%0 Articles
%T Business ecosystems for urban sustainability: retrofits, wood construction, and nature-based solutions in Finland
%A Viljanen, Anne
%D 2025
%J Dissertationes Forestales
%V 2025
%N 362
%R doi:10.14214/df.362
%U http://dissertationesforestales.fi/article/25003
%X Combatting environmental problems, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and the overconsumption of natural resources, requires the dual strategies of mitigation and adaptation to enhance resilience. There is a need for new sustainable solutions targeting the markets. Wood material-based construction retrofits offer new possibilities but are currently rare in the urban context. Along with new wooden multistory construction, wooden retrofits and novel nature-based solutions are being introduced to urban building stock. These solutions bring synergies with better resource efficiency, circular economy, and resilience to environmental risks. Theoretically, this dissertation draws from literature ranging from business and innovation ecosystems, policy instruments, dynamic capabilities, and co-creation of solutions toward a more resilient urban environment. Following, it explores the visions, roles, and actions of frontrunner businesses and municipal decision-makers through the lens of building and retrofit projects in Finnish case cities. The constellation of local ecosystems began materializing through the empirical datasets of 51 qualitative interviews, data from 8 workshops, and other supporting materials. Results show that wooden multistory construction and wooden retrofits could be catalyzed by both policy instruments and better collaboration in business ecosystems (BEs) and that the policy instruments have been more effective when they include characteristics of the building projects. However, the municipalities could take on even more active collaborative roles and a common pool of challenges exists, which calls for greater resident support. To turn the identified strategic aims, vision, and resident needs into actionable initiatives, cities face three key challenges: the lacking inter-organizational division of labor and cooperation, limited interaction channels, and the unidentified ownership of responsibilities during the change processes. In local ecosystems of wooden retrofit projects builders and their customers are key actors. Motivations for retrofit projects are driven by urban densification strategies, by improving the attractiveness of suburban neighborhoods, and by more efficient space utilization. Results further elaborate a certain degree of difficulty in project-level, early-stage decision-making. To aid the strategic thinking in the realms of preparedness, the urban transition pathways of were fashioned up to 2050 regarding nature-based solutions. Overall, mainstreaming nature-based solutions and the wood construction and retrofit projects calls for expanding the knowledge base of innovation ecosystem actors via experiments and co-creative activities.