Developing Information Activities for Decision Making in Digitally Transforming Asset Lifecycle

Lifecycle perspective in organizations is getting more attention because of growing awareness of opportunities to reduce economical and environmental lifecycle costs and increase collaboration among stakeholders in the lifecycle. Collaboration among lifecycle stages and different organizations is difficult as the stages are interdependent, but the information needs differ from one another. AEC-industry (architecture, engineering, and construction) is aware of their challenges with information, and digital transformation is viewed as a possibility to solve their challenges with uninformed decisions, information flows, organizational learning, and productivity. However, before digital transformation can support information flows, the foundations of information activities need to be successfully in place. This phenomenon inspired a research question: “How could information activities support knowledge-based decision making in digitally transforming asset lifecycle?”. The research is conducted with mixed methods design, where the initial quantitative data guides the following qualitative data collection. The quantitative data was collected with a questionnaire distributed to 22 organizations in infrastructure construction sector in Finland. The respondents included public asset owners and private contractors in infrastructure design, construction, and maintenance. The quantitative data guided the research focus from the whole asset lifecycle to asset owner and its information activities. The qualitative data was collected interviewing 31 people in case asset owning organization, and its stakeholders.

This compilation thesis consists of four publications. The first two publications are based on the quantitative data and found that the asset owner acts as a gatekeeper for information, and all the stages of lifecycle need to be considered to enable knowledge-based decision making. The third and fourth publication are based on the qualitative data. Third publication found challenges in the information activities of the asset owner, and the fourth publication addressed the challenges hindering digital transformation.

Based on empirical findings and theoretical background, this thesis suggests that the prominent barriers to knowledge-based decision making in asset lifecycle are lack of collaboration between the stages of asset lifecycle and the challenges asset owners have with their information activities in asset lifecycle. Thus, developing the information activities of asset owner has a promising effect to the whole lifecycle regarding the information use. The thesis also suggests ways to develop information activities to better respond to the needs of lifecycle setting, and that it is essential to consider the dependencies of the lifecycle stages from the information point of view. The final suggestion of this thesis is that developing asset owner’s information activities, and the process they form, supports digital transformation by providing reliable data and information for decision makers.

This thesis contributes theoretically on several levels, as it contributes to the literature on lifecycle management, digital transformation, and information activities. In addition, it brings together different research paradigms and provides perspectives that are not too common in these fields of research. For practical community, this thesis provides managerial propositions that guide asset owners in developing their information activities and support successful digital transformation. In addition, the thesis challenges the technological focus of the practical community and encourages developing the activities and practices too, which in the long run can lead to more successful implementation of new technologies in AEC-industry.