Leveraging public information to enhance services and operations in service businesses
Vättö, Tomi (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060319651
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025060319651
Tiivistelmä
In an increasingly data-driven economy, publicly available information—ranging from government statistics to environmental and geospatial datasets—holds promising yet seemingly underexploited potential for service innovation and operational improvement. This thesis investigated how service businesses could strategically leverage such data to enhance their operations and services. The research was driven by two core questions: (1) How could service organizations utilize publicly available data to improve services and operations? and (2) What are the key drivers and barriers affecting its adoption?
To explore these questions, the study adopted a qualitative research design, grounded in semi-structured thematic interviews with professionals from both public, private and association-based organizations operating in Finland. The empirical data were collected over a four-month period, from late 2024 to early 2025. The central theories underpinning the thesis were the Resource-Based View (RBV) and the Knowledge-Based View (KBV) of the firm, as well as Open Innovation theory. These frameworks positioned public data as a strategic, knowledge-enabling resource that could be transformed into competitive advantage through internal capabilities.
The findings showed that publicly available data could improve operational efficiency, support the development of services, and support more informed, data-driven decision-making. Organizations were able to reduce manual workloads, create customer value through new and/or improved services. However, several structural and organizational challenges hindered wider adoption. These included inconsistent data quality, varying levels of granularity, lack of standardization across datasets, and limited awareness of what data is available and how it could be used.
As a concrete development proposal, the thesis presented a seven-point list aimed at helping companies more effectively leverage publicly available information. These recommendations focused on improving organizational awareness, aligning data with business needs, and fostering stronger collaboration within the broader data ecosystem. In addition, future research directions were proposed, including longitudinal studies and sector-specific analyses, to further explore benefits and possibilities of publicly available information.
To explore these questions, the study adopted a qualitative research design, grounded in semi-structured thematic interviews with professionals from both public, private and association-based organizations operating in Finland. The empirical data were collected over a four-month period, from late 2024 to early 2025. The central theories underpinning the thesis were the Resource-Based View (RBV) and the Knowledge-Based View (KBV) of the firm, as well as Open Innovation theory. These frameworks positioned public data as a strategic, knowledge-enabling resource that could be transformed into competitive advantage through internal capabilities.
The findings showed that publicly available data could improve operational efficiency, support the development of services, and support more informed, data-driven decision-making. Organizations were able to reduce manual workloads, create customer value through new and/or improved services. However, several structural and organizational challenges hindered wider adoption. These included inconsistent data quality, varying levels of granularity, lack of standardization across datasets, and limited awareness of what data is available and how it could be used.
As a concrete development proposal, the thesis presented a seven-point list aimed at helping companies more effectively leverage publicly available information. These recommendations focused on improving organizational awareness, aligning data with business needs, and fostering stronger collaboration within the broader data ecosystem. In addition, future research directions were proposed, including longitudinal studies and sector-specific analyses, to further explore benefits and possibilities of publicly available information.