Association between Information and Communication Technology Usage and the Quality of Sleep among School-Aged Children during a School Week

ilm OKM 2013

Backpacker 2.0 - Contemporary backpackers and their use of social media as an information and communication platform

Long-term independent budget travel to countries far away has become increasingly common over the last few decades, and backpacking has now entered the tourism mainstream. Nowadays, backpackers are a very important segment of the global travel market. Backpacking is a type of tourism that involves a lot of information search activities. The Internet has become a major source of information as well as a platform for tourism business transactions. It allows travelers to gain information very effortlessly and to learn about tourist destinations and products directly from other travelers in the form of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Social media has penetrated and changed the backpacker market, as now modern travelers can stay connected to people at home, read online recommendations, and organize and book their trips very independently. In order to create a wider understanding on modern-day backpackers and their information search and share behavior in the Web 2.0 era, this thesis examined contemporary backpackers and their use of social media as an information and communication platform. In order to achieve this goal, three sub-objectives were identified: 1. to describe contemporary backpacker tourism 2. to examine contemporary backpackers’ travel information search and share behavior 3. to explore the impacts of new information and communications technologies and Web 2.0 on backpacker tourism The empirical data was gathered with an online survey, thus the method of analysis was mainly quantitative, and a qualitative method was used for a brief analysis of open questions. The research included both descriptive and analytical approaches, as the goal was to describe modern-day backpackers, and to examine possible interdependencies between information search and share behavior and background variables. The interdependencies were tested for statistical significance with the help of five research hypotheses. The results suggested that backpackers no longer fall under the original backpacker definitions described some decades ago. Now, they are mainly short-term travelers, whose trips resemble more those of mainstream tourists. They use communication technologies very actively, and particularly social media. Traditional information sources, mainly guide books and recommendations from friends, are of great importance to them but also eWOM sources are widely used in travel decision making. The use of each source varies according to the stage of the trip. All in all, Web 2.0 and new ICTs have transformed the backpacker tourism industry in many ways. Although the experience has become less authentic in some travelers’ eyes, the backpacker culture is still recognizable.

Task Force on Librarians’ Competencies in Support of E-Research and Scholarly Communication

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

The Human Communication Science Virtual Lab (HCS vLab): A repository microclimate in a rapidly evolving research-ecosystem

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

What do Sports Sponsors Really Want? The effects of service quality, service value and customer satisfaction on behavioral intentions in sports sponsorship context

The aim of this Master’s thesis was to study the antecedents of customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions and their relative relationships in the sports sponsorship context. The possible antecedents under investigation in the current research are service value and service quality. As the academic background in the sports sponsorship literature is still rather modest there was a need for further empirical testing. The theoretical part of the research builds on the existing services marketing literature with sports sponsorship and business-to-business contexts in mind. The empirical study focused on the case company Liiga-SaiPa Oy. The data for the empirical analysis was collected via quantitative online survey. The total sample consisted of 357 the case company’s business customers and a total of 80 usable responses were collected. The data was analyzed by using statistical analysis software, SPSS. According to the results of the empirical analysis the most important antecedent of behavioral intentions in the underlying context is customer satisfaction. Also service value was found to have a direct and positive relationship with behavioral intentions. Moreover no indirect relationships through satisfaction were found between service quality and service value and behavioral intentions. However both constructs of service value and service quality were diagnosed to have a direct and positive effect on customer satisfaction. Service quality was also found to be a direct antecedent of service value with other service value benefits. However a contradicting finding with the current literature was, that service value sacrifices were not found to have a significant relationship with overall service value perceptions.

Target audience and message alignment for integrated marketing communication of luxury products: entering the Chinese market

The purpose of this study is to identify opportunities to match marketing communication message strategies with the target audience characteristics in the Chinese luxury market entry context. Therefore, consumer behaviour and psychographic marketing segmentation fields are being reviewed in a holistic view in order to identify the similarities and connection points. Through the analysis of the messages in advertisements placed in a certain luxury and fine living magazine, message creation strategies are being anticipated.

The effect of celebrity CEO’s crisis communication to crisis outcome

The purpose of this this study is to examine the effects that a celebrity CEO’s crisis communication has on the crisis outcome and further on the quick decision response, resource mobilization and information flow during a crisis. The research was conducted using a multiple embedded case method, with four cases that represent different kinds of crisis that have all involved a celebrity CEO. The cases have been collected from various secondary data sources. The results of the study indicate that in crisis situations the celebrity CEO is expected to take responsibility of the crisis communication. The CEO needs to understand how and what to communicate in these situations and they need to make quick decisions even with limited information available. Crisis outcome is highly dependent on the golden hour crisis communication and there the performance of the celebrity CEO is crucial.

Consumer online communication of corporate social responsibility in the sin industry context: Cases in the global online gambling industry.

So-called sin industries are often related to harmfulness, unethical business, and unproductiveness. Nowadays, the alcohol, gambling, and tobacco industries are most often considered to be part of sin industries, which is also the context of this study. However, the definition of a sin industry is always related to time and culture. Despite the controversies of sin industries, there are studies that have shown that corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement is even more important for sin industries than for normal industries and that CSR has a positive effect on firm value in sin industries. With CSR this study refers to an ideology where company takes mostly voluntary actions towards various groups of stakeholders and the environment. In other words, the company goes beyond the legal norms and regulations. In particular, the purpose of this thesis is to find out how companies, operating in the online gambling industry, communicate about their CSR actions to consumers at their web pages. The online environment is essential for this study as online gambling environment is a source of many controversies in comparison to the traditional gambling halls and casinos. These include, for example, greater accessibility, anonymity, and availability of the service. This study uses qualitative textual analysis as its approach, more precisely the discourse analysis. In addition, as this study focuses on large international companies and their actions, also case study approach will be presented. The cases studied are Mybet, Unibet, and Bwin.Party. In order to study the subject, elements from discourse analysis are combined with insights of essential CSR theories, and the specific characteristics of the online gambling industry. As a background for the framework, this study uses the framework of Du & Vieira (2012). After analyzing the discourses of CSR communication and CSR practices, it seems that all of the case companies still do not use all the potential that the online environment provides in terms of CSR or stakeholder communication. There are large differences between different communication tools used at different web pages (gambling pages vs. corporation pages) and between the firms’ CSR profiles. Moreover, there are large differences in the CSR practices used in the web pages of the case companies. The findings of this study are partially alarming as the case companies represent the largest companies in the industry. There are major varieties between the companies’ CSR communication and clear shortcomings in some parts of the online communication. Moreover, the trust of the consumer was broken in some places. If this is the standard that the biggest players in the industry have set with regards to CSR communication, it is probable that the smaller players are performing even worse. Moreover, the regulators are most likely concentrating on the larger companies, so the smaller companies might have fewer incentives and pressure to perform according to the regulations or exceeding the legislation. The conclusions of this thesis provide insights to managers, regulators, and scholars. Suggestions for future studies are provided as well.

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.

Direct-Driven Interior Magnet Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors for a Full Electric Sports Car

The design process of direct-driven permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) for a full electric 4 ´ 4 sports car is presented. The rotor structure of the machine consists of two permanent magnet layers embedded inside the rotor laminations thus resulting in some inverse saliency, where the q-axis inductance is larger than the d-axis one. An integer slot stator winding was selected to fully take advantage of the additional reluctance torque. The performance characteristics of the designed PMSMs were calculated by applying a twodimensional finite element method. Cross-saturation between the d- and q-axes was taken into account in the calculation of the synchronous inductances. The calculation results are validated by measurements.

Value creation through sponsorship in electronic sports

The objective of this thesis was to study value creation through sponsor-ship in a new emerging electronic sports environment. Sub-questions were formulated which helped in finding answers to the main research question. Theory of traditional sports and practice of electronic sports were compared with each other in order to find out how theories of tradi-tional sports fare in the new environment. B2B-relationship model of Actors, resources and activities is used in this thesis to help in clarifying the different variables used in electronic sports sponsorship environment. The empirical research was conducted via interviews with the managers working in electronic sports environment. One of the main conclusions is that relationship management is really important.. Actors in electronic sports need to find and create win-win-win situations. This means that they need to benefit the actors in sponsoring relationship and also the community.