Hoek, LukaThis thesis explores sustainable product innovation within the context of the plastics industry, addressing the so-called plastic paradox—where plastic is both a critical material for modern life and a significant environmental pollutant. The study focuses on the strategies and practices of two companies, Vita and AnaBio, to understand how sustainable innovation is implemented in different organizational and geographical settings. Vita, a global leader in foam and polymer products, and AnaBio, an emerging player in sustainable personal care products in India, provide contrasting yet complementary perspectives. Using a qualitative research design, the study employs in-depth interviews with key personnel from both companies to gather insights into their approaches to sustainable product innovation. The interviews reveal how Vita integrates sustainability into its product development and supply chain management, achieving significant reductions in carbon emissions and promoting industry-wide changes. AnaBio's innovative approach involves developing biodegradable sanitary products that align with local market needs and infrastructure. The findings highlight the importance of organizational size, geographic location, and regulatory environment in shaping sustainable innovation strategies. Vita's comprehensive sustainability measures and proactive industry engagement contrast with AnaBio's market-driven and locally adapted innovations. Overall, the thesis contributes to the understanding of sustainable product innovation by providing detailed case studies that illustrate the practical applications and challenges of implementing sustainability in different business contexts while addressing the inherent contradictions of the plastic paradox. - Exploring public-private cooperation in Finland’s energy transition. A grounded theory approach through expert interviews.
School of Business | Master's thesis(2024) Haapavaara, RobinThe global energy transition demands robust public-private cooperation to aggressively accelerate the development and scaling of low-emission energy sources and the infrastructures. This thesis investigates the opportunities, challenges, and roles in the collaboration between the public and private sectors in Finland’s energy transition. Using the grounded theory methodology, the findings of this study rely on semi-structured interviews with industry experts, policymakers, and researchers. Through inductive reasoning, the findings reveal that while Finland has an ambitious goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2035, bureaucratic bottlenecks and regulatory inconsistencies hold back innovation and investments. Inefficiencies in the unavoidable interactions between the sectors and poor decision-making processes can delay progress, increase costs, and result in fewer climate-driven projects. Critical gaps were identified in the uncertainty of how the energy mix should be optimised and how extensively the government should select the winning technologies. High trust in the public governance in Finland provides the basis for bridging these gaps with transparent decision-making. This study provides actionable advice for policymakers and the energy industry, emphasizing regulatory stability combined with agile decision-making and permitting for new technologies. A central contribution of this research is an emergent theory for the collaborative development of an energy production technology. The theory emphasizes how to pre-emptively address the barriers in the development processes. Recommendations for future research include exploring strategies for expanding Finland’s carbon handprint abroad with a focus on cost-efficient reductions in emissions. - Financial success and strategic decisions of Finnish forest industry companies during different phases of the business cycle
School of Business | Master's thesis(2024) Lövegren, Clas-OttoFinnish forest industry companies have a long and well-established history. Even though several companies operate in the same industry, their financial performance varies. The difference in financial performance between companies can be traced back to their strategic decisions and actions, and their relationship to the business cycle. Knowing which strategic decisions and actions are effective in different stages of the business cycle allows forest industry companies to better understand what they should do and when to improve their financial performance. This thesis researches what strategic decisions and actions are effective in various stages of the business cycle for Finnish forest industry companies. This research conducts a literature review of how business cycles affect forest industry companies, and which strategic decisions and actions are effective at different stages of the business cycle. In addition, the study conducts archival research to determine which strategic decisions and actions are effective for Finnish forest industry companies. The study found ten strategic decisions and actions that forest industry companies can implement during recessionary periods to improve their financial performance. These were: 1) develop internal processes, 2) limit production, 3) cut costs on non-essential business activities, 4) reorganize corporate structure, 5) sell or discontinue unprofitable business activities, 6) invest in market opportunities, 7) expand into new market segments, 8) increase production capacity, 9) develop products and services, and 10) launch new products and services. In addition, the thesis identified five strategic decisions and actions that forest industry companies can implement during expansionary periods to improve their financial performance. These were: 1) develop internal processes, 2) invest in market opportunities, 3) expand to new market segments, 4) develop products and services, and 5) update financial targets. Some of the strategic decisions and actions were used more frequently than others, and they were implemented during both recessionary and expansionary periods. It is suggested to use these strategic decisions and actions because they may be the most useful and efficient to implement. Furthermore, even though both studied companies operated in the forest industry, the impact of the strategic decisions and actions varied due to differences in the companies' business segments. As a result, future research could be conducted to better understand how different strategic decisions and actions affect different business segments. - Hakkuutähteiden käyttö lastulevyn raaka-aineena
Helsinki University of Technology | Master's thesis(1971) Laine, Lauri - How sustainable entrepreneurs balance business and saving the world. A multiple case study of tensions and management strategies of circular business ventures in Finland.
School of Business | Master's thesis(2023) Alanen, PauliinaThe world is facing numerous environmental and social challenges, including climate change and the depletion of natural resources. In order to create a more sustainable future, the concept of circular economy has been raised as an alternative to the current linear ‘take, make, waste’ economy. In the creation of such an economic system, sustainable entrepreneurs and their ventures that aim to slow, close, or narrow resource loops act as key drivers. Despite the potential, circular economy has been slow to gain traction and impact the wider economic sphere. This study aims to shed light on this problem by looking at the implementation of circular business models, and the tensions that emerge in the case companies’ quest to create so-called triple bottom line value, in other words, as they strive to meet their social, environmental, and economic goals. Such tensions are continuously present in an organization with hybrid goals, which leads companies having to face and manage these tensions regularly. Understanding the tensions and how they can be managed, can accelerate our transition to a circular economy. This thesis focuses on identifying tensions emerging in circular business ventures through a business model lens and then seeking to understand what are the key strategies the leaders of these circular ventures use to manage the tensions. The thesis aims to provide structure to these tensions and the management strategies and business model innovations, by connecting these to the three key elements of a business model: value proposition, value creation and delivery system as well as value capture. It provides an understanding of tensions occurring and recurring in building a circular venture of any circular core mechanism: closing, narrowing, or slowing resource circles. Finally, the thesis gives an overview of opportunities and gaps as well as future research areas. - Liikennelentokoneen ohjaajan käyttäytyminen häiriötilanteessa lentoonlähdön aikana ja sen vaikutus kiihdytys-pysäytysmatkaan
Helsinki University of Technology | Master's thesis(1969) Laine, Lauri - Metaentrepreneurship
School of Business | Doctoral dissertation (article-based)(2022) Laine, LauriWhat do people think about when they think about entrepreneurship? This dissertation is an attempt to think over this question. While research on entrepreneurship has multiplied during the last decades, theorists have failed to settle on a foundational definition and have instead 'agreed to disagree' about their common object of study. My argument is that even if entrepreneurship may remain conceptually elusive, dialogue on what it is may carry unique benefits to theory and practice. This argument is developed over the course of an introductory essay and five standalone essays. The first essay is a metatheoretical exercise in the process philosophy of entrepreneurship, which holds that entrepreneurship is a 'becoming' phenomenon requiring languages of flux and change, although words themselves can never fully capture it. We then reasoned for an archetypal understanding of the entrepreneurial process as the creation of new organizations. Theorizing this process as an heroic journey, we developed a novel understanding of entrepreneurship as the mythologization of organizational creativity. The second essay is an attempt to understand how to theorize entrepreneurship as an emancipatory phenomenon. With the 'social imaginary' concept, which refers to the pretheoretical understandings according to which people make sense of how the social world works, we argue that entrepreneurship theorizing thrives on the social imaginary of emancipation. Based on an hermeneutic reading of three emancipatory texts, we constructed three ideal types of social imagination in emancipatory entrepreneurship: strengthening, undermining, and shaping emancipatory practices. The third essay deals with the rise of 'entrepreneurialism' – an excessive and unrealistic focus on high-growth venturing – in historical context. Based on an extensive study of Joseph Schumpeter's thought, we found that while the heroization of 'the entrepreneur' can satisfy a large cluster of carriers, broader, more historically integrated views have failed to excite and gain similar support. The fourth essay applies terror management theory (TMT) to entrepreneurial motivation. Combining TMT's hedonic with Schumpeter's eudaemonic motives, I suggested a three step-model of self-esteem building through business venturing: securing distinction, appearing as worthy, and delivering a contribution. With the fifth essay, we take stock of the speculative realist move in contemporary metaphysics to argue that previously withdrawn realities can be unhid by tapping into the inherent weirdness of independently existing things. We illustrate our argument using the stories of two philosopher-entrepreneurs who aspire(d) for space colonization: the pioneer of electric jazz Sun Ra and the engineer and founder of SpaceX Elon Musk. Unearthing life in space, we then discuss the implications of a reality "out there" for organizational and entrepreneurship theorizing. - The Social Imaginary of Emancipation in Entrepreneurship
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2022-03) Laine, Lauri; Kibler, EwaldThis article contributes to the research agenda of emancipatory entrepreneurship by developing the understanding of emancipation as a social imaginary in entrepreneurship. In particular, we draw on fiction and philosophical hermeneutics to generate three ideal types of the social imaginary of emancipation in entrepreneurship theorizing. Building on our hermeneutic analysis, we introduce a framework that explains how entrepreneurship theorizing can strengthen, undermine, and shape emancipatory practices as well as the social imaginary of emancipation. We conclude our article by explicating and discussing the relevancy of emancipation in and for entrepreneurship theorizing across different social imaginaries and social practices. - Towards a mythic process philosophy of entrepreneurship
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2018-03) Laine, Lauri; Kibler, EwaldDrawing on the archetypal theory of the hero's journey, we present an analysis of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey to theorise on a primordial organisation of entrepreneurial processes. We conclude by discussing opportunities implied by a mythic-process approach in developing new meaning for the ‘beginnings’ and ‘ends’ in the process philosophy of entrepreneurship. - Towards an Object-Oriented Organization Theory: The Role of Entrepreneurial Objects in Organizational Emergence
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä(2023) Laine, Lauri; Kibler, EwaldAvant-garde entrepreneurship studies have contributed to organization theory through a strong process ontology on the creation of new potentialities for organizing; however, this has also further diminished scholarly attention to organizations as objects. It follows that the core entities of organization theory?real organizations?matter very little for theorizing organizational emergence. Based on Graham Harman?s object-oriented ontology (OOO), we develop the argument that objects, not unlike processes, can be entrepreneurial. Laying the ground for an object-oriented organization theory (OOOT), we posit that increased attention to viewing entrepreneurship as a quality invites organization theory into the weird reality of organizations as emergent autonomy-seeking objects. This becomes possible by way of a non-literal knowledge sustained by the commitment of another object that is neither reduceable to its components (including process itself) nor actions (including all forms of the relational determination of organizations). We close by discussing the uniqueness of OOOT through the example of Sun Ra and the Arkestra.