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Connecting autonomous drones to ground operations and services is a prerequisite for the adoption of scalable and sustainable drone services in the built environment. Despite the rapid advance in the field of autonomous drones, the development of ground infrastructure has received less attention. Contemporary airport design offers potential solutions for the infrastructure serving autonomous drone services. To that end, this paper aims to construct a framework for connecting air and ground operations for autonomous drone services. Furthermore, the paper defines the minimum facilities needed to support unmanned aerial vehicles for autonomous logistics and the collection of aerial data.

The paper reviews the state-of-the-art in airport design literature as the basis for analysing the guidelines of manned aviation applicable to the development of ground infrastructure for autonomous drone services. Socio-technical system analysis was used for identifying the service needs of drones.

The key findings are functional modularity based on the principles of airport design applies to micro-airports and modular service functions can be connected efficiently with an autonomous ground handling system in a sustainable manner addressing the concerns on maintenance, reliability and lifecycle.

As the study was limited to the airport design literature findings, the evolution of solutions may provide features supporting deviating approaches. The role of autonomy and cloud-based service processes are quintessentially different from the conventional airport design and are likely to impact real-life solutions as the area of future research.

The findings of this study provided a framework for establishing the connection between the airside and the landside for the operations of autonomous aerial services. The lack of such framework and ground infrastructure has hindered the large-scale adoption and easy-to-use solutions for sustainable logistics and aerial data collection for decision-making in the built environment.

The evolution of future autonomous aerial services should be accessible to all users, “democratising” the use of drones. The data collected by drones should comply with the privacy-preserving use of the data. The proposed ground infrastructure can contribute to offloading, storing and handling aerial data to support drone services’ acceptability.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the paper describes the first design framework for creating a design concept for a modular and autonomous micro-airport system for unmanned aviation based on the applied functions of full-size conventional airports.

Public procurement is a major driving force that can be used to advance societal goals such as sustainability. The lack of strategic management and top-level commitment have been found to be major hindrances to the promotion of sustainable public procurement (SPP). This study aims to examine the functioning of a successful Finnish SPP development programme, the KEINO Academy (2019–2020), that tackled these challenges in a holistic way.

The article is mainly based on qualitative analysis of interviews with 24 municipal representatives.

The KEINO Academy advanced SPP management through the following functions: legitimising SPP development work, structuring SPP development work, offering expert support and facilitating peer support. The functions were mainly able to meet the key challenges experienced by the participating municipalities. However, some challenges cannot be directly solved by an intermediary such as the KEINO Academy. These challenges include, for example, a lack of resources.

On the basis of the study, SPP development programmes should: build a holistic working model; respect the versatility of the participating organisations; involve all the key people in the organisations, including the directors; and sustain change.

The main theoretical contribution is the combination of two streams of literature, those of SPP management and intermediary functions. Further, the article makes an empirical contribution by studying the KEINO Academy as a pioneering SPP development case.

This study aims to present property management challenges that municipalities have encountered regarding a public building with noted building-related symptoms. The study goes on to provide reasons for the failure of attempts to manage the symptoms and discusses the current challenges concerning the process.

A participatory case study was used as the research methodology to identify the current challenges concerning a municipal approach to managing the building-related symptoms in a case-study building. The researchers scrutinised the history of the health symptom management process and attended the project planning meetings focused on the investigation of the condition of the building.

Multiple challenges concerning maintenance and omitted or postponed repair actions, as well as vagueness in the management process were found. In addition to this, it was noted that the complexity of the initial design of the building and vandalism have resulted in challenges for the maintenance and moisture performance of the building structures. According to the study, more orderliness and a more systematic process is needed when managing a municipal property.

The identified property management challenges may be of practical value for the facility managers and the property owners, especially when managing the building-related symptoms and a damaged building.

This study highlights the importance of having an in-depth understanding of condition assessments as well as proper maintenance and timely repairs for the successful management of the building-related symptoms in a municipal building. This is a pilot project in a larger project of management of building refurbishment.

Poor indoor air quality in schools is a worldwide challenge that poses health risks to pupils and teachers. A possible response to this problem is to modify ventilation. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to pilot a process of generating alternatives for ventilation redesign, in an early project phase, for a school to be refurbished. Here, severe problems in indoor air quality have been found in the school.

Ventilation redesign is investigated in a case study of a school, in which four alternative ventilation strategies are generated and evaluated. The analysis is mainly based on the data gathered from project meetings, site visits and the documents provided by ventilation and condition assessment consultants.

Four potential strategies to redesign ventilation in the case school are provided for decision-making in refurbishment in the early project phase. Moreover, the research presents several features to be considered when planning the ventilation strategy of an existing school, including the risk of alterations in air pressure through structures; the target number of pupils in classrooms; implementing and operating costs; and the size of the space that ventilation equipment requires.

As this study focusses on the early project phase, it provides viewpoints to assist decision-making, but the final decision requires still more accurate calculations and simulations.

This study demonstrates the decision-making process of ventilation redesign of a school with indoor air problems and provides a set of features to be considered. Hence, it may be beneficial for building owners and municipal authorities who are engaged in planning a refurbishment of an existing building.

This study aims to understand how online weight loss services could help customers achieve a durable change. The particular focus is on exploring the roles of value co-creation and well-being outcomes in reinforcing the transformative value potential, which is argued to be realized as customers’ intentions to continue a healthier lifestyle after the service period has ended.

Data was collected from the participants of an online weight loss service (n = 498), and a conceptual research model was tested using structural equation modelling.

The results imply that compliance with the guidelines and social support are two value co-creation activities that can influence the well-being outcomes of transformative services (i.e. perceived behavioral control and satisfaction with one’s achievements). These well-being outcomes help attain the transformative value potential of online weight loss services. However, the actual weight loss affected the transformative value potential only through customers’ satisfaction with their achievements as a subjective well-being outcome.

This study provides insight into the transformative value potential of services in the weight loss context. This study contributes to the transformative service research by focusing on the role of online services in reinforcing a durable change through the co-creation of value and improvements in customers’ well-being.

This study aims to provide a foundation for the development of subcontracts that suit takt production in construction.

This is a non-empiric conceptual study, which integrates takt production and general construction literature into new proposals for subcontract clauses suitable for takt production in construction. This study uses literature reviews, from which proposals regarding takt production viable subcontract clauses are conducted via logical reasoning.

A total of 13 proposals for takt production applicable subcontracts are provided in this study. The proposals emphasize detailed and collaborative planning, suitable payment methods and flexibility for takt plan modification.

Previous takt literature has not properly addressed the development of subcontracts for takt production, despite regular attempts to use subcontracting in takt production. This study aims to aid main contractors to create fair and suitable subcontracts, so that adhering to takt schedules could be more viable in practice. This study also acts as a foundation for further empirical studies regarding the subject.

Public authorities are required to organise new facilities to respond to changed user demands in terms of a public-owned school. The number of pupils attending the case study school will increase in the following years, as will the number of children attending a day nursery located on the present campus. In addition, the users of the campus have complained of building-related symptoms. This study aims to understand the municipal decision-making process in organising the school’s facilities, in particular, the factors used for decreasing uncertainty around a project.

This study is a case study undertaken through an action research approach. The researchers participated in the project planning meetings concerning the future activities to take place in the building.

Over a 13-month period, multiple stakeholders participated in the project planning meetings providing a deeper understanding of the space demands posed, current challenges and opportunities offered by the existing building. In addition, the alternative solutions generated were evaluated. The problem identification and information gathering periods lasted over nine months, which was far longer than predicted. Thus, generating alternative solutions and evaluation of the solutions also delayed. As the entire process was delayed substantially, the final decision on organising the facilities was not made during this research.

This research may be of practical value for a property owner and a project team for decision-making concerning changed facility demands.

This paper provides information about how public authorities are making decisions on facility organisation during conditions of uncertainty.

This study aims to introduce the perceived systems intelligence (SI) inventory, developed based on the earlier published self-report SI inventory (Törmänen et al., 2016). It can be used together with earlier managerial level tools for building a learning organization and included in general 360-style evaluations in personnel development.

The inventory is validated with confirmatory factor analysis with a model based on the self-report SI inventory, using data from full-time used employees and managers in the USA and UK. Perceived SI factor scores are correlated with the perceived study performance of the individual.

The perceived SI inventory is found to have good factorial validity, and it correlates strongly with evaluations of perceived study performance. Managers perceived high in performance are also found to score high in perceived SI. Perceived SI does not depend on gender, age, organization size or industry.

The perceived SI inventory is the first personnel level peer evaluation tool suggested for developing learning organizations. The new inventory makes peer evaluations possible and provides a new grassroots level tool for personnel development programs in learning organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the comment letters (CLs) in the standard-setting process of audits of less complex entities (LCEs). The objective is to gain insight into the overall picture of the CLs and to report on areas where comment providers agree or disagree with IAASB's Part 10.

A content analysis of 60 comment letter (CLs) was conducted to investigate the suggested additional Part 10 on audits of groups' financial statements in the proposed ISA for LCEs. Hence, this study examines three specific topics: (1) the views related to the use of the International Standard on Auditing (ISA) for LCEs for group audits in which component auditors are involved, (2) the proposed group-specific qualitative characteristics to describe the scope of group audits and, finally, (3) insights into the content of the proposed Part 10 and related conforming amendments. The Gioia method is used to provide a holistic approach to concept development of the arguments about the new Part 10.

The CLs stated that, while the proposed Part 10 has some weak points, it still provides a solid and practical structure within which to undertake an LCE group audit and a promising basis for further development. For instance, when discussing the improvements, the CLs stated that Part 10 should allow for more auditor judgment when determining when the involvement of component auditors renders a group audit complex. In addition, the CLs asserted that professional judgment should be engaged when considering the qualitative characteristics and the complexity of the group.

This study contributes to the very scarce research about the ISA for LCEs and the role of lobbying in shaping the audit standard-setting process.