Evolution of Ba and Role of Absorptive Capacity in Collaboration between MNCs and Chinese Universities in China

During the recent years, collaboration with Chinese universities has aroused growing interest among multinational companies (MNCs). Cross-cultural university-industry (U-I) collaboration creates various challenges in collaborative knowledge creation and innovation due to the differences e.g. between university and company motivation, objectives and activities. Also different values, norms, and means of actions result often in collisions and misunderstandings. This thesis examines the establishment of the relationships and the evolution of the collaboration between MNCs and Chinese universities. Empirical findings underscore that the partners in collaboration are required to possess research interest as well as capability to acquire, assimilate and exploit new external knowledge. Time and communication have a critical role in the evolution of the collaboration. In China the personal relationships, guanxi, play an important role. Collaborative knowledge creation requires a platform, Ba, which enables the creation of common understanding, commitment, trust and mutual respect. Empirical data has been collected through interviewing company experts and academe of Chinese universities from ICT and forest industries as well as attending panel discussions and meetings with the experts from the field of study.

EU:n ja Kiinan välisen kaupan kehitys

Työmme tavoitteena on analysoida Kiinan ja EU:n keskinäisen kaupan kasvua viimeisinä vuosikymmeninä ja lähitulevaisuudessa. Lisäksi tutkimme kauppaa ja sen rakennetta molemmista näkökulmista, jotta voisimme havaita molemmille osapuolille saavutettavat hyödyt, haitat ja tulevaisuuden mahdollisuudet. Työssä pyrittiin käyttämään lähteenä aiheeseen liittyvää kirjallisuutta ja tuoreita artikkeleita. Maiden välisen kaupan kasvu perustuu suuresti Kiinan talouden uudistusohjelmaan, jonka ansiosta Kiina avautui huomattavasti kansainväliselle liiketoiminnalle. Suhteellisen edun teorian mukaisesti tuotanto alkoi siirtyä Kiinaan yhä enemmän, ja samalla Kiinan talous lähti huimaan kasvuun. Kiina on viime vuosikymmenen aikana noussut EU:n tärkeimmäksi tuontimaaksi, ja tulevaisuudessa Kiinan vienti tulee lisääntymään entisestään. Joidenkin arvioiden mukaan Kiina tulee tulevaisuudessa ottamaan paikan maailman suurimpana talousmaana. Tärkeimmät kahdenkeskeiseen kaupankäyntiin vaikuttavat seikat ovat Kiinan valuutan aliarvostus ja tuontirajoitukset. Kaupan rakenteeseen vaikuttaa merkittävästi Kiina ja EU:n taloudellisten suhteellisten etujen eroavaisuudet.

Social Cognition and Behavior in Relationship Context

Social information processing (SIP; Crick & Dodge, 1994) and social-cognitive learning theories have been often used to understand children’s problem behaviors, such as aggression. According to these theories, children’s thinking guides their subsequent behaviors. Although most of us agree that social behavior and underlying thought processes are context-dependent, personality and social development researchers have usually engaged in searching for stable patterns of dispositions and behaviors, ignoring (or treating as error) the variance across different situations and relationship types. This, however, can result in erroneous conclusions and question the interpretation of previous findings. Four studies were conducted to explore the influence of relationship context on children’s social-cognitive evaluations and behavior. Samples were fourth to sixth graders from Estonia and Finland. Social cognitions were assessed by presenting children with hypothetical vignettes where the previously identified relationship partner’s behavior had a negative consequence for the child (Studies I, II, and IV), followed by questions measuring different social-cognitive processes (e.g., hostile attributions, behavioral strategies, outcome expectations and self-efficacy beliefs for aggression). In addition, in Studies II and IV, children provided information about their behavior within a specific relationship context. In Study III, an affective priming paradigm was employed where participants were presented with a short display of photographs of children’s liked and disliked classmates, and unknown peers. The results of this thesis suggest that children’s thinking and behavior are largely influenced by the affective valence of the relationship. Moreover, cognitions guide behavior within the relationship. The current findings offer a fruitful avenue for studying the heterogeneity of peer interactions.

Co-opetition: Coexistence of cooperation and competition in public sector – A case study in one city’s public companies

Business actions do not take place in isolation. Complementary competencies and capabilities are the most important resources in the exponential knowledge growth. These resources are partially accessed via business partners. A company needs partners and the capability to cooperate, but also the awareness of the competitive tension, when operating in the market with multiple actors. The co-opetition research studies the occurrence and the forms of simultaneous cooperation and competition between companies or their units. Public sector’s governmental and municipal organs have been transformed into companies over the past years. Despite of their non-profit nature, public sector and public companies are adopting business doctrines from private sector towards efficient business operations. This case study aims to show, how co-opetition concept can be observed within public sector companies and in their operations with others, how public companies cooperate but also compete with others and why this happens. This thesis also explicates advantages and disadvantages of the co-opetition phenomenon.

Developing service offering of an air freight carrier

The thesis examined service offering development of an air freight carrier from the customers' point of view. The study was limited to the biggest business clients of the carrier. Service offering development can be divided into service concept, process and system. The thesis was based on these three themes and quality. Compared to product development, systematic and well-structured service development has been studied little, especially in business market. However, service development is a current issue. Due to growing competition companies should carefully listen to their clients' needs and respond to them by offering right services. Methodology of the thesis is qualitative and representatives of three forwarding companies were interviewed. It was found out that the forwarding companies consider themselves as partners of the airline. In addition to general reliability, the customers value the most fluent terminal processes and electronic communication.

Opinion Mining

In this thesis we study the field of opinion mining by giving a comprehensive review of the available research that has been done in this topic. Also using this available knowledge we present a case study of a multilevel opinion mining system for a student organization's sales management system. We describe the field of opinion mining by discussing its historical roots, its motivations and applications as well as the different scientific approaches that have been used to solve this challenging problem of mining opinions. To deal with this huge subfield of natural language processing, we first give an abstraction of the problem of opinion mining and describe the theoretical frameworks that are available for dealing with appraisal language. Then we discuss the relation between opinion mining and computational linguistics which is a crucial pre-processing step for the accuracy of the subsequent steps of opinion mining. The second part of our thesis deals with the semantics of opinions where we describe the different ways used to collect lists of opinion words as well as the methods and techniques available for extracting knowledge from opinions present in unstructured textual data. In the part about collecting lists of opinion words we describe manual, semi manual and automatic ways to do so and give a review of the available lists that are used as gold standards in opinion mining research. For the methods and techniques of opinion mining we divide the task into three levels that are the document, sentence and feature level. The techniques that are presented in the document and sentence level are divided into supervised and unsupervised approaches that are used to determine the subjectivity and polarity of texts and sentences at these levels of analysis. At the feature level we give a description of the techniques available for finding the opinion targets, the polarity of the opinions about these opinion targets and the opinion holders. Also at the feature level we discuss the various ways to summarize and visualize the results of this level of analysis. In the third part of our thesis we present a case study of a sales management system that uses free form text and that can benefit from an opinion mining system. Using the knowledge gathered in the review of this field we provide a theoretical multi level opinion mining system (MLOM) that can perform most of the tasks needed from an opinion mining system. Based on the previous research we give some hints that many of the laborious market research tasks that are done by the sales force, which uses this sales management system, can improve their insight about their partners and by that increase the quality of their sales services and their overall results.

Outsourcing Challenges in Russia

The study focuses on the key factors in outsourcing from the viewpoint of manufacturing companies operating in Russia. The goal has been to give an overview of the different kinds of challenges companies might face in the case of outsourcing. Of particular interest are the possible risks which might originate from the subcontract relationship, as well as managing these risks. The empirical material for this qualitative interview study was collected from three large-scale manufacturing companies operating in food industry in Russia. Two of the interviewed companies were local Russian actors, and one was an international firm. According to the respondents, a big challenge is to find a suitable supplier in the Russian markets. If there are suppliers available, they may often not be capable of operating as outsourcing partners. The most common problems faced with suppliers are unstable quality and arbitrary pricing. Whether the suppliers are capable to offer activities which satisfy the company’s own and the end customers’ requirements, seems to be the biggest concern in the interviewed companies. This quality risk is managed by the strategy of multiple sourcing. Single sourcing is seen as an impossible option. The interviewed companies have no organised risk management with their external suppliers.

Mitotic regulation by Polo-like kinase 1 and the Chromosomal Passenger Complex

During mitosis, the duplicated genome must be accurately divided between two daughter cells. Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) and Aurora B kinase, together with its binding partners Incenp, Survivin and Borealin (chromosomal passenger complex, CPC), have key roles in coordinating mitotic events. The accuracy of cell division is safeguarded by a signaling cascade termed the mitotic spindle checkpoint (SC), which ensures that chromosomes are not physically separated before correct bipolar attachments have been formed between kinetochores and spindle microtubules (MT). An inhibitory “wait anaphase” signal, which delays chromosome separation (anaphase onset), is created at individual kinetochores and broadcasted throughout the cell in response to lack of kinetochore-microtubule (kMT) attachment or proper interkinetochore tension. It is believed that the fast turnover of SC molecules at kinetochores contributes to the cell’s ability to produce this signal and enables rapid responses to changing cellular conditions. Kinetochores that lack MT attachment and tension express a certain phosphoepitope called the 3F3/2 phosphoepitope, which has been linked to SC signaling. In the experimental part, we investigated the regulation of the 3F3/2 phosphoepitope, analyzed whether CPC molecules turn over at centromeres, and dissected the mitotic roles of the CPC using a microinjection technique that allowed precise temporal control over its function. We found that the kinetochore 3F3/2 phosphoepitope is created by Plk1, and that CPC proteins exhibit constant exchange at centromeres. Moreover, we found that CPC function is necessary in the regulation of chromatid movements and spindle morphology in anaphase. In summary, we identified new functions of key mitotic regulators Plk1 and CPC, and provided insighs into the coordination of mitotic events.

Drivers and Barriers of Collaboration in the Value Chain of Paperboard-Packed Consumer Goods

Value chain collaboration has been a prevailing topic for research, and there is a constantly growing interest in developing collaborative models for improved efficiency in logistics. One area of collaboration is demand information management, which enables improved visibility and decrease of inventories in the value chain. Outsourcing of non-core competencies has changed the nature of collaboration from intra-enterprise to cross-enterprise activity, and this together with increasing competition in the globalizing markets have created a need for methods and tools for collaborative work. The retailer part in the value chain of consumer packaged goods (CPG) has been studied relatively widely, proven models have been defined, and there exist several best practice collaboration cases. The information and communications technology has developed rapidly, offering efficient solutions and applications to exchange information between value chain partners. However, the majority of CPG industry still works with traditional business models and practices. This concerns especially companies operating in the upstream of the CPG value chain. Demand information for consumer packaged goods originates at retailers' counters, based on consumers' buying decisions. As this information does not get transferred along the value chain towards the upstream parties, each player needs to optimize their part, causing safety margins for inventories and speculation in purchasing decisions. The safety margins increase with each player, resulting in a phenomenon known as the bullwhip effect. The further the company is from the original demand information source, the more distorted the information is. This thesis concentrates on the upstream parts of the value chain of consumer packaged goods, and more precisely the packaging value chain. Packaging is becoming a part of the product with informative and interactive features, and therefore is not just a cost item needed to protect the product. The upstream part of the CPG value chain is distinctive, as the product changes after each involved party, and therefore the original demand information from the retailers cannot be utilized as such – even if it were transferred seamlessly. The objective of this thesis is to examine the main drivers for collaboration, and barriers causing the moderate adaptation level of collaborative models. Another objective is to define a collaborative demand information management model and test it in a pilot business situation in order to see if the barriers can be eliminated. The empirical part of this thesis contains three parts, all related to the research objective, but involving different target groups, viewpoints and research approaches. The study shows evidence that the main barriers for collaboration are very similar to the barriers in the lower part of the same value chain; lack of trust, lack of business case and lack of senior management commitment. Eliminating one of them – the lack of business case – is not enough to eliminate the two other barriers, as the operational model in this thesis shows. The uncertainty of the future, fear of losing an independent position in purchasing decision making and lack of commitment remain strong enough barriers to prevent the implementation of the proposed collaborative business model. The study proposes a new way of defining the value chain processes: it divides the contracting and planning process into two processes, one managing the commercial parts and the other managing the quantity and specification related issues. This model can reduce the resistance to collaboration, as the commercial part of the contracting process would remain the same as in the traditional model. The quantity/specification-related issues would be managed by the parties with the best capabilities and resources, as well as access to the original demand information. The parties in between would be involved in the planning process as well, as their impact for the next party upstream is significant. The study also highlights the future challenges for companies operating in the CPG value chain. The markets are becoming global, with toughening competition. Also, the technology development will most likely continue with a speed exceeding the adaptation capabilities of the industry. Value chains are also becoming increasingly dynamic, which means shorter and more agile business relationships, and at the same time the predictability of consumer demand is getting more difficult due to shorter product life cycles and trends. These changes will certainly have an effect on companies' operational models, but it is very difficult to estimate when and how the proven methods will gain wide enough adaptation to become standards.

Kansainvälisen liiketoimintaosaamisen kehittämistarpeet suomalaisissa pk-yrityksissä

Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tavoitteena oli kartoittaa suomalaisten pk-yritysten kansainvälisen liiketoimintaosaamisen kehittämistarpeita ja esittää kuinka kansainvälistymispalveluita voitaisiin kehittää vastaamaan tarpeisiin paremmin. Tutkielma jakautuu teoreettiseen ja empiiriseen osaan. Empiirisessä osassa hyödynnettiin valmista, survey-menetelmällä toteutettua tutkimusmateriaalia, jonka 122 pk-yritystä tutkittiin kvantitatiivisesti. Tutkimuksen mukaan suomalaisten pk-yritysten keskeisin kansainvälisen liiketoimintaosaamisen kehittämistarve on myynti- ja markkinointi-osaaminen. Pk-yritykset tarvitsevat ulkopuolista apua erityisesti ulkomaisten asiakkaiden ja yhteistyökumppaneiden löytämisessä. Tutkimuksen mukaan kansainvälistymispalveluiden käyttämättä jättämiseen ei vaikuta se, ettei palveluista ole saatu tarpeeksi tietoa, vaan se, ettei palveluita koeta hyödyllisiksi ja tarpeisiin vastaaviksi. Pk-yritysten kansainvälisen osaamisen kehittämiseen tarjottavat palvelut eivät täysin vastaa yritysten tarpeita. Kansainvälistymispalveluita tulisi kehittää erityisesti tarjoamalla yrityksille käytännön apua koulutuksen sijasta, tunnistamalla osaamistarpeet tehokkaammin, parantamalla alueellista tiedotusta ja lisäämällä palveluntarjoajien keskeistä yhteistyötä.

The role of alliance capabilities in alliance portfolio management

The question of why some firms perform better in managing their alliances has raised interest among scholars and managers. Whereas inter-firm factors influencing the alliance performance such as strategic fit between partners and the existence of complementarities have been studied extensively, research on firm-level antecedents is rather scarce. Therefore this study investigates the role of firm’s alliance capability in the alliance success equation. Particularly it analyses the specialized mechanisms and processes set up by firm in order to facilitate alliancerelated know-how leverage organization-wise. Evidence from a cross-industry sample of R&D intensive Finnish companies supports the fact that firms which have invested in institutionalizing alliance capabilities outperform their counterparts in alliance portfolio management. Results also suggest that firms need to adjust alliance management tools depending on the alliance portfolio size, prior experience with inter-firm partnerships and the strategic importance of alliances. Furthermore, absorptive capacity is found to be crucial for successful alliance management, its role being complementary to that of alliance capability. Finally, firms that have successful alliances also enjoy higher financial, market and innovation performance.

Model-based study of a chemical-looping combustion process

Chemical-looping combustion (CLC) is a novel combustion technology with inherent separation of the greenhouse gas CO2. The technique typically employs a dual fluidized bed system where a metal oxide is used as a solid oxygen carrier that transfers the oxygen from combustion air to the fuel. The oxygen carrier is looping between the air reactor, where it is oxidized by the air, and the fuel reactor, where it is reduced by the fuel. Hence, air is not mixed with the fuel, and outgoing CO2 does not become diluted by the nitrogen, which gives a possibility to collect the CO2 from the flue gases after the water vapor is condensed. CLC is being proposed as a promising and energy efficient carbon capture technology, since it can achieve both an increase in power station efficiency simultaneously with low energy penalty from the carbon capture. The outcome of a comprehensive literature study concerning the current status of CLC development is presented in this thesis. Also, a steady state model of the CLC process, based on the conservation equations of mass and energy, was developed. The model was used to determine the process conditions and to calculate the reactor dimensions of a 100 MWth CLC system with bunsenite (NiO) as oxygen carrier and methane (CH4) as fuel. This study has been made in Oxygen Carriers and Their Industrial Applications research project (2008 – 2011), funded by the Tekes – Functional Material program. I would like to acknowledge Tekes and participating companies for funding and all project partners for good and comfortable cooperation.

Logistiikan kehittäminen tehdasalueella

Logistiikan kehittäminen on nykypäivänä tärkeä tekijä yrityksen kilpailukyvyn parantamiseksi. Huonon taloustilanteen takia kustannussäästöt sekä logistisen toimitusketjun tehostaminen ovat nyt entistä tärkeämmässä asemassa. Tämän diplomityön päätavoitteena on tehdasalueen logistiikan kehittämisen avulla saavuttaa säästöjä Sulzer Pumps Finland Oy:n Karhulassa sijaitsevien yksiköiden logistiikka-kustannuksissa. Logistiikkatoimintoja on vuosien saatossa vähitellen ulkoistettu, joten tutkimus keskittyy pääosin ulkoistettujen logistiikkapalvelujen kehittämiseen. Nykytilan selvittäminen suoritettiin ensin haastatteluiden ja seurannan avulla. Selvityksen tuloksena havaittiin palveluntoimittajien toiminnoissa esiintyvän päällekkäisyyksiä ja tehottomuutta, joista aiheutuu yritykselle ylimääräisiä kustannuksia. Logistiikan kehittämisehdotuksia käsitellään tässä tutkimuksessa tehokkuuden lisäämisen, ylimääräisten työvaiheiden vähentämisen sekä roolijaon selkeyttämisen näkökulmista. Työn keskeisenä tuloksena todettiin myös, että vaiheittaisen ulkoistamisen myötä on menetetty ulkoistetun logistiikkapalvelun hallinta. Hallinnan palauttamisen keinoina käsitellään raportoinnin ja tiedonkulun lisäämistä, sopimuksellisia ja veloitusperusteellisia näkökulmia sekä palvelu- ja kustannustason mittaamiseen soveltuvien mittareiden kehittämistä.

Kansainvälistyvässä ohjelmistoliiketoiminnassa valittavan kumppanin ominaisuudet ja kartoittaminen

Tämän pro gradu tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää ominaisuudet, joita ohjelmistoalan yrityksen kansainvälistymisessä tukevalla kumppanilla tulee olla. Tarkoituksena oli selvittää mainitut ominaisuudet yleisesti ja luoda työkalu, jonka avulla potentiaalisia kumppaneita on mahdollista arvioida. Tämän lisäksi ominaisuuksia tarkennettiin tutkielman empiirisessä osassa, jossa kansainvälisen kumppanin ominaisuuksia selvitettiin tapauskohtaisesti tutkielman kohdeyrityksen, CAD Oy:n tilanteessa. Tutkielma jakautuu teoreettiseen ja empiiriseen osaan. Ensimmäinen pohjautuu aikaisempaan tutkimukseen ja kirjallisuuteen kansainvälistymisestä, kohdemaiden valinnasta ja kumppanuuksista. Jälkimmäinen on laadullista tapaustutkimusta. Empiriassa selvitettiin CAD Oy:n kansainväliseltä kumppanilta vaadittavat ominaisuudet ja kartoitettiin naita ominaisuuksia omaavia potentiaalisia yhteistyökumppaneita tutkimuksen kohdemaista. Empiirinen tutkimus perustui kohdeyrityksen johdolle ja henkilöstölle tehtyihin haastatteluihin sekä verkkomateriaaliin. Empiiriseen tutkimukseen liitettiin kohdeyrityksen toiveesta myös kohdemaiden analyysia. Johtopaatoksena todettiin, ettei ole olemassa tiettyjä kriteereitä tai ominaisuuksia, joiden vaatimukset täyttämällä olisi mahdollista löytää sopiva kumppani jokaiseen tilanteeseen. Ominaisuudet on aina määriteltävä tapaus ja yrityskohtaisesti. Niihin vaikuttavat myös laajentumisen kohdemaan ominaispiirteet. Usein kumppanin toivotaan olevan luotettava, ja sen tulisi voida tarjota komplementaarista osaamista liittyen joko myyntiin ja markkinointiin tai teknologiseen osaamiseen. Sen on lisäksi tunnettava paikalliset toimintatavat ja kyettävä huolehtimaan asiakkaista ja heidän vaatimastaan tuesta. Erikoisvaatimuksia asettavat tuotteiden ominaisuudet ja lokalisointivaatimukset.