TURKU TAKING STEPS TOWARDS FUTURE - technology supports physical activity

Physical activity (PA) is an important field of healthcare research internationally and within Finland. As technology devices and services penetrate deeper levels within society, the need for studying the usefulness for PA turns vital. We started this research work by reviewing literature consisting of two hundred research journals, all of which have found technology to significantly improve an individual’s ability to get motivation and achieve officially recommended levels of physical activity, like the 10000 steps a day, being tracked with the help of pedometers. Physical activity recommendations require sustained encouragement, consistent performance in order to achieve the long term benefits. We surveyed within the city of Turku, how the motivation levels and thirty three other criterions encompassing technology awareness, adoption and usage attitudes are impacted. Our aim was to know the factors responsible for achieving consistent growth in activity levels within the individuals and focus groups, as well as to determine the causes of failures and for collecting user experience feedback. The survey results were quite interesting and contain impeccable information for this field. While the focus groups confirmed the theory established by past studies within our literature review, it also establishes our research propositions that ict tools and services have provided and can further add higher benefits and value to individuals in tracking and maintain their activity levels consistently for longer time durations. This thesis includes two new models which dictate technology and physical activity adoption patterns based on four easy to evaluate criterions, thereby helping the healthcare providers to recommend improvements and address issues with an easy rule based approach. This research work provides vital clues on technology based healthcare objectives and achievement of standard PA recommendations by people within Turku and nearby regions.

The Evolution of Securities Lending and Risk Mitigation: A Finnish Market Case Study

Although securities lending is an important function of the financial markets, it has not received that much academic attention. This study examines the evolution of European securities lending and risk management with an emphasis on the development of collateral management, the function responsible for reducing credit risk. The effects of the recent financial instabilities are also considered. The evolution of the Finnish securities lending market is examined in more detail through a case-study. This study can be classified as a constructive qualitative case study. The initial practical knowledge comes from the author's own experience and additional insight and theoretical background is acquired through a literature review. The case study is based on research, semi-structured interviews and a brief analysis of numerical data. The main observation of this study was that securities lending is now recognized as more of an investment management discipline than an operational support function. The recent financial instabilities have resulted in an increased focus on risk and transparency. In securities lending this is directly reflected in collateral management guidelines and procedures. Collateral management has become increasingly technologically developed and automated. Collateral optimization initiatives have been started to make the process more efficient, liquid, and cost effective. Although securities lending is generally an OTC-market with no standard market place, centralized exchange-like models have been introduced. Finnish securities lending has now shifted towards the more common global OTC model. Although the Finnish securities lending industry has developed, and the main laws governing it (tax legislation) have changed, there is still need for development. There are still not many Finnish participants involved and due to legal issues most securities loans are collateralized with cash and not securities (e.g. government bonds).

E-PORT. Improving efficiency of Finnish port community by intelligent systems Final report of the Mobile Port project

The management of port-related supply chains is challenging due to the complex and heterogeneous operations of the ports with several actors and processes. That is why the importance of information sharing is emphasised in the ports. However, the information exchange between different port-related actors is often cumbersome and it still involves a lot of manual work and paper. Major ports and port-related actors usually have advanced information systems in daily use but these systems are seldom interoperable with each other, which prevents economies of scale to be reached. Smaller ports and companies might not be equipped with electronic data transmission at all. This is the final report of the Mobile port (MOPO) project, which has sought ways to improve the management and control of port-related sea and inland traffic with the aid of ICT technologies. The project has studied port community systems (PCS) used worldwide, evaluated the suitability of a PCS for the Finnish port operating environment and created a pilot solution of a Finnish PCS in the port of HaminaKotka. Further, the dry port concept and its influences on the transportation system have been explored. The Mobile Port project comprised of several literature reviews, interviews of over 50 port-related logistics and/or ICT professionals, two different kinds of simulation models as well as designing and implementing of the pilot solution of the Finnish PCS. The results of these multiple studies are summarised in this report. Furthermore, recommendations for future actions and the topics for further studies are addressed in the report. The study revealed that the information sharing in a typical Finnish port-related supply chain contains several bottlenecks that cause delays in shipments and waste resources. The study showed that many of these bottlenecks could be solved by building a port community system for the Finnish port community. Almost 30 different kinds of potential services or service entities of a Finnish PCS were found out during the study. The basic requirements, structure, interfaces and operation model of the Finnish PCS were also defined in the study. On the basis of the results of the study, a pilot solution of the Finnish PCS was implemented in the port of HaminaKotka. The pilot solution includes a Portconnect portal for the Finnish port community system (available at https://www.portconnect.fi) and two pilot applications, which are a service for handling the information flows concerning the movements of railway wagons and a service for handling the information flows between Finnish ports and Finland-Russian border. The study also showed that port community systems can be used to improve the environmental aspects of logistics in two different ways: 1) PCSs can bring direct environmental benefits and 2) PCSs can be used as an environmental tool in a port community. On the basis of the study, the development of the Finnish port community system should be continued by surveying other potential applications for the Finnish PCS. It is also important to study if there is need and resources to extend the Finnish PCS to operate in several ports or even on a national level. In the long run, it could be reasonable to clarify whether there would be possibilities to connect the Finnish PCS as a part of Baltic Sea wide, European-wide or even worldwide maritime and port-related network in order to get the best benefit from the system

Esimiestyön vaikutus työhön sitoutumiseen ja työhyvinvointiin

Tutkielman kohteena on tarkastella suhteita esimiestyön, työhön sitoutumisen ja työhyvinvoinnin välillä ICT – alalla Suomessa tapaustutkimuksena. Ilmiöiden välisiä suhteita testattiin sähköisellä henkilöstön sitoutumista mittaavalla kyselylomakkeella vuosina 2011 ja 2012. Yhteensä näinä vuosina kyselyyn vastasi 538 henkilöä, joista tutkittava otos on muodostunut. Lineaarisella regressioanalyysillä osoitettiin merkittäviä tilastollisia korrelaatioita esimiestyön ja työhön sitoutumisen sekä työhön sitoutumisen ja työhyvinvoinnin välillä.

Pohjanmaan aluetalouskatsaus

Tässä katsauksessa on käsitelty aluetalouksia mahdollisimman monipuolisesti väestön, yritysten, tuotannon ja työllisten näkökulmista eri aluetasoilla. Sekä mennyttä kehitystä että ennusteita tulevasta on esitelty. Tärkeimpinä ennusteina on käytetty Tilastokeskuksen väestöennustetta tämän vuoden syyskuulta ja ETLA:n alue- ja toimialaennustetta tämän vuoden lokakuulta. Historiatilastot ovat pääasiassa Tilastokeskuksen StatFin-tilastokannasta ja TEM:n Toimiala Onlinesta. Käsittelytapana on ollut se, että ensin on esitelty maakuntien %-muutosennusteita ja sitten ELY-alueen seutukuntien ja kuntien toteutuneita %-muutoksia. Aikajänne on vaihdellut muutamasta vuodesta vuosikymmeniin. Johtopäätöksenä voidaan todeta, että ELY-alueen molemmat maakunnat ovat selvinneet ja pärjäävät ennusteiden mukaan jatkossakin varsin hyvin muihin maakuntiin verrattuna. Seutukuntatasolla on kuitenkin havaittavissa polarisaatiota suurten työssäkäyntikeskusten hyväksi syrjäisten seutukuntien kustannuksella niin koko maassa kuin maakunnissakin. Tämä tendenssi tulee todennäköisesti vain voimistumaan kuluvalla vuosikymmenellä.

The role of advance payments in working capital management and profitability

The objective of this thesis is to study the role of received advance payments in working capital management by creating a new measurement and to study the relationship between advance payments and profitability. The study has been conducted using narrative literature review and quantitative research methods. The research was made analyzing 108 companies listed in Helsinki Stock Exchange. The results indicate that 68 % of the studied companies are receiving advance payments and the average cycle time for received advance payments is 13 days. A new key figure is created to include received advance payments into the calculation of working capital. Received advance payments shorten the working capital cycle, by 13 days, when they are used in the calculation. The role of advance payments is not as significant as the role of receivables and inventories but advance payments may have a larger role than payables if the company is receiving noticeable amounts of advance payments. There are three branches where companies are receiving more advance payments than average companies. The branches are project business and ICT and publishing sectors. There is a negative correlation between profitability and advance payments based on the results of this study.

The Finnish it industries in transition. Defining and Measuring the Finnish Software Product and IT Services Industries by Applying Theoretical Frameworks

The starting point of this study is that the prevailing way to consider the Finnish IT industries and industry information often results in a limited and even skewed picture of the sector. The purpose of the study is to contribute and increase knowledge and understanding of the status, structure and evolution of the Finnish IT industries as well as the Finnish IT vendor field and competition. The focus is on software product and IT services industries which form a crucial part of all ICT industries. This study examines the Finnish IT sector from production (supply) as well as market (demand) perspective. The study is based on empirical information from multiple sources. Three research questions were formulated for the study. The first concerns the status of the Finnish IT industries considered by applying theoretical frameworks. The second research question targets at the basis for the future evolution of the Finnish IT industries and, finally, the third at the ability of the available definitions and indicators to describe the Finnish IT industries and IT markets. Major structural changes like technological changes and related innovations, globalization and new business models are drivers of the evolution of the IT industries. The findings of this study emphasize the significant role of IT services in the Finnish IT sector and in connection to that the ability to combine IT service skills, competences and practices with high level software skills also in the future. According to the study the Finnish IT enterprises and their customers have become increasingly dependent on global ecosystems and platforms, applications and IT services provided by global vendors. As a result, more IT decisions are made outside Finland. In addition, IT companies are facing new competition from other than IT industries bringing into market new substitutes. To respond to the new competition, IT firms seek growth by expanding beyond their traditional markets.. The changing global division of labor accentuates the need for accurate information of the IT sector but, at the same time, also makes it increasingly challenging to acquire the information needed. One of the main contributions of this study is to provide frameworks for describing the Finnish IT sector and its evolution. These frameworks help combine empirical information from various sources and make it easier to concretize the structures, volumes, relationships and interaction of both, the production and market side of the Finnish IT industry. Some frameworks provide tools to analyze the vendor field, competition and the basis for the future evolution of the IT industries. The observations of the study support the argument that static industry definitions and related classifications do not serve the information needs in dynamic industries, such as the IT industries. One of the main messages of this study is to emphasize the importance of understanding the definitions and starting points of different information sources. Simultaneously, in the structure and evolution of Finnish IT industries the number of employees has become a more valid and reliable measure than the revenue based indicators.

Arvoperusteinen hinnoittelu työvälineteollisuudessa - mahdollisuudet ja haasteet

Tutkimuksessa selvitetään miten työvälineiden valmistajat käyttävät arvo-perusteista hinnoittelua teknologiaosaamisen palvelutuotteissa ja mikä vaikuttaa siihen, että sitä käytetään tai ei käytetä. Kirjallisuuskatsauksessa perehdytään markkinoinnin ja laskentatoimen kirjallisuuteen palveluliiketoiminnan, asiakasarvon ja arvoperusteisen hinnoittelun osalta. Palveluliiketoimintaa avataan nimenomaan teollisuuden palveluliiketoiminnan näkökulmasta. Asiakasarvoa puolestaan käsitellään näkökulmina missä asiakasarvo muodostuu ja ketkä sitä luovat. Arvoperusteista hinnoittelua tarkastellaan lähtökohtana sen erityispiirteet asiakkaan ja myynnin suhteen sekä esitetään arvoperusteisen hinnoittelumallin käytön esteitä ja hyötyjä. Empiirisessä osiossa tutkitaan miten Työvälineiden valmistajien toimiala-ryhmän jäsenet käyttävät omissa palvelutuotteissaan arvoperusteista hin-noittelua. Aineisto kerättiin web-kyselyn avulla. Tutkimuksessa nousi esiin, että kyseistä hinnoittelumallia on alettu käyttää joissakin palveluissa. Koetut hyödyt ja esteet osoittautuvat olevan paljolti samat kuin aikaisemmassa tutkimuskirjallisuudessa on havaittu. Suurimpina hyötyinä nähtiin pysyvämmät asiakassuhteet, suurempi voittomarginaali ja positiivinen pakko perehtyä asiakkaan ansaintalogiikkaan. Suurimpina esteinä koettiin palvelusta syntyvän arvon määrittämisen vaikeus ja sen viestiminen asiakkaalle sekä asiakkaan haluttomuus sitoutua pitkiin sopimuksiin.

Pirkanmaan kaupan alan ennakointiselvitys

FCG Finnish Consulting Group Oy on laatinut yhteistyössä Foredata Oy:n kanssa Pirkanmaan kaupan alan ennakointiselvityksen toimeksiantona Pirkanmaan ELY-keskukselle. Selvitys jakautuu kahteen osaan, joista ensimmäisessä kartoitetaan Pirkanmaan kaupan alan nykytilaa ja toisessa ennakoidaan kaupan tulevaisuuden näkymiä. Ensimmäisessä osassa on analysoitu Pirkanmaan kaupan alan mahdollisuuksia, muutostrendejä, kehityskulkuja ja kehitystarpeita koko maan tilanteeseen nähden. Toisessa osassa selvitetään kaupan alan työvoima- ja koulutustarpeiden kehitysnäkymiä Pirkanmaalla. Selvityksen aineistona on käytetty kaupan alan asiantuntijoiden haastatteluita, tilastoja ja jälkimmäisessä osassa lisäksi avoimia työpaikkailmoituksia. Kaupan alaa Pirkanmaalla luonnehtii voimakas keskittyminen Tampereen seutukuntaan. Tampereen seutukunnassa sijaitsee 76 % kaikista Pirkanmaan tukku- ja vähittäiskaupan toimipaikoista, 84 % henkilöstöstä ja 88 % liikevaihdosta. Kaupan ala on Pirkanmaalla kasvanut viime vuosina huomattavasti muuta Suomea nopeammin toimipaikkojen ja henkilöstön osalta. Ilmastonmuutoksen hillitseminen ja yhdyskuntarakenteen tiivistäminen ovat tällä hetkellä keskeisiä tavoitteita, jotka vaikuttavat myös kaupan alaan. Kaupan viranomaisohjausta pyritään tiukentamaan mm. hillitsemällä suuryksiköiden rakentamista keskustojen ulkopuolelle ja sen sijaan kehittämällä kaupan saavutettavuutta julkisen ja kevyen liikenteen keinoin. Kaupan ala heijastaa yleisiä yhteiskunnallisia muutoksia. Aukioloaikojen vapauttaminen kuvastaa elämänrytmin muutosta ja kauppakeskukset ovat muuttumassa entistä enemmän ajanviettopaikoiksi, joihin yhdistyy myös julkisia palveluita ja asumista. Väestön ikääntyminen tuo toisaalta helposti saavutettavien lähipalveluiden tarpeen, mutta toisaalta ikääntyneet ovat entistä merkittävämpi ostovoimainen kuluttajaryhmä. Toistaiseksi Pirkanmaalla ei ole yhtä yhteistä kaupan alan klusterin kehittämisorganisaatiota, vaan monta yksittäistä toimijaa. Kaupan alan klusteria vahvistaisi nykyistä huomattavasti vahvempi alueellinen brändi. ICT-alan osaamista voitaisiin myös hyödyntää kaupan kehittämisessä. ja toiseksi erikoiskaupan asemaa voitaisiin kehittää elämystalouden osana. Kauppa on merkittävä elinkeino ja tärkeä työllistäjä Pirkanmaalla. Erikoiskaupan alalla tulevaisuuden haastena on ammattitaitoisen työvoiman saaminen. Vaihtuvuus kaupan alalla on suurta, joten yritykset voisivat lisätä vetovoimaisuuttaan tarjoamalla uralla etenemis- ja kouluttautumismahdollisuuksia. Erikoiskaupan alalle voitaisiin uudelleenkouluttaa henkilöitä, jotka ovat tietyn erityisalan osaajia, mutta jotka eivät ole aiemmin työskennelleet kaupan alalla.

Savonlinnan Kaamanniemen pohjavesialueen suojelusuunnitelma

Suojelusuunnitelma on päivitetty EAKR-osarahoitteisen hankkeen nimeltään Pohjavesien suojeluohjelma, Itä-Suomi yhteydessä. Kaamanniemen pohjavesialueilla on käytössä vedenottamo. Pohjavesialue ei ole luokiteltu vesipuitedirektiivin mukaiseksi riskialueeksi. Kaamanniemen pohjavesialueen länsiosassa kulkee yhdystie 15383. Kaavoituksessa on huomioitava se, että riskitoimintoja ohjataan pohjavesialueiden ulkopuolelle tai määrätään toiminnallisia rajoituksia. Uusia maa-ainestenottoalueita, asfalttiasemia tai murskausasemia ei pidä perustaa pohjavesialueen luonnontilaisille osille. Edellä mainitusta periaatteesta voidaan poiketa, mikäli maaperä- ja pohjavesitutkimukset osoittavat, että hydrogeologiset olosuhteet alueella ovat sellaiset, että toimintojen sijoittumisesta ei aiheudu pohjaveden pilaantumisvaaraa. Vedenottamoiden tai tutkittujen vedenottoalueiden lähisuoja-alueilla ei tule suorittaa lainkaan maa-ainestenottoa. Ottoalueilla on seurattava pohjaveden pintaa ja laatua. Vanhat maaainestenottoalueet tulee kunnostaa ja maisemoida. Suojelusuunnitelman yhteydessä laadittiin toimenpideohjelma, jossa esitetään toimenpidesuositukset toiminnoittain, valvontavastuutahot ja aikataulut. Toimenpideohjelmia seurataan ja päivitetään vuosittain. Seurantaryhmän koollekutsujan tulisi olla Savonlinnan kaupungin tekninen toimiala.Suojelusuunnitelmien seurantaryhmät ja vesienhoitosuunnitelmien työryhmät voidaan yhdistää. Suunnitelma tulee viedä kaupunginvaltuuston hyväksyttäväksi.

Strategic external deployment of intellectual assets

Globalization, pervasiveness of technology and ICT, and the buildup of information societies and policies have lead to a growing abundance of knowledge and highly educated labour supply that is distributed widely. These changes have shifted the foundation of competitiveness to valuable knowledge resources which are now distributed widely across the globe, across actors in the value chain and across educated individuals in multiple organizations. Against this backdrop, the paradigm of open innovation (OI) has emerged as a new response to managing the increased amount of boundary-spanning knowledge flows in and out of the innovation process. The outbound mode of open innovation, that is to say the external exploitation of knowledge assets outside of the firm’s own products and services, has been the less-researched aspect of the concept and so far typically seen as concerning the outlicensing of unused technological assets to generate additional revenue. Given that open innovation is essentially a framework for the holistic structuring and management of crossboundary knowledge flows to improve a firm’s innovative performance, a close integration to corporate strategy seems imperative in order to fully benefit from it. Integrating open innovation to strategy leads to elevating its role from a fringe activity to a central innovation management issue that needs to be systematically managed. Building a structure that allows effective management necessitates linking open innovation activities to each phase of the innovation process. Previously, the connection between outbound OI and the earlier stages of innovation has not been studied. The thesis finds that connecting outbound OI to the entire innovation process of the firm, including the fuzzy front end of innovation, is critical for attaining strategic objectives and to the successful implementation and management of the activity. The practical purpose for the research is to enable companies to fully utilize their potential for outbound open innovation and to be able to implement and manage it from a strategic standpoint.

Towards combining interactive mobile TV and smart spaces : architectures, tools and application development

Technological developments in microprocessors and ICT landscape have made a shift to a new era where computing power is embedded in numerous small distributed objects and devices in our everyday lives. These small computing devices are ne-tuned to perform a particular task and are increasingly reaching our society at every level. For example, home appliances such as programmable washing machines, microwave ovens etc., employ several sensors to improve performance and convenience. Similarly, cars have on-board computers that use information from many di erent sensors to control things such as fuel injectors, spark plug etc., to perform their tasks e ciently. These individual devices make life easy by helping in taking decisions and removing the burden from their users. All these objects and devices obtain some piece of information about the physical environment. Each of these devices is an island with no proper connectivity and information sharing between each other. Sharing of information between these heterogeneous devices could enable a whole new universe of innovative and intelligent applications. The information sharing between the devices is a diffcult task due to the heterogeneity and interoperability of devices. Smart Space vision is to overcome these issues of heterogeneity and interoperability so that the devices can understand each other and utilize services of each other by information sharing. This enables innovative local mashup applications based on shared data between heterogeneous devices. Smart homes are one such example of Smart Spaces which facilitate to bring the health care system to the patient, by intelligent interconnection of resources and their collective behavior, as opposed to bringing the patient into the health system. In addition, the use of mobile handheld devices has risen at a tremendous rate during the last few years and they have become an essential part of everyday life. Mobile phones o er a wide range of different services to their users including text and multimedia messages, Internet, audio, video, email applications and most recently TV services. The interactive TV provides a variety of applications for the viewers. The combination of interactive TV and the Smart Spaces could give innovative applications that are personalized, context-aware, ubiquitous and intelligent by enabling heterogeneous systems to collaborate each other by sharing information between them. There are many challenges in designing the frameworks and application development tools for rapid and easy development of these applications. The research work presented in this thesis addresses these issues. The original publications presented in the second part of this thesis propose architectures and methodologies for interactive and context-aware applications, and tools for the development of these applications. We demonstrated the suitability of our ontology-driven application development tools and rule basedapproach for the development of dynamic, context-aware ubiquitous iTV applications.

Service innovation development and knowledge integration practices - a comparative case study on KIBS sector

Academic research on services and innovations on services has significantly grown during recent years. So far research concerning management of knowledge intensive work on service development activities is very limited. The objective of this study was to examine knowledge integration practices that support service innovation development and to the best of knowledge such studies have not been previously published in academic literature. In the theoretical part of the study a review of state‐of‐the‐art literature was conducted, research gap was indicated and a framework for analysis was built. In the empirical part an explorative comparative multi‐case study was carried out in KIBS sector. Four companies were selected and four service development projects were inspected. The service development activities and knowledge integration practices were identified. The cases were carefully compared and results formed. The empirical results indicated that service innovation development is partly linear and partly incremental flow of activities where knowledge integration practices have important role supporting the planning and execution of tasks. Knowledge integration practices supporting planning and workshops are close interaction, interpretation, project planning and sequencing of work tasks. The identified knowledge integration practices supporting building service solution were careful role and competence management, routines and common knowledge. The main implication is that to manage knowledge intensive service innovation development a firm should carefully develop and choose relevant knowledge integration practices to support the service development activities.

Kaakkois-Suomen työmarkkinoiden katsaus 2012

Raportissa käsitellään Kaakkois-Suomen ja sen osa-alueiden työmarkkinoiden ajankohtaisia piirteitä: mennyttä kehitystä, nykytilaa sekä myös ennusteita tulevasta. Tarkasteltavina ovat väestön, tuotannon, työllisyyden sekä työttömyyden rakenne- ja kehityspiirteet. Viimeisimmät tilastotiedot ovat vuoden 2012 syksyltä. Aluejakoina käytetään koko Kaakkois-Suomea, mutta useita tietoja esitellään myös maakunnittain, seutukunnittain ja joitakin myös kunnittain. Raportista näkyy viimeisimmän, vuoden 2008 lopussa voimistuneen taloustaantuman vaikutukset työmarkkinoihin sekä myös kehitys taantuman hellitettyä. Tuotanto ja työllisyys laskivat taantumassa eikä taantumaa edeltänyttä tilannetta ole kaikilta osin saavutettu. Työllisten määrä väheni Kaakkois-Suomessa vuoden 2008 lopusta vuoden 2010 loppuun mennessä 5600 henkeä, 4,1 %. Työttömien työnhakijoiden määrä oli lokakuussa 2012 yli 20 % suurempi kuin ennen taantuman voimistumista lokakuussa 2008. Kaakkois-Suomen väestö vähenee luontaisesti kuolleisuutta pienemmän syntyvyyden vuoksi. Alue menettää lisäksi väestöä maan sisäisessä muuttoliikkeessä, mutta toisaalta saa lisäväestöä maahanmuutosta. Raportti sisältää myös Tilastokeskuksen uusimman, syksyn 2012 väestöennusteen tiedot. Kaakkois-Suomessa työllisyyden viimeaikainen kehitys on ollut jonkin verran maan keskimäärää heikompi. Etelä-Karjalan tilanne on Kymenlaakson maakunnan tilannetta parempi. Kun vientiteollisuuden epävarmuus on jatkunut, kummassakin maakunnassa Venäjältä tulevien ostos- ja muiden matkailijoiden lisääntynyt määrä ja myös meneillään olevat maanrakennustyöt ovat piristäneet markkinoita. Työttömyys laski taantuman huipun jälkeen, mutta kääntyi uudelleen kasvuun vuoden 2012 loppupuoliskolla. Työttömyyden lisäys on Kaakkois-Suomessa hieman pienempi kuin maassa keskimäärin. Raportissa väestön, työikäisen väestön, työllisten ja työttömien määrän kehitystä esitellään eripituisina aikasarjoina. Tarkastelussa on runsaasti kuvia ja niiden tulkintoja. Raportissa on käytetty useita tilastolähteitä. Tärkeimpiä ovat Tilastokeskuksen väestö- ja työssäkäyntitilasto sekä aluetilinpito, Etlan maakuntaennuste, työ- ja elinkeinoministeriön Toimiala Online -järjestelmä sekä työ- ja elinkeinoministeriön työnvälitystilastojärjestelmä. Raportin on laatinut ELY-keskuksen erikoistutkija, yht. lis. Niilo Melolinna virkatyönä.

Capital Structure and Firm Growth: R&D Intensive Companies

The purpose of this study is to examine and explain firm`s growth impact on capital structure decision-making in research and development intensive companies. Many studies claim that R&D has a pivotal impact on capital structure decisions, but corporate finance theories have often failed to explain these observed patterns. As sales growth is an important concept and objective for R&D firms, it is logical to assume that it plays a vital role in capital structure decisions. This study applies nomothetic research approach. The theoretical part employs a formal conceptual analysis in order to develop the propositions that are tested with empirical data. The empirical part consists of the analysis of three companies; the data is obtained from the annual reports over the period 2003 – 2008. The companies operate in IT- or ICT-industry and are publicly listed. The method for analyzing the case data is based on the financial indicators, which are obtained from the financials of the case companies. These economic indicators describe the capital structure and the financial decision-making of the firms. The method relates to the quantitative studies. Yet, this study extends the analysis beyond the indicators. Specifically, this study addresses the question of what is behind the economic indicators, therefore combining aspects of quantitative and qualitative analysis. The firms examined in this study seem to prefer internal finance during growth. However, external finance seems to be a catalyst for sales growth. Firms strongly prefer equity financing. In growth, the use of equity per capital either increases or stays in a constant level. Over the period 2003 – 2008, the firms were often associated to equity related transactions and short-term debt. Short-term debt was used as a substitute of long-term debt and equity. The case firms also adjusted their capital structure – these adjustments were carried out with short-term debt or equity. The case data also provides implications for the growth signal theory that was developed in this study. Based on the econometric indicators, arguments can be made that equity investors are `attracted` to growing R&D firms. This is because growth helps investors perceive the true type of firm. The findings of this study are best explained by the trade-off theory and the pecking order theory. These corporate finance theories are considered as mainstream. Little support can be found to the implications of the signaling theory and market timing theory.