Anastasia Tsvetkova

The decarbonization of cruise shipping requires the identification of environmentally preferable alternative marine fuels; however, this raises the question of which life cycle assessment (LCA) approach should be applied, as fuel performance may vary depending on whether RED II-compliant modelling, IMO-based calculations, default emission factors, or ISO-compliant inventory-based LCA are used. Existing literature typically evaluates limited alternative fuels and frequently relies on emission-factor-based approaches that are incapable of reflecting varying operational modes across a voyage and often applies methodological choices, such as system expansion instead of allocation, that are inconsistent with IMO LCA guidelines. In addition to environmental performance, it is necessary to anticipate carbon allowance and compliance costs under the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime to assess the resulting economic implications of alternative fuel use. The results indicate that methane-based fuels are highly sensitive to methane slip assumptions and default emission factors, leading to substantial differences in reported emission intensities across accounting approaches, whereas renewable methanol pathways consistently achieve the lowest well-to-wake emissions across scenarios. When translated into policy-relevant compliance costs under the EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime, renewable methanol emerges as the most robust option. The findings demonstrate that regulatory accounting choices materially influence both environmental and economic assessments of alternative fuels in cruise shipping.

Maritime transport plays a critical role in decarbonizing global supply chains. Recent international initiatives highlight the importance of green shipping corridors for accelerating maritime decarbonization and enhancing value chain partnerships. This article focuses on green corridors along RoPax routes, central to the EU’s transport strategy. The study delves into policy and regulatory instruments affecting RoPax green corridors, examining international, EU, and national regulations. It acknowledges that the impact of the policy landscape on these initiatives extends beyond maritime shipping, encompassing land logistics, goods transportation, shipbuilding, and energy production. By analyzing relevant regulatory, economic and voluntary policy instruments, this research contributes to the discourse on maritime sector decarbonization within the existing policy landscape.

This study identifies micro-to-meso level hindrances for value co-creation through digitalisation at port operations. Digitalisation in ports faces significant challenges due to complex, interdependent actor relationships. This study explores how micro-level hindrances affect meso-level value co-creation in a port digitalisation context. Based on an explorative case study of a RoPax port digitalisation project, we identified hindrances across levels could constrain and interdepend on each other. Micro-level hindrances within an organisation, such as — lack of digitalisation leads, limited operational data, outdated digital infrastructure and security concerns — could reinforce six hindrances on meso-level: 1) unaware co-creators, 2) lack of collective leadership for digitalisation, 3) limited data accessibility, 4) low inter-organisational resource compatibility, 5) misaligned or misunderstood value co-creation targets, 6) resistant to change.

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, there have been no comprehensive and systematic reviews of the academic literature on this topic and proposals for future research areas. The sample for our research consists of 56 articles structured into the following themes and subthemes: (1) corporate social responsibility (public interaction and emissions management); (2) territory management (collaboration with stakeholders and infrastructure development); (3) training in sustainable behavior (passengers, ship personnel, and other stakeholders). These themes fully explore the various use cases for sustainable cruises, forming a conceptual framework for understanding trends for the industry’s sustainable development. We direct the attention of other researchers to the following areas for further research: GHG emissions of cruising; biodiversity impacts; quantitative understanding of the target audience and their participation in sustainability financing; in-depth understanding of the reasons for cooperation between stakeholders; identifying the true motivation for participation in sustainable development; the long-term trends; and how the shipping industry is adapting to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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 in transforming supply and logistics chains. The value creation potential of these ships depends on the degree to which they disrupt logistics. Our aim here is to clarify how MASS create value and for whom, as well as how different actors in the maritime logistics ecosystem are able to monetize or otherwise benefit from the innovation. Based on interviews with experts in maritime logistics and autonomous technology, and a desktop study of the opinions of the leaders in maritime innovation, we analyse the different facets of value creation by MASS. We distinguish between the two key sources of value – onboard crew reduction and increased ship intelligence and their effects (cost reductions, earning potential, increased safety and system value) – and explicate for which actors in the ecosystem the value is created. We identify the key changes in the maritime logistics ecosystem, which concern the changing roles of technology providers, shipowners and operators, and we highlight the need for developing complementary infrastructure and activities in the ecosystem.

Purpose: Virtual and augmented reality solutions in medicine are generally applied in communication, training, simulation and therapy. However, like most new digital developments, these technologies face a large number of institutional barriers that are inherent to the medical sector.Design/methodology/approach: Following Richard Scott's view on institutions and organizations, a multiple case study is used to analyze regulatory, normative and cultural-cognitive institutional pillars in the medical industry.Findings: The results of the study demonstrate that (1) the regulatory pillar inhibits the advancement of new technologies in the approach to treatment, regulation of patient data, educational processes for medical staff, and information and financial flows; (2) the number of barriers increases based on the solution's level of disruption and the number of variable conventional procedures; (3) trust between participants in the medical industry plays an important role in introducing new technologies; (4) new participants need to address certain pillars depending on the area of application.Originality/value: The authors discuss top-down and bottom-up approaches for overcoming institutional barriers when implementing augmented and virtual reality solutions for companies focusing on the medical market.

In order to successfully transfer research results of business studies to practical application, there is a need to produce knowledge that has practical relevance and is transferrable to new contexts. This, naturally, creates requirements for the research process and methodology. In this paper, the methodology for conducting transformative business studies is presented, which is based on a combination of the design science research paradigm, participative research, and controversy mapping inspired by actor-network theory. The combination of these research methodologies and paradigms forms a methodological basis for producing transferrable research results that concern larger organizational and social change. It allows approaching ill-defined research problems through design thinking and systematically validating and verifying research results with practitioners in order to ensure the applicability of results in practice. To illustrate the methodology, we utilize an example of a method for designing business ecosystems that was developed in a collaboration between Åbo Akademi University and the research-based consultancy PBI Research Institute. This method was created during a series of projects devoted to the biogas-for-traffic business and concerned the development of enabling business ecosystems for innovations. Due to the way the knowledge was recorded, it was possible to transfer this knowledge to new contexts, such as logistics and energy business.