Table 2. A summary of identified... | Emerald Publishing

Table 2.

A summary of identified challenges and their proposed solutions

Phases	Challenge	Solutions
1,2,5	Legitimacy problems: Decision-makers struggle to understand the SIB concept, measurements, and outcomes due to its complexity and limited data on its track record. There is political resistance to involving private investors in public services and challenges in shifting to an outcome-focused model without predefined services	Building trust by presenting examples from other countries; using simple language Engaging leaders from municipalities early in the process
2	Lack of incontestable objectives and indicators: There are no universally accepted indicators for measuring wellbeing outcomes, and the targeted societal issues seem too broad and ambiguous for the SIB. Aligning different views for suitable indicators is difficult	The novel outcome focus required broad stakeholder involvement to identify root causes and iteratively customize the indicators for each municipality
2,3	Lack of data: Insufficient data hinders the analysis of social problems and the development of an economic model for the SIB, exacerbated by privacy issues, lack of target group and peer group data and delays in accessing external data	Exploring the measurement of long-term outcomes through national statistics, manual data collection and developing internal data analytics capacity
3	Modelling complexity: Modelling social issues is challenging due to the complexity of Finland’s welfare system, uncertainty about how the issue develops, limited knowledge of long-term effects, and difficulties linking interventions to reduced public expenditure	Using “rough” indicative models and leveraging available data to support stakeholder dialogue. Engagement in early discussions with service providers
3	Monetizing the solutions: Balancing the creation of effective economic incentives while avoiding sub-optimization, where service providers may prioritize easier tasks that yield quicker results over meaningful long-term impacts	Price segmentation; linking compensation to public savings and municipal benefits
1–3,5	Changes in organizational culture and working practices: Implementing an SIB introduces new legal and administrative tasks and requirements, demands changes in municipal operations, including adopting outcome-focused, end-user-centric approaches, which can disrupt existing practices and professional identities	Educating personnel to listen to end-users; raising wellbeing issues in discussions; guiding the end-user to use adequate services. Compensating employees based on SIB success
1–5	Cooperation: Issues like uneven contributions among municipalities, involving stakeholders too late, slow decision-making and personnel changes can disrupt collaboration among key actors. Guiding the target group individuals to participate in wellbeing services requires cooperation between SIB-commissioners and service providers	Sharing information and defining clear responsibilities, roles and schedules. Ensuring all relevant stakeholders are identified, involved and educated early enough
1–5	Resource needs: SIB preparation is resource-intensive, adding to personnel’s existing responsibilities and causing resourcing issues. Diverse expertise is necessary, and reliance on key individuals poses a risk, as their departure can halt the project	Aggregating smaller issues into larger problems and pooling resources. Consulting external experts for team building and advice. Allocating a full-time project manager for the preparation project

Phases	Challenge	Solutions
1,2,5	Legitimacy problems: Decision-makers struggle to understand the SIB concept, measurements, and outcomes due to its complexity and limited data on its track record. There is political resistance to involving private investors in public services and challenges in shifting to an outcome-focused model without predefined services	Building trust by presenting examples from other countries; using simple languageEngaging leaders from municipalities early in the process
2	Lack of incontestable objectives and indicators: There are no universally accepted indicators for measuring wellbeing outcomes, and the targeted societal issues seem too broad and ambiguous for the SIB. Aligning different views for suitable indicators is difficult	The novel outcome focus required broad stakeholder involvement to identify root causes and iteratively customize the indicators for each municipality
2,3	Lack of data: Insufficient data hinders the analysis of social problems and the development of an economic model for the SIB, exacerbated by privacy issues, lack of target group and peer group data and delays in accessing external data	Exploring the measurement of long-term outcomes through national statistics, manual data collection and developing internal data analytics capacity
3	Modelling complexity: Modelling social issues is challenging due to the complexity of Finland’s welfare system, uncertainty about how the issue develops, limited knowledge of long-term effects, and difficulties linking interventions to reduced public expenditure	Using “rough” indicative models and leveraging available data to support stakeholder dialogue. Engagement in early discussions with service providers
3	Monetizing the solutions: Balancing the creation of effective economic incentives while avoiding sub-optimization, where service providers may prioritize easier tasks that yield quicker results over meaningful long-term impacts	Price segmentation; linking compensation to public savings and municipal benefits
1–3,5	Changes in organizational culture and working practices: Implementing an SIB introduces new legal and administrative tasks and requirements, demands changes in municipal operations, including adopting outcome-focused, end-user-centric approaches, which can disrupt existing practices and professional identities	Educating personnel to listen to end-users; raising wellbeing issues in discussions; guiding the end-user to use adequate services. Compensating employees based on SIB success
1–5	Cooperation: Issues like uneven contributions among municipalities, involving stakeholders too late, slow decision-making and personnel changes can disrupt collaboration among key actors. Guiding the target group individuals to participate in wellbeing services requires cooperation between SIB-commissioners and service providers	Sharing information and defining clear responsibilities, roles and schedules. Ensuring all relevant stakeholders are identified, involved and educated early enough
1–5	Resource needs: SIB preparation is resource-intensive, adding to personnel’s existing responsibilities and causing resourcing issues. Diverse expertise is necessary, and reliance on key individuals poses a risk, as their departure can halt the project	Aggregating smaller issues into larger problems and pooling resources. Consulting external experts for team building and advice. Allocating a full-time project manager for the preparation project

Source(s): Authors’ own creation