The long run impact of mergers and acquisitions on performance – empirical study in the pulp and paper industry

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have played very important role in restructuring the pulp and paper industry (PPI). The poor performance and fragmented nature of the industry, overcapacity problems, and globalisation have driven companies to consolidate. The objective of this thesis was to examine how PPI acquirers’ have performed subsequent M&As and whether the deal characteristics have had any impact on performance. Based on the results it seems that PPI companies have not been able to enhance their performance in the long run after M&As although the per-formance of acquiring firms has remained above the industry median, and deal characteristics or the amount of premiums paid do not seem to have had any effect. The statistical significance of the results was tested with change model and regression analysis. Performance was assessed with accrual, cash flow, and market based indicators. Results are congruent with behavioural theory: managers and investors seem to be overoptimistic in determining the synergies from M&As.

Corporate Social and Regional Responsibility - The View of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

The objective of this research was to understand and describe what corpo-rate social and regional responsibility is in SMEs and define the meaning of these concepts to the community and region. Corporate social respon-sibility (CSR) creates a basis for regional responsibility. Regional respon-sibility is a new concept and this research examines it from SMEs’ view-point. This is a theoretical research and the aim is to create a theoretical framework of SMEs’ corporate social and regional responsibility. This framework supports the future research on the subject. The research results show that CSR of SMEs is practical, informal and dependent on the scarce resources of SMEs. CSR is a complex and deep concept and SMEs have their own way of interpreting it. It can be stated that CSR-practises in SMEs are closely connected to employment, envi-ronment, community and supply chain. The challenge is to find motivation to socially and regionally responsible behaviour in SMEs. Benefiting from responsible behaviour and the attitude of SME’s owner-manager are the key reasons for SMEs to involve in CSR and regional responsibility. The benefits of this involvement are for example improved image, reputation and market position. CSR can also be used in SMEs as risk management tool and in cost reduction. This study indicates also that creation of strate-gic partnerships, local government participation, a proper legal system and financial support are the basic issues which support CSR of SMEs. This research showed that regional responsibility of SMEs includes active participation in regional strategy processes, L&RED initiatives and regional philanthropy. For SMEs regional responsibility means good relationships with the community and other related stakeholders, involvement in L&RED initiatives and acting responsibly towards the operating environment. In SMEs’ case this means that they need to understand the benefits of this kind of involvement in order to take action and participate. As regional responsibility includes the relationships between firm and the community, it can be stated that regional responsibility extends CSR’s view of stakeholders and emphasises both, the regional stakeholders and public-private partnerships. Community engagement and responsible be-haviour towards community can be seen as a part of SMEs’ social and regional responsibility. This study indicates that social and regional re-sponsibility of SMEs have a significant influence on the community and region where they are located. Better local and regional relationships with regional and community actors are the positive impacts of social and re-gional responsibility of SMEs. Socially and regionally responsible behav-iour creates a more positive environment and deepens the involvement of SMEs to community and L&RED initiatives.

Coopetitive advantage – How firms create and appropriate value by collaborating with their competitors

Collaboration between competing firms (coopetition) has emerged as an important issue forn business practice in many industries. Extant literature has examined coopetition on many levels of analysis, but lacks clarity in distinguishing it explicitly from cooperation between noncompeting organizations. Because of this, the performance implications of coopetition from the perspective of an individual firm are still ambiguous – some research suggests positive results whereas other studies suggest detrimental outcomes. The aim in this dissertation is to narrow these gaps by exploring how firms create and appropriate value through collaboration with their competitors. The dissertation is divided into two parts. The first part comprises an overview of the relevant literature, as well as the conclusions of the whole study, and the second part includes six research publications. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies are utilized. The results suggest that coopetition embodies the distinctive logic of value creation and appropriation from the perspective of an individual firm, and thus differs in terms of performance implications from cooperation between non-competitors. The distinction comes from the fact that competitors have somewhat similar understanding, capabilities and interest related to certain markets, which is potentially both challenging and beneficial in terms of the individual firm’s competitiveness. It appears from the findings that there are distinctive firm-external and firm-specific factors affecting the success of a coopetition strategy. This study makes three main contributions. First, on the conceptual level it shows the distinction between coopetition and cooperation between non-rivals as a collaborative inter-organizational relationship. Secondly, it sets out a framework and propositions that enhance understanding of how value is created and appropriated in coopetition from the perspective of an individual firm. Thirdly, it offers empirical evidence of how coopetition affects firms’ innovation and market performance, and identifies the focal internal and external factors involved. In general terms, the thesis adds to our knowledge of how a firm can successfully utilize a coopetition strategy in its pursuit of improved performance.

Coaching agile methods in research and development projects

Agile coaching of a project team is one way to aid learning of the agile methods. The objective of this thesis is to present the agile coaching plan and to follow how complying the plan affects to the project teams. Furthermore, the agile methods are followed how they work in the projects. Two projects are used to help the research. From the thesis point of view, the task for the first project is to coach the project team and two new coaches. The task for the second project is also to coach the project team, but this time so that one of the new coaches acts as the coach. The agile methods Scrum process and Extreme programming are utilized by the projects. In the latter, the test driven development, continuous integration and pair programming are concentrated more precisely. The results of the work are based on the observations from the projects and the analysis derived from the observations. The results are divided to the effects of the coaching and to functionality of the agile methods in the projects. Because of the small sample set, the results are directional. The presented plan, to coach the agile methods, needs developing, but the results of the functionality of the agile methods are encouraging.

Esimiehen ydinkompetenssit tuloksen ja työtyytyväisyyden selittäjänä – Case S-market

Työn tarkoituksena on kehittää suorittavalle esimiestasolle työkalu, millä voidaan mitata esimiehen kompetensseja. S-market esimiehen ydinosaamiset työssä jakautuvat kahteen kokonaisuuteen vuorovaikutus- ja ketjuyksikön johtamiseen. Työn tavoitteena on myös tarkastella millä esimiehen ydinosaamisella on merkitystä työtyytyväisyyteen ja yrityksen tulokseen. Tutkimus on kvantitatiivinen ja sen aineisto on verkkokyselylomakkeen avulla kerätystä 129 vastauksesta. Verkkokyselylomakkeen väittämät ovat rakennettu esimiestyön kompetensseista, jotka pohjautuvat tutkielman teoriaan. Verkkokyselyn, työtyytyväisyyden ja tuloksen lukuarvot on analysoitu tilastollisella tulostenkäsittelyohjelmalla, SPSS:llä. Työtyytyväisyystulokset ovat koottu tutkimukseen osallistuneen viidentoista S-marketin työtyytyväisyystutkimuksen tuloksista vuodelta 2008. Tuloksen mittareina tutkielmassa on käytetty samojen S-markettien työtehokkuutta ja toimintakateprosenttia vuodelta 2008. Työn tulokset vahvistivat sen, että esimiestyöllä on suora syy-seuraussuhde työtyytyväisyyteen ja tuloksellisuuteen. Tutkimustuloksien perusteella esimieskäyttämisen vaikutus työtyytyväisyyden kokemiseen on vahva. Hyvällä vuorovaikutusjohtamisella tuloksien perusteella oli vaikutusta työtyytyväisyyteen. Tuloksista kävi ilmi, että työtyytyväisyyteen esimiehen kompetensseista eniten vaikuttivat yksilöllinen huomiointi, tavoitteisiin kannustaminen ja motivointi sekä asiakaslähtöisyys. Tuloksen mittareihin eniten vaikutti tulos- ja tavoitejohtaminen. Tuloksellisuuteen vaikuttavat tutkimuksen mukaan esimiehen jämäkkä ja vaativa tavoitteisiin ohjaava toiminta sekä päätöksenteko ja organisointikyky. Tarkempien ja täsmällisimpien S-market esimiehen kompetenssien löytämiseksi kehitysehdotuksena tutkielmassa on laajemman tutkimusaineiston käsittely neljän faktorin avulla.

The Possibilities and Dosimetric Limitations of MLC-Based Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy Delivery and Optimization Techniques

The use of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has increased extensively in the modern radiotherapy (RT) treatments over the past two decades. Radiation dose distributions can be delivered with higher conformality with IMRT when compared to the conventional 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT). Higher conformality and target coverage increases the probability of tumour control and decreases the normal tissue complications. The primary goal of this work is to improve and evaluate the accuracy, efficiency and delivery techniques of RT treatments by using IMRT. This study evaluated the dosimetric limitations and possibilities of IMRT in small (treatments of head-and-neck, prostate and lung cancer) and large volumes (primitive neuroectodermal tumours). The dose coverage of target volumes and the sparing of critical organs were increased with IMRT when compared to 3D-CRT. The developed split field IMRT technique was found to be safe and accurate method in craniospinal irradiations. By using IMRT in simultaneous integrated boosting of biologically defined target volumes of localized prostate cancer high doses were achievable with only small increase in the treatment complexity. Biological plan optimization increased the probability of uncomplicated control on average by 28% when compared to standard IMRT delivery. Unfortunately IMRT carries also some drawbacks. In IMRT the beam modulation is realized by splitting a large radiation field to small apertures. The smaller the beam apertures are the larger the rebuild-up and rebuild-down effects are at the tissue interfaces. The limitations to use IMRT with small apertures in the treatments of small lung tumours were investigated with dosimetric film measurements. The results confirmed that the peripheral doses of the small lung tumours were decreased as the effective field size was decreased. The studied calculation algorithms were not able to model the dose deficiency of the tumours accurately. The use of small sliding window apertures of 2 mm and 4 mm decreased the tumour peripheral dose by 6% when compared to 3D-CRT treatment plan. A direct aperture based optimization (DABO) technique was examined as a solution to decrease the treatment complexity. The DABO IMRT technique was able to achieve treatment plans equivalent with the conventional IMRT fluence based optimization techniques in the concave head-and-neck target volumes. With DABO the effective field sizes were increased and the number of MUs was reduced with a factor of two. The optimality of a treatment plan and the therapeutic ratio can be further enhanced by using dose painting based on regional radiosensitivities imaged with functional imaging methods.

ESTABLISH & DEPLOY DOWNSTREAM MARKETING CAPABILITIES: a case study research following the framework implementation journey

According to many academic researches, the development of marketing capabilities can enhance organizational performance. Similarly, downstream marketing capabilities have an important role in accomplishment the organizational goals. Particularly the downstream marketing capabilities identified in this research are the Marketing Communication, Selling, Marketing implementation, and Market information management. These four capabilities are summarized under the following abilities. First, the ability to manage customers’ opinion regarding the offered value from the organization. Second, the ability of the organization to obtain orders from new and established customers. Third, the ability of aligning and translate the marketing strategy into an operating action plan along with the deployment of the organizational resources. Forth, the continuous process of gathering and managing information about the markets. Moreover, the literature review of this research shed light on the elements that compose the downstream marketing capabilities. Specifically, this research examined the downstream processes and the required information required to control these processes based on the American Productivity and Quality Center’s Process Classification Framework. Furthermore, the literature review examined some of the technological tools that are used in marketing processes, and also some managerial implication regarding the management of the downstream marketing employees. Along with the investigation of downstream marketing capabilities, the literature review investigated the utilization and the benefits of Component Business Model and Process Classification Framework, as they are defined by the organizations that developed them. Besides this initial study, the research presents how the examined organization is using the two frameworks together by cross-referring them. Finally, the research presents the optimal deployment of the collected downstream capabilities elements in the current organizational structure. The optimal deployment has been grounded on the information collected from the literature review but also from internal documentation, provided from the examined organization. By comparing the optimal deployment and the current condition on the organization, the research exhibits some points for improvement, but also some of the projects that are currently in progress inside the organization and eventually will provide solutions to these downsides.

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.

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.

Pilvipalvelun identiteetin- ja pääsynhallinta palveluna

Työn tavoite on ollut tutkia ja rakentaa pilvipalvelun identiteetin- ja pääsynhallinta liiketoimintapalveluksi yrityksille ja organisaatioille. Lähtökohtana on ollut valmiiden identiteetinhallintaohjelmistotuotteiden käyttäminen kehitettävän palvelutuotteen osana. Työssä on ollut tarkoitus selvittää, voiko identiteetinhallintaa ja pääsynhallintaa tuottaa ja tarjota pilvipalveluna kannattavasti. Tutkimusote on ollut konstruktiivinen ja triangulaatiossa on käytetty useaa menetelmää, jotta on saatu selvä kuva liiketoiminnan luonteesta ja tarpeista. Menetelmiä ovat olleet kyselytutkimus ja peste-analyysi. Lisäksi on tehty liiketoimintasuunnitelma ja palveluliiketoiminnan kuvaus Orsterwalderin canvas- menetelmällä. Jokainen tutkimusosa on ollut oleellinen määritettäessä palvelutuotteen ominaisuuksia, koska tavoite on ollut saada mahdollisimman luotettava ja helppokäyttöinen tuote nopeasti kasvaville pilvipalvelumarkkinoille. Tutkimuksen tuloksena on määritelty malli palveluliiketoiminnan tarpeisiin sopivasta turvallisesta palvelualustasta, joka skaalautuu hyvin pilvipalveluiden käytön lisääntyessä voimakkaasti. Liiketoimintasuunnitelman laskelmien avulla on löydetty käyttäjämäärien alarajat kannattavaan liiketoimintaan. Lisäksi on huomattu palvelun rakenteen auttavan yrityksiä ja organisaatiota suojaamaan pilvipalveluiden käyttäjätunnukset ja salasanat väärinkäytöksiltä, mikä on tarpeellista ja ajankohtaista kaikille organisaatioille, jotka harkitsevat pilvipalveluiden käyttöä ja haluavat tehdä sen tietoturvallisesti. Tutkimuksen tuloksena on pystytty määrittelemään, onko liiketoiminta kannattavaa vai ei sekä palvelun tarvitsemat liiketoimintaelementit.

Finnish buyers’ perceptions of Indian textile and clothing suppliers: Country of origin in focus

Choosing the right supplier is crucial for long-term business prospects and profitability. Thus organizational buyers are naturally very interested in how they can select the right supplier for their needs. Likewise, suppliers are interested in knowing how their customers make purchasing decisions in order to effectively sell and market to them. From the point of view of the textile and clothing (T&C) industry, regulatory changes and increasing low-cost and globalization pressures have led to the rise of low-cost production locations India and China as the world’s largest T&C producers. This thesis will examine T&C trade between Finland and India specifically in the context of non-industrial T&C products. Its main research problem asks: what perceptions do Finnish T&C industry buyers hold of India and Indian suppliers? B2B buyers use various supplier selection models and criteria in making their purchase decisions. A significant amount of research has been done into supplier selection practices, and in the context of international trade, country of origin (COO) perceptions specifically have garnered much attention. This thesis uses a mixed methods approach (online questionnaire and in-depth interviews) to evaluate Finnish T&C buyers’ supplier selection criteria, COO perceptions of India and experiences of Indian suppliers. It was found that the most important supplier selection criteria used by Finnish T&C buyers are quality, reliability and cost. COO perceptions were not found to be influential in purchasing process. Indian T&C suppliers’ strengths were found to be low cost, flexibility and a history of traditional T&C expertise. Their weaknesses include product quality and unreliable delivery times. Overall, the main challenges that need to be overcome by Indian T&C companies are logistical difficulties and the cost vs. quality trade-off. Despite positive perceptions of India for cost, the overall value offered by Indian T&C products was perceived to be low due to poor quality. Unreliable delivery time experiences also affected buyer’s reliability perceptions of Indian suppliers. The main limiting factors of this thesis relate to the small sample size used in the research. This limits the generalizability of results and the ability to evaluate the reliability and validity of some of the research instruments.

Telan ja nuohoimen kunnossapitopalveluiden kehittämisvaihtoehdot: kannattavuus ja markkinat

The purpose of this thesis was to find possible development options for roll and sootblower maintenance services in an industrial maintenance company. In addi-tion company wanted to know the size of the maintenance market in both of these services and what services it should offer to markets. Research method of this work was case-study and research approach was mainly analytical but it also had some features of constructive approach. This thesis consists of theoretical literature review and empirical case-study. Theoretical part of this thesis included theories about strategic planning of maintenance, service production, customer value, profitability and methods to analyze company’s current environment. Strategic maintenance elements, service concept and aspects of customer value were found to plan and develop maintenance services. The result of the empirical part of this thesis was that problems in roll maintenance were narrowed down to organization of mainte-nance services and in sootblower maintenance services problems were narrowed down to maintenance methods. Based on this scope four development options were formed which of all turned out to be profitable. Market size for roll and maintenance services in Eastern Finland was determined and recommendations of services, which company should offer to these markets, were given.

Russia, China, India Foresight for Small and Medium size Enterprises in Uusimaa : Changes forecast in the Russian, Chinese and Indian operating environments from the viewpoint of small and middle-sized enterprises in Uusimaa

The report describes those factors of the future that are related to the growth and needs of Russia, China, and India and that may provide significant internationalisation potential for Uusimaa companies. The report examines the emerging trends and market-entry challenges for each country separately. Additionally, it evaluates the training needs of Uusimaa companies in terms of the current offerings available for education on topics related to Russia, China, and India. The report was created via the Delphi method: experts were interviewed, and both Trendwiki material and the latest literature were used to create a summary of experts’ views, statements, and reasons behind recent developments. This summary of views was sent back to the experts with the objective of reaching consensus synthesising the differing views or, at least, of providing argumentation for the various alternative lines of development. In addition to a number of outside experts and business leaders, all heads of Finpro’s Finland Trade Centers participated in the initial interviews. The summary was commented upon by all Finpro consultants and analysts for Russia, China, and India, with each focusing on his or her own area of expertise. The literature used consisted of reports, listed for each country, and an extensive selection of the most recent newspaper articles. The report was created in January-April 2010. On 22 April 2010 its results were reviewed at the final report presentation in cooperation with the Uusimaa ELY Centre.

Price spike forecasting in a competitive day-ahead energy market

Electricity price forecasting has become an important area of research in the aftermath of the worldwide deregulation of the power industry that launched competitive electricity markets now embracing all market participants including generation and retail companies, transmission network providers, and market managers. Based on the needs of the market, a variety of approaches forecasting day-ahead electricity prices have been proposed over the last decades. However, most of the existing approaches are reasonably effective for normal range prices but disregard price spike events, which are caused by a number of complex factors and occur during periods of market stress. In the early research, price spikes were truncated before application of the forecasting model to reduce the influence of such observations on the estimation of the model parameters; otherwise, a very large forecast error would be generated on price spike occasions. Electricity price spikes, however, are significant for energy market participants to stay competitive in a market. Accurate price spike forecasting is important for generation companies to strategically bid into the market and to optimally manage their assets; for retailer companies, since they cannot pass the spikes onto final customers, and finally, for market managers to provide better management and planning for the energy market. This doctoral thesis aims at deriving a methodology able to accurately predict not only the day-ahead electricity prices within the normal range but also the price spikes. The Finnish day-ahead energy market of Nord Pool Spot is selected as the case market, and its structure is studied in detail. It is almost universally agreed in the forecasting literature that no single method is best in every situation. Since the real-world problems are often complex in nature, no single model is able to capture different patterns equally well. Therefore, a hybrid methodology that enhances the modeling capabilities appears to be a possibly productive strategy for practical use when electricity prices are predicted. The price forecasting methodology is proposed through a hybrid model applied to the price forecasting in the Finnish day-ahead energy market. The iterative search procedure employed within the methodology is developed to tune the model parameters and select the optimal input set of the explanatory variables. The numerical studies show that the proposed methodology has more accurate behavior than all other examined methods most recently applied to case studies of energy markets in different countries. The obtained results can be considered as providing extensive and useful information for participants of the day-ahead energy market, who have limited and uncertain information for price prediction to set up an optimal short-term operation portfolio. Although the focus of this work is primarily on the Finnish price area of Nord Pool Spot, given the result of this work, it is very likely that the same methodology will give good results when forecasting the prices on energy markets of other countries.

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.