Consumer Attitudes on Aroma Printing

Olfactory packaging is an emerging technology which uses the aromatic capsules to release various scents. Normally, manufacturers add these aromatic capsules in the printing ink, the label or packaging material itself. When the aromatic capsules meet suitable release triggers, the scents will be released. The common release triggers are external forces, temperature changes, humidity changes and so on. The aim for this Masters of Science Thesis is to understand the aroma printing technology from literature and make market research for this kind of technology. The main target is to collect the current technology principle of aroma packaging and figure out how they are implemented on products with those. In addition, an investigation is made about consumers' attitudes from Chinese and Finnish market through the questionnaire, and the market potential is analyzed as well. The key points researched in this work are: the general attitudes on aroma printing technology, market potential and economic possibilities. This thesis specifies the main technologies used in aroma printing, the solutions of products with aroma packaging and the original results of the questionnaires. It also includes analysis of the acceptance of Chinese and Finnish consumers, what are their opinions of the aroma printing technology and the products packed by aroma printing technology. In addition, various factors which impact the market is discussed in the thesis. At last, some comparisons are made from the point of views of similarities and differences between Chinese and Finnish market.

Effects of a Financial Transaction Tax - Do Transaction Costs Lower Volatility?: A Literature Review

In this literature review the theorethical framework of Financial transaction taxes and their assumed effect on market volatility is assessed. The empirical evidence from various studies is compared against the theory and a simple empirical review of the Finnish stock market is conducted. The findings implicate that financial transaction taxes can not reduce volatility and their actual effect on markets is dependend by many other factors as well. Some evidence even suggests that transactions taxes may actually raise volatility.

A systematic literature review on agile project

In the 21st century, agile project management (APM) has emerged as a major evolutionary step in the area of software project management. APM is defined as a conceptual framework, consisting of various methods such as Scrum, quick respond to change, better customer collaboration, minimum coverage of documentation and extreme programming (XP) that facilitates to produce working software in multiple iterations with team work. Because agile project management has become more popular in the software industry in recent years, it constitutes an interesting and comprehensive research topic. This thesis presents a systematic literature review (SLR) of published research articles concerning agile project management. Based on a predefined search strategy, 273 such articles were identified, of which 44 were included in the review. The selected 44 articles were published between years 2005 and 2012. The thesis defines a review process by developing a review protocol and presenting the results of the review. The results are expected to provide researchers, software man

Brand Communication Strategy of E-commerce SMEs in Chinese Cosmetics Market

This study concentrates on how to develop a brand communication strategy for ecommerce SMEs in Chinese cosmetic market with new media channels. This study is a qualitative research. Data collection consists of primary data and secondary data. Primary data is from the case company’s websites, observation of benchmarked companies and observation of the case company. Secondary data will be collected from relevant websites and reliable databases. In order to explore the research questions, comparative benchmarking was conducted to develop brand communication strategy for case company April. The results of the study illustrate that e-commerce SMEs have to consider brand positioning strategy, brand awareness strategy, brand attitude strategy, brand media strategy and the brand benefits as well to develop brand communication strategy.

Finnish cleantech SMEs in China: Challenges and solutions

The rapid economic growth in China has resulted in environmental challenges ranging from air pollution to water-related issues. Thus supporting clean technology, or cleantech, that encompasses industries that focus on alternative energy, pollution and recycling, power supplies and conservation has become one of the focal points in the Chinese economic policy for the next decade. Simultaneously, the Finnish government has initiated programs to support the internationalisation of domestic cleantech companies in an attempt to spiral the industry into one of the pillars of Finnish economic growth. This study concentrates on the conjunction of these two themes and studies the challenges faced by Finnish cleantech SMEs in the Chinese market. Consequently, the study answers the following sub questions: 1. What human and financial resource-based challenges do Finnish cleantech SMEs face in the Chinese market and what are their solutions? 2. What knowledge-based challenges do Finnish cleantech SMEs face in the Chinese market and how can these difficulties be resolved? 3. What network-based challenges do Finnish cleantech SMEs face in the Chinese market, how do they relate to the resource- and knowledge-based challenges, and how can these difficulties be resolved? This qualitative study is conducted by analysing four semi structured interviews collected from four Finnish SMEs that operate in China. The findings of the study indicate that in human resources the most important challenges are related to the hiring and retaining of employees. In contrast to extant academic literature results distinguish salary and social status as the main solutions to this challenge. Regarding financial resources it is discovered that cleantech companies enjoy a benign business environment in China and benefit from the Chinese government’s support for cleantech industry. Challenges related to knowledge resources can be grouped into categories with the most interesting knowledge flows being the stream of local market knowledge into to the foreign parent company and the outward flow of manufacturing and business practice information into the target venture. The challenge related to the first flow is gathering relevant information and the main solutions are clustering at the foreign location and hiring knowledge prior to internationalisation. Regarding the second flow the main challenge is related to intellectual property rights and the most interesting solution is the purposeful transformation of explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge. Finally, it is discovered that networks, called guanxi in China, greatly affect the business processes. Within the guanxi system there is the concept of face which was found to affect employee propensity to stay as well as, as a novel academic result, employees’ knowledge sharing intention.

Waste-to-Energy Scenarios in the China Context

Waste incineration plants are increasingly established in China. A low heating value and high moisture content, due to a large proportion of biowaste in the municipal solid waste (MSW), can be regarded as typical characteristics of Chinese MSW. Two incineration technologies have been mainly established in China: stoker grate and circular fluidized bed (CFB). Both of them are designed to incinerate mixed MSW. However, there have been difficulties to reach the sufficient temperature in the combustion process due to the low heating value of the MSW. That is contributed to the usage of an auxiliary fossil fuel, which is often used during the whole incineration process. The objective of this study was to design alternative Waste-to-energy (WTE) scenarios for existing WTE plants with the aim to improve the material and energy efficiency as well as the feasibility of the plants. Moreover, the aim of this thesis was to find the key factors that affect to the feasibility of the scenarios. Five different WTE plants were selected as study targets. The necessary data for calculation was gained from literature as well as received from the operators of the target WTE plants. The created scenarios were based on mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) technologies, in which the produced solid recovered fuel (SRF) was fed as an auxiliary fuel into a WTE plant replacing the fossil fuel. The mechanically separated biowaste was treated either in an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, a biodrying plant, a thermal drying plant, or a combined AD plant + thermal drying plant. An interactive excel spreadsheet based computation tool was designed to estimate the viability of the scenarios in different WTE cases. The key figures of the improved material and energy efficiency, such as additional electricity generated and avoided waste for landfill, were got as results. Furthermore, economic indicators such as annual profits (or costs), payback period, and internal rate of return (IRR) were gained as results. The results show that the AD scenario was the most profitable in most of the cases. The current heating value of MSW and the tipping fee for the received MSW appeared as the most important factor in terms of feasibility.

Ecosystem architecture design: endogenous and exogenous structural properties

The aim of this dissertation is to bridge and synthesize the different streams of literature addressing ecosystem architecture through a multiple‐lens perspective. In addition, the structural properties of and processes to design and manage the architecture will be examined. With this approach, the oft‐neglected actor‐structure duality is addressed and both the position and structure, and action and process are under scrutiny. Further, the developed framework and empirical evidence offer valuable insights on how firms collectively create value and individually appropriate value. The dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part comprises a literature review, as well as the conclusions of the whole study, and the second part includes six research publications. The dissertation is based on three different reasoning logics: abduction, induction and deduction; related qualitative and quantitative methodologies are utilized in the empirical examination of the phenomenon in the information and communication technology industry. The results suggest firstly that there are endogenous and exogenous structural properties of the ecosystem architecture. Out of these, the former ones can be more easily influenced by a particular actor whereas the latter ones are taken more or less for granted. Secondly, the exogenous ecosystem design properties influence the value creation potential of the ecosystem whereas the endogenous ecosystem design properties influence the value appropriation potential of a particular actor in the ecosystem. Thirdly, the study suggests that there is a relationship between endogenous and exogenous structural properties in that the endogenous properties can be leveraged to create and reconfigure the exogenous properties whereas the exogenous properties prose opportunities and restrictions on the use of endogenous properties. In addition, the study suggests that there are different emergent and engineered processes to design and manage ecosystem architecture and to influence both the endogenous and exogenous structural properties of ecosystem architecture. This study makes three main contributions. First, on the conceptual level, it brings coherence and direction to the fast growing body of literature on novel inter‐organizational arrangements, such as ecosystems. It does this by bridging and synthetizing three different streams of literature, namely the boundary, design and orchestration conception. Secondly, it sets out a framework that enhances our understanding of the structural properties of ecosystem architecture; of the processes to design and manage ecosystem architecture; and of their influence on the value creation potential of the ecosystem and the value capture potential of a particular firm. Thirdly, it offers empirical evidence of the structural properties and processes.

Improving quality at the preanalytical phase of blood sampling : literature review

Julkaisumaa: 158 TW TWN Taiwan

Soraääniä, sitaatteja ja suunnitelmallisuutta. Moniäänisyys Eira Stenbergin romaanituotannossa

Tutkin väitöskirjassani Eira Stenbergin (s. 1943) romaanituotannon moniäänisyyttä, joka liittyy niin subjektiin, kertomisen prosessiin kuin todellisuuskäsityksiin. Aineistonani ovat Stenbergin 1980–1990-luvulla kirjoittamat, tutkimusongelmani kannalta keskeiseen ajanjaksoon kuuluvat romaanit Paratiisin vangit (1984), Häikäisy (1987), Kuun puutarhat (1990) sekä Gulliverin tytär (1993). 1980-luvulla postmodernista tuli kirjallisen kulttuurin keskeisimpiä aiheita Suomessa, ja subjektista tuli ongelma jopa siinä määrin että puhuttiin sen kuolemasta. Ääni oli 1980-luvulla osa subjektia koskevaa keskustelua: yhtäältä nousevan feministisen liikkeen identiteettipoliittisena ja emansipatorisena metaforana, toisaalta jälkistrukturalismin antihumanismin uhkakuvana, joka koski subjektin ääntä alkuperän lähteenä ja persoonan ilmaisuna. Äänen käsitteen voidaan katsoa implikoivan jonkinlaista käsitystä subjektista, ja tarkastelenkin tutkimuksessani erityisesti henkilöhahmoja, kertojia ja kertomisen prosessia, mutta myös tekijän suunnitelmallisuutta ja kuulijaa kohti orientoitumista. Yhdistelen tutkimuksessani retorista kertomuksen teoriaa dekonstruktioon sekä feministisiin subjektiteorioihin. Myös Mihail Bahtinin käsitys moniäänisestä romaanista on työssäni keskeinen. Problematisoin tutkimuksessani äänen kytköksen sisimmän ilmaisuun, omistamiseen ja auktoriteettiin ja ymmärrän sen keskustelualueena, jossa kohtaavat erilaiset arvot ja näkemykset maailmasta. Tällöin kaikenkattava puhe subjektin kuolemasta sekä käsitykset 1980-luvun kirjallisuudesta maailmasta vieraantuneena ja yksityisen alueelle vetäytyvänä problematisoituvat. Stenbergin tuotannon perusteella voi sanoa, että kirjallisuuden äänet saavat merkityksensä vasta erilaisina äänensävyinä konkreettisissa ja ainutkertaisissa konteksteissa. Tämä viittaa tarpeeseen ymmärtää kirjallisuusteoreettisessa keskustelussa usein historiattomana ja universaalina nähty käsite historiaan paikantuneena: eivät vain erityiset aineistot, vaan myös erityiset kontekstit määrittelevät äänen saamia merkityksiä.

Export Tire Entry to Chinese Market

After the economic reform, China has undergone fast economic growth, urbanization and adopted the western lifestyle. Global enterprises are investing in China and Finnish companies began to enter the Chinese market after the 1980s. Fast economic growth has downside effects like pollution and thus more cleantech solutions are needed. There are different kinds of entry modes that companies are using when entering the Chinese market. This thesis focuses on export tire entry mode. The purpose of this study is to examine cleantech companies’ opinions about the export tire operations. The background of this study is built by combining the written knowledge about the history of the Chinese industry and market entry modes. The empirical part of the study is a semi-structured, qualitative analysis of five case companies that are operating together in a particular export tire and represent the highest Finnish cleantech knowledge. The results of this study indicate that the export tire entry is an easy and cost effective way to enter new markets or market segment. Export tire is really dependent on the leader who in this particular case succeeded well.

OpenAIRE Guidelines for Literature Repositories, Data Archives and CRIS managers

Poster at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014