Characterisation of waste for combustion : with special reference to the role of zinc

Waste combustion has gone from being a volume reducing discarding-method to an energy recovery process for unwanted material that cannot be reused or recycled. Different fractions of waste are used as fuel today, such as; municipal solid waste, refuse derived fuel, and solid recovered fuel. Furthermore, industrial waste, normally a mixture between commercial waste and building and demolition waste, is common, either as separate fuels or mixed with, for example, municipal solid waste. Compared to fossil or biomass fuels, waste mixtures are extremely heterogeneous, making it a complicated fuel. Differences in calorific values, ash content, moisture content, and changing levels of elements, such as Cl and alkali metals, are common in waste fuel. Moreover, waste contains much higher levels of troublesome trace elements, such as Zn, which is thought to accelerate a corrosion process. Varying fuel quality can be strenuous on the boiler system and may cause fouling and corrosion of heat exchanger surfaces. This thesis examines waste fuels and waste combustion from different angles, with the objective of giving a better understanding of waste as an important fuel in today’s fuel economy. Several chemical characterisation campaigns of waste fuels over longer time periods (10-12 months) was used to determine the fossil content of Swedish waste fuels, to investigate possible seasonal variations, and to study the presence of Zn in waste. Data from the characterisation campaigns were used for thermodynamic equilibrium calculations to follow trends and determine the effect of changing concentrations of various elements. The thesis also includes a study of the thermal behaviour of Zn and a full—scale study of how the bed temperature affects the volatilisation of alkali metals and Zn from the fuel. As mixed waste fuel contains considerable amounts of fresh biomass, such as wood, food waste, paper etc. it would be wrong to classify it as a fossil fuel. When Sweden introduced waste combustion as a part of the European Union emission trading system in the beginning of 2013 there was a need for combustion plants to find a usable and reliable method to determine the fossil content. Four different methods were studied in full-scale of seven combustion plants; 14Canalysis of solid waste, 14C-analysis of flue gas, sorting analysis followed by calculations, and a patented balance method that is using a software program to calculate the fossil content based on parameters from the plant. The study showed that approximately one third of the coal in Swedish waste mixtures has fossil origins and presented the plants with information about the four different methods and their advantages and disadvantages. Characterisation campaigns also showed that industrial waste contain higher levels of trace elements, such as Zn. The content of Zn in Swedish waste fuels was determined to be approximately 800 mg kg-1 on average, based on 42 samples of solid waste from seven different plants with varying mixtures between municipal solid waste and industrial waste. A review study of the occurrence of Zn in fuels confirmed that the highest amounts of Zn are present in waste fuels rather than in fossil or biomass fuels. In tires, Zn is used as a vulcanizing agent and can reach concentration values of 9600-16800 mg kg-1. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment is the second Zn-richest fuel and even though on average Zn content is around 4000 mg kg-1, the values of over 19000 mg kg-1 were also reported. The increased amounts of Zn, 3000-4000 mg kg-1, are also found in municipal solid waste, sludge with over 2000 mg kg-1 on average (some exceptions up to 49000 mg kg-1), and other waste derived fuels (over 1000 mg kg-1). Zn is also found in fossil fuels. In coal, the average level of Zn is 100 mg kg-1, the higher amount of Zn was only reported for oil shale with values between 20-2680 mg kg-1. The content of Zn in biomass is basically determined by its natural occurrence and it is typically 10-100 mg kg-1. The thermal behaviour of Zn is of importance to understand the possible reactions taking place in the boiler. By using thermal analysis three common Zn-compounds were studied (ZnCl2, ZnSO4, and ZnO) and compared to phase diagrams produced with thermodynamic equilibrium calculations. The results of the study suggest that ZnCl2(s/l) cannot exist readily in the boiler due to its volatility at high temperatures and its conversion to ZnO in oxidising conditions. Also, ZnSO4 decomposes around 680°C, while ZnO is relatively stable in the temperature range prevailing in the boiler. Furthermore, by exposing ZnO to HCl in a hot environment (240-330°C) it was shown that chlorination of ZnO with HCl gas is possible. Waste fuel containing high levels of elements known to be corrosive, for example, Na and K in combination with Cl, and also significant amounts of trace elements, such as Zn, are demanding on the whole boiler system. A full-scale study of how the volatilisation of Na, K, and Zn is affected by the bed temperature in a fluidised bed boiler was performed parallel with a lab-scale study with the same conditions. The study showed that the fouling rate on deposit probes were decreased by 20 % when the bed temperature was decreased from 870°C to below 720°C. In addition, the lab-scale experiments clearly indicated that the amount of alkali metals and Zn volatilised depends on the reactor temperature.

GIS assessing traditional and modern agricultural land use/land cover change. A case study 1959-2005: Rekijoki, Somero, SW-Finland

Finland’s rural landscape has gone through remarkable changes from the 1950’s, due to agricultural developments. Changed farming practices have influenced especially traditional landscape management, and modifications in the arable land structure and grasslands transitions are notable. The review of the previous studies reveal the importance of the rural landscape composition and structure to species and landscape diversity, whereas including the relevance in presence of the open ditches, size of the field and meadow patches, topology of the natural and agricultural landscape. This land-change study includes applying remote sensed data from two time series and empirical geospatial analysis in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The aims of this retrospective research is to detect agricultural landscape use and land cover change (LULCC) dynamics and discuss the consequences of agricultural intensification to landscape structure covering from the aspects of landscape ecology. Measurements of LULC are derived directly from pre-processed aerial images by a variety of analytical procedures, including statistical methods and image interpretation. The methodological challenges are confronted in the process of landscape classification and combining change detection approaches with landscape indices. Particular importance is paid on detecting agricultural landscape features at a small scale, demanding comprehensive understanding of such agroecosystems. Topological properties of the classified arable land and valley are determined in order to provide insight and emphasize the aspect the field edges in the agricultural landscape as important habitat. Change detection dynamics are presented with change matrix and additional calculations of gain, loss, swap, net change, change rate and tendencies are made. Transition’s possibility is computed following Markov’s probability model and presented with matrix, as well. Thesis’s spatial aspect is revealed with illustrative maps providing knowledge of location of the classified landscape categories and location of the dynamics of the changes occurred. It was assured that in Rekijoki valley’s landscape, remarkable changes in landscape has occurred. Landscape diversity has been strongly influenced by modern agricultural landscape change, as NP of open ditches has decreased and the MPS of the arable plot has decreased. Overall change in the diversity of the landscape is determined with the decrease of SHDI. Valley landscape considered as traditional land use area has experienced major transitional changes, as meadows class has lost almost one third of the area due to afforestation. Also, remarkable transitions have occurred from forest to meadow and arable land to built area. Boundaries measurement between modern and traditional landscape has indicated noticeable proportional increase in arable land-forest edge type and decrease in arable land-meadow edge type. Probability calculations predict higher future changes for traditional landscape, but also for arable land turning into built area.

Decentralized management of organic household wastes in the Kathmandu Valley using small-scale composting reactors

The sustainable management of municipal solid waste in the Kathmandu Valley has always been a challenging task. Solid waste generation has gone rapidly high in the Kathmandu Valley over the last decade due to booming population and rapid urbaniza-tion. Finding appropriate landfill sites for the disposal of solid wastes generated from the households of the Kathmandu Valley has always been a major problem for Nepalese government. 65 % of total generated wastes from the households of Nepal consist of organic materials. As large fractions of generated household wastes are organic in na-ture, composting can be considered as one of the best sustainable ways to recycle organ-ic wastes generated from the households of Nepal. Model Community Society Development (MCDS), a non-governmental organization of Nepal carried out its small-scale project in five households of the Kathmandu Valley by installing composting reactors. This thesis is based on this small-scale project and has used secondary data provided by MCDS Nepal for carrying out the study. Proper man-agement of organic wastes can be done at household levels through the use of compost-ing reactors. The end product compost can be used as soil conditioners for agricultural purposes such as organic farming, roof-top farming and gardening. The overall average organic waste generation in the Kathmandu Valley is found to be 0,23 kg/person/day and the total amount of organic household wastes generated in the Kathmandu Valley is around 210 Gg/yr. Produced composts from five composting reac-tors contain high amount of moistures but have sufficient amount of nutrients required for the fertility of land and plant growth. Installation of five composting reactors in five households have prevented 2,74 Mg of organic wastes going into the landfills, thus re-ducing 107 kg of methane emissions which is equivalent to 2,7 Mg of carbondioxide.

Launch communications best practices: Online newspaper paywall context

The goal of the thesis is to identify the best practices of marketing communications in the context of online newspaper paywall launch. Theoretical point of views emphasize the value for the customer as an antecedent for a workable value proposition and marketing communications. Value-based communications contribute to the customer loyalty. The empirical evidence for this benchmark study was collected in seven company interviews. These firms represented several kinds of Finnish newspaper companies which had recently gone through the paywall launch and launch communications process. The results imply that there are multiple factors influencing on launch communications choices. However, recommendations can be drawn based on the common practices. The main managerial results were that the companies should utilize the online newspaper content and usage value as the core of the launch message, target both new and current readers and use multiple online and offline communications channels to reach the target audience. The launch communications message should be started with the emotional appeal, complemented with the more informative message later.

Women or Girls in Reality Television? Translating References to Females in the Reality Dating Show Love Connection

Tässä sivuaineen tutkielmassa tarkastellaan, miten naisiin viittaavat sanat on käännetty suomalaisen, mutta pääosin englanniksi puhutun Love Connection -tosi-tvohjelman suomenkielisissä tekstityksissä. Tavoitteena on selvittää, millä tavoin suomen ja englannin puhekielen erot naispuolisiin henkilöihin viitattaessa näkyvät ruututeksteissä, ja millaisia käännösstrategioita ohjelman kääntäjä on sarjaa suomentaessaan käyttänyt. Lisäksi tv-ohjelmassa tehtyjä naisiin kohdistuvia viittauksia verrataan ohjelman englanninkielisessä mainoslehtisessä käytettyihin naisiin viittaaviin sanoihin. Tutkimuksen primäärimateriaali koostui Love Connection -tv-sarjan 12 osasta sekä niiden suomenkielisestä tekstityksestä, ohjelman Yhdysvaltoihin suunnatusta mainoslehtisestä sopivien osallistujien löytämiseksi sekä sarjan kääntäjän haastattelusta. Tutkimus toteutettiin sekä kvalitatiivisin että kvantitatiivisin menetelmin. Tv-ohjelman jaksoista litteroitiin englanninkielinen puhe ja suomenkielinen tekstitys niiltä osin kuin vähintään toisessa esiintyi viittaus naispuoliseen henkilöön, kuten woman/nainen tai girl/tyttö. Aineistosta poimitut viittaukset sijoitettiin lähdekirjallisuuden pohjalta luotuihin kategorioihin sen mukaan, millaista käännösstrategiaa niihin oli sovellettu. Lisäksi tarkasteltiin, millaisia eroja sovelletuissa käännösstrategioissa ilmeni ohjelman osallistujien tekemien viittausten välillä sekä toisaalta yksilöhaastattelujen ja keskustelutilanteiden välillä. Analyysi ja kääntäjän haastattelu osoittivat, että suurin osa viittauksista käännettiin suomeksi lähimmällä semanttisella vastineella, mutta myös poistoja ja korvauksia esimerkiksi pronominilla oli tekstityksen vaatimien tila- ja aikarajoitusten vuoksi käytetty runsaasti. Merkittävin tutkimushavainto oli, että joissakin yhteyksissä englannin kielen sana girl oli käännetty suomeksi sanalla nainen suoran käännösvastineen sijasta, koska suomen kielen sana tyttö ei kyseisissä konteksteissa olisi soveltunut käytettäväksi aikuisesta naisesta puhuttaessa. Suomalaisten tuottajien laatimassa englanninkielisessä mainoksessa esiintyi suurelta osin kuvaannollisia, sukupuolineutraaleja henkilöviittauksia, eikä girl-sanaa käytetty kertaakaan. Audiovisuaalisten käännösten kautta välittyvää naiskuvaa viihdegenren televisioohjelmissa on toistaiseksi tutkittu vähän, joten jatkotutkimusten kannalta vaihtoehtoja on runsaasti. Tulosten laajemman sovellettavuuden arvioimiseksi naisten puhuttelua voisi tutkia tarkemmin muissa, kansainvälisesti tunnetuissa tositv-formaateissa esimerkiksi vertailemalla eri maissa esitettäviä ohjelmaversioita.

Sähköisen rekrytoinnin hyödyt kuntaorganisaatioissa

Rekrytoinnin tavoitteena on täyttää avoin tehtävä kustannustehokkaasti mahdollisimman pätevällä ja organisaatioon sopivalla henkilöllä. Ovathan henkilövoimavarat yksi yrityksen tärkeimmistä resursseista. Viimeisten vuosikymmenien aikana tapa, jolla rekrytoimme ihmisiä, on muuttunut voimakkaasti. Nykypäivänä harva yritys julkaisee työpaikkailmoituksia sanomalehdissä ja vastaanottaa työhakemuksia sähköpostitse tai kirjeitse. Rekrytointi on siirtynyt internettiin. Puhutaan sähköisestä rekrytoinnista. Tässä tutkimuksessa käsitellään sähköisen rekrytointijärjestelmän hyötyjä kuntaorganisaatioissa. Tarkastelun kohteena on KL-Kuntarekry osakeyhtiön hallinnoima sähköinen rekrytointijärjestelmä, Kuntarekry.fi -palvelu. Tutkimus toteutettiin kirjallisuuskatsauksen ja haastatteluiden muodossa. Kuntarekryn yli 200 käyttäjäorganisaatiosta tutkimukseen osallistui 6 kunta-alan organisaatiota. Työn tulokset mukailivat hyvin aikaisempien tutkimusten kanssa. Kuntarekryn avulla saavutetut hyödyt organisaatioissa olivat kustannussäästöt, rekrytoinnin nopeutuminen ja tehostuminen, pääsy laajemmille työnhakijamarkkinoille sekä hakemusten määrän kasvaminen. Lisäksi työssä havaittiin, että rekrytoinnin tehokkuuden mittaamisessa on kehitettävää.

The radio frequency identification technology in the supply chain management: a case of a big logistics company

Nowadays global business trends force the adoption of innovative ICTs into the supply chain management (SCM). Particularly, the RFID technology is on high demand among SCM professionals due to its business advantages such as improving of accuracy and veloc-ity of SCM processes which lead to decrease of operational costs. Nevertheless, a question of the RFID technology impact on the efficiency of warehouse processes in the SCM re-mains open. The goal of the present study is to experiment the possibility of improvement order picking velocity in a warehouse of a big logistics company with the use of the RFID technology. In order to achieve this goal the following objectives have been developed: 1) Defining the scope of the RFID technology applications in the SCM; 2) Justification of the RFID technology impact on the SCM processes; 3) Defining a place of the warehouse order picking process in the SCM; 4) Identification and systematization of existing meth-ods of order picking velocity improvement; 5) Choosing of the study object and gathering of the empirical data about number of orders, number of hours spent per each order line daily during 5 months; 6) Processing and analysis of the empirical data; 7) Conclusion about the impact of the RFID technology on the speed of order picking process. As a result of the research it has been found that the speed of the order picking processes has not been changed as time has gone after the RFID adoption. It has been concluded that in order to achieve a positive effect in the speed of order picking process with the use of the RFID technology it is necessary to simultaneously implement changes in logistics and organizational management in 3PL logistics companies. Practical recommendations have been forwarded to the management of the company for further investigation and procedure.

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS IN B2B COMPANIES – The Roles of Marketing Communication Tools in the Digital Age

Marketing communications has gone through significant changes during the last decades and new online tools have been leading this change for the last decade. Now, in the digital age, if wanting to be successful companies need to experiment new things and seize the opportunities online provides and adapt to the new environment. However, during this time the marketing communication mix and the meanings given to the various components of it have not changed dramatically, and personal selling, direct marketing, sales promotion, advertising and public relations activities are still regarded as important tools in the marketing communications mix. The purpose of this study was to examine business-to-business marketing communications and the tools used by companies in their marketing communications efforts in the digital age and in a global environment. The research questions dealt with the marketing communication tools and their roles as well as the role of online marketing communication and the way it has shaped the field of b2b marketing communications. In order to answer these questions, qualitative approach was chosen and the data was collected by theme interviews with six representatives of Finnish global companies from the b2b sector being interviewed. The theoretical framework covers the general field of b2b marketing communications and its main elements. The online environment as well as the concept of a global marketplace and integrated approach to marketing communication activities is also discussed. The theory was supported by the interviews regarding the activities and roles of the marketing communication tools and both theory as well as the interviews found personal selling to be a vital tool. However, the importance of online has grown and online marketing activities have risen right next to personal selling. The use of analytics and marketing automation was found to be of great interest in the interviews and they were seen as a growing domain in b2b marketing communications. The importance of targeted and personalised messages from relevant medias was a repeating theme as was the customer-centric approach in marketing communication activities. Also, offline and online tools and channels were seen as something that should be treated together as an entity rather than as separate activities. Relevant content created according to the needs of the customer with the gathered data from analytics were seen as the future of b2b marketing communications. Online has added its input to the more traditionally perceived tools and they are executed within the framework of the digital age. Nevertheless, even though online has increased its presence in the b2b marketing communications mix, the more traditionally perceived marketing communication tools, especially personal selling, have not lost their meaning or place in the b2b marketing communication mix.

Inviting the Audience – Interactive, Participatory, and Social Television in Finland

The television and the ways it has invited the audience to take part have been changing during the last decade. Today’s interaction, or rather participation, comes from multiplatform formats, such as TV spectacles that combine TV and web platforms in order to create a wider TV experience. Multiplatform phenomena have spread television consumption and traditional coffee table discussions to several different devices and environments. Television has become a part of the bigger puzzle of interconnected devices that operates on several platforms instead of just one. This thesis examines the Finnish television (2004–2014) through the notion of audience participation and introduces the technical, thematic, and social linkages as three different phases, interactive, participatory, social, and their most characteristic features in terms of audience participation. The aim of the study is also to focus on the idea of a possible change by addressing the possible and subtler variations that have taken place through the concept of digital television. Firstly, Finnish television history has gone through numerous trials, exploring the interactive potential of television formats. Finnish SMS-based iTV had its golden era around 2005, when nearly 50% of the television formats were to some extent interactive. Nowadays, interactive television formats have vanished due to their negative reputation and this important part of recent history is mainly been neglected in the academic scope. The dissertation focuses also on the present situation and the ways television content invites the audience to take part. “TV meets the Internet” is a global expression that characterises digital TV, and the use of the Web combined with television content is also examined. Also the linkages between television and social media are identified. Since television can nowadays be described multifaceted, the research approaches are also versatile. The research is based on qualitative content analysis, media observation, and Internet inquiry. The research material also varies. It consists of primary data: taped iTV formats, website material, and social media traces both from Twitter and Facebook and secondary data: discussion forums, observations from the media and Internet inquiry data. To sum up the results, the iTV phase represented, through its content, a new possibility for audiences to take part in a TV show (through gameful and textual features) in real-time. In participatory phase, the most characteristic features from TV-related content view, is the fact that online platform(s) were used to immerse the audience with additional material and, due to this, to extend the TV watching enjoyment beyond the actual broadcast. During the Social (media) phase, both of these features, real-timeness, and extended enjoyment through additional material, are combined and Facebook & Twitter, for example, are used to immerse people in live events (in real-time) via broadcast-related tweets and extra-material offered on a Facebook page. This thesis fills in the gap in Finnish television research by examining the rapid changes taken place on the field within the last ten years. The main results is that the development of Finnish digital television has been much more diverse and subtle than has been anticipated by following only the news, media, and contemporary discourses on the subject of television. The results will benefit both practitioners and academics by identifying the recent history of Finnish television.

Mistä on hyvät tytöt tehty? Somalitytöt ja maineen merkitykset

Tutkimus käsittelee islaminuskoisten somalityttöjen hyvään ja huonoon maineeseen liittyviä uskonnollisia, kulttuurisia ja etnisiä määrittelyjä ja niiden merkityksiä heidän arjessaan. Turussa hankittu etnografinen tutkimusaineisto koostuu osallistuvaan havainnointiin perustuvasta kenttäpäiväkirja-aineistosta sekä kahdestakymmenestäviidestä 17‒35-vuotiaiden somalityttöjen ja -naisten teemahaastattelusta vuosilta 2003–2006. Tutkimuksen tehtävänä on selvittää, minkälaista somalityttöä pidetään maineeltaan hyvänä ja miten tytön maine voi mennä. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan yhtäältä sitä, mikä merkitys sosiaalisilla verkostoilla on tyttöjen maineen määrittelyssä. Toisaalta kysytään, mitä somalitytöt ja nuoret naiset itse ajattelevat tytön maineeseen liittyvistä odotuksista ja miten he niistä tietoisina toimivat. Lähestymistapa rakentuu uskontotieteen, antropologian, sukupuolentutkimuksen, tyttötutkimuksen, nuorisotutkimuksen ja kulttuurimaantieteen näkökulmia yhdistelemällä. Ensimmäisessä aineistontulkintaluvussa tarkastellaan tyttöyteen ja maineen rakentumiseen liittyvää ruumiillista merkityksenantoa pukeutumisen, seksuaalisuuden, tyttöjen ympärileikkausta koskevan asennemuutoksen ja seurustelun teemojen kautta. Toisessa luvussa keskitytään kaupunkitilan ja tyttöjen vapaa-ajanvieton sosiotilallisiin tulkintoihin sekä tyttöjen käytöstä kodin ulkopuolella määritteleviin ja mainetta rakentaviin puheisiin. Haastatellut arvostivat islamiin ja somaliperinteeseen liittyviä arvoja ja pitivät niitä oman käytöksensä ohjenuorina. Omanarvontunto, itsekontrolli ja vastuuntunto omista teoista liitettiin ”hyvään tyttöyteen”. Tyttöjen toimijuus ilmeni heihin kohdistuvien odotusten suuntaisena käyttäytymisenä ja näiden ihanteiden arvostamisena. Toimijuus näkyi myös tiettyjen tyttöihin ja poikiin kohdistuvien erilaisten odotusten kyseenalaistamisena ja joissakin tapauksissa vastoin odotuksia toimimisena. Turkua myös verrattiin somalityttöjen käytöksen osalta pääkaupunkiseutuun. Tässä vertailussa Turku nimettiin kulttuurisen jatkuvuuden, pääkaupunkiseutu kulttuurisen muutoksen paikaksi. Haastateltujen mukaan yhteisöllisiä tulkintoja tyttöjen käytöksestä tehtiin puheissa ja juoruissa, usein suhteessa havaintoihin suomalaistyttöjen käytöksestä. Tyttöjen arkeen nämä etniset ja moraaliset eroteot eivät kuitenkaan vaikuttaneet aina samalla tavoin, koska tulkinnat tyttärille sopivasta ja mahdollisesta käytöksestä voivat vaihdella perheiden välillä. Tutkimus tuo esille, että tytön hyvä maine on eräs perheen hyvinvointiin vaikuttavista tekijöistä. Somalityttöjen käytös on myös eräs yhteisöllinen peili, jota vasten tehdään laajempia tulkintoja somalikulttuurin ja uskonnollisten arvojen tilasta diasporassa. Liiallinen muutos tyttöjen käyttäytymisessä uhkasi yhteisöllistä jatkuvuutta ja uskonnolliskulttuuristen arvojen välittymistä seuraaville sukupolville. Laajasti ymmärrettynä ”hyvä tyttöys” ja hyvä maine oli onnistuneen kulttuurisen neuvottelun tulosta diasporassa. Se tarkoitti, että tyttö kiinnittyi somalialaiseen taustaansa ja sen välittämiin arvoihin, osallistuen samalla kuitenkin myös suomalaiseen yhteiskuntaan.

Organization of the marketing communication activities after fusion - the integration and the decision making processes

This master’s thesis was made in order to gain answers to the question of how the integration of the marketing communications and the decision making related to it in a geographically dispersed service organization could be improved in a situation where an organization has gone through a merger. The effects of the organizational design dimensions towards the integration of the marketing communications and the decision making related to it was the main focus. A case study as a research strategy offered a perfect frames for an exploratory study and the data collection was conducted by semi-structured interviews and observing. The main finding proved that from the chosen design dimensions, decentralization, coordination and power, could be found specific factors that in a geographically dispersed organization are affecting the integration of the marketing communications negatively. The effects can be seen mostly in the decision making processes, roles and in the division of responsibility, which are affecting the other dimensions and by this, the integration. In a post-merger situation, the coordination dimension and especially the information asymmetry and the information flow seem to have a largest affect towards the integration of the marketing communications. An asymmetric information distribution with the lack of business and marketing education resulted in low self-assurance and at the end in fragmented management and to the inability to set targets and make independent decisions. As conclusions it can be stated, that with the organizational design dimensions can the effects of a merger towards the integration process of the marketing communications to be evaluated.

CORPORATE GRASSROOTS LOBBYING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

The European Union has gone through significant changes in the past 20 years. The importance of public opinion in politics has increased and the new technologies are empowering the wider public to express its opinions. The purpose of this study is to explore how corporations use the tactic of grassroots lobbying in the European Union environment. The research objectives were addressed through qualitative research methods. Six expert interviews were conducted to find new perspectives and to deepen the understanding of the research objectives. Following the data collection, the research material was transcribed and analysed. In the analysis, the data was organized based on concepts and themes found from the literature review. The empirical findings on grassroots lobbying in the EU were presented. It was found that when a company is selecting grassroots lobbying tactic, the familiarity of the tactic, organizational culture, financial resources and amount of stakeholders seem to have an impact to the selection. The issues that are successfully lobbied through the grassroots-lobbying tactic were seen to be those, which have high and direct impact on lives of people, arouse strong feelings and are not very complex. Furthermore, when deciding on the timing of a campaign, in the EU it was found that a company should take into account the long policy process and limited capabilities to mobilise people. Targeting the object of the campaign and selecting the channels used in a grassroots- lobbying campaign were seen to be in function of identifying the key decision-makers on the issue. The decisions of who to mobilise and the mobilisation channels were considered to be dependant on who the campaign is trying to influence. Also, it was found that when the implementing a grassroots lobbying campaign in the EU environment, the special features such as multiple cultures and languages should be taken into account. This study has provided novel practical insights for corporate grassroots lobbying in the EU environment and furthermore successfully contributed to the academic research in the field.

2014 Ukraine crisis – Implications for corporate crisis management

In the late year 2013 events started to unfold in Ukraine’s capital city Kiev that would change the political and economic environment of the EU and Russia. The tension had been building for years between the two parties with Ukraine in the middle and during 2014 the tension blew up and events started to escalate into a crisis, which we now know as the 2014 Ukraine crisis. The crisis would include political, economic, and even military actions by all the parties involved with Ukraine slipping close to civil war. Both political and economic hardships followed for others as well with both the EU and Russia placing heavy political and economic sanctions on each other. Most notably in terms of this paper, the Russian federation placed total import embargo sanctions on food imports from the EU and some other countries. This meant that a Finnish dairy company, Valio, had to engage in corporate crisis management as almost a fifth of its total revenue was cut in a heartbeat. Valio had been prepared for some kind of complications with their Russian market as events started to unfold in Ukraine in the beginning of 2014 but never did they suspect that a complete shutdown of the Russian market would follow. The company is still recovering after more than a year after the sanctions were posed and have not been able to supplement the lost revenue streams. This research is a qualitative research aiming to find answers to the main questions: 1) What is the 2014 Ukraine crisis and what kind of special implications does it have and 2) How did the crisis affect Valio and how did Valio fare in its crisis management efforts. The data has been collected both from secondary document sources and primary sources. The main findings of this research are that the political and economic environment of the EU and Russia has gone through a profound change during the years 2013-2015. The companies and governments should re-evaluate what kind of environment they are now facing and what kinds of risks the new situation poses. This also calls for a deep academic analysis from the academic community. In corporate crisis management of Valio the main findings are that the former literature has looked into crisis management as one-time occurrence but the new crises and global events would call for a more on-going crisis analysis and active crisis management. Thus, corporate crisis management should be viewed as a cycle. Valio specifically handled the situation surprisingly well, considering that their revenue was indeed cut by a fifth. The main aspects of crisis management, which Valio did not handle as well, concern the learning curve of crisis management. They could be doing more in order to prepare for future crises better by learning from this experience. The situation is then still on-going in the autumn 2015 both in Ukraine and within Valio.

Feminismejä, feministejä ja ruotsalaista tyttöelokuvaa 1990-2000-luvuilla

Lectio praecursoria kulttuurihistorian väitöskirjaan New feminisms, gender equality and neoliberalism in Swedish girl films, 1995-2006 Turun yliopistossa 24.1.2015.

Ohjelmistoalan PK-yrityksen tuotekehityksen suorituskyvyn mittaaminen

Tämän työn tarkoituksena oli kehittää suorituskykymittariston rakentamisen malli, jossa otetaan huomioon PK-yrityksen sekä ohjelmistokehitystyön erityispiirteet. Työssä käytiin ensin läpi teoriaa aiheesta, jonka jälkeen rakennettiin mittaristo kohdeyritykseen. Näiden pohjalta rakennettiin malli, jonka avulla PK-ohjelmistoyrityksen tuotekehitysorganisaatiolle voidaan rakentaa toimiva suorituskyvyn mittaristo. Tutkimusote on konstruktiivinen. Työssä tarkasteltiin suorituskyvyn määritelmän ja mittaamisen kehitystä. Käytiin läpi erilaisia olemassa olevia tasapainotettuja malleja sekä hyvien mittareiden ominaisuuksia. Teoriassa tutustuttiin myös PK-yritysten mittaamiseen, asiantuntijoiden mittaamisen erityispiirteisiin sekä ohjelmistotyön erityispiirteisiin. Tuloksena syntyi malli, jossa tasapaino syntyi eri näkökulmien kautta, mutta myös subjektiivisten ja objektiivisten mittareiden kautta. Mallin mukaan syntyneillä objektiivisilla ja subjektiivisilla mittareilla on eri käyttötarkoitukset. Kuten teoriassakin havaittiin, subjektiiviset mittarit sopivat paremmin johtoryhmän raportointiin, kun taas objektiiviset mittarit ovat toimivampia asiantuntijoiden mittaamisessa.