Forest inventory information needs in Northwest Russia

This research report applies the customer value hierarchy model to forestry in order to determine strategic options to enhance the value of LiDAR technology in Russian forestry. The study is conducted as a qualitative case study with semi-structured interviews as a main source of the primary data. The customer value hierarchy model constitutes a theoretical base for the research. Secondary data incorporates information on forest resource management, LiDAR technology and Russian forestry. The model is operationalised using forestry literature and forms a basis for analyses of primary data. Analyses of primary data coupled with comprehension of Russian forest inventory system and knowledge on global forest inventory have led to conclusions on the forest inventory methods selection criteria and the organizations that would benefit the most from LiDAR technology use. The report recommends strategic options for LiDAR technology’s value enhancement in Russian forestry. This work has been conducted as a part of the project ‘Finnish-Russian Forest Academy 2 - Exploiting and Piloting’, which has been supported financially by the South-East Finland- Russia ENPI CBC 2007-2014 Programme.

Intelligence acquisition methods in cyber domain : examining the circumstantial applicability of cyber intelligence acquisition methods using a hierarchical model

Phenomena in cyber domain, especially threats to security and privacy, have proven an increasingly heated topic addressed by different writers and scholars at an increasing pace – both nationally and internationally. However little public research has been done on the subject of cyber intelligence. The main research question of the thesis was: To what extent is the applicability of cyber intelligence acquisition methods circumstantial? The study was conducted in sequential a manner, starting with defining the concept of intelligence in cyber domain and identifying its key attributes, followed by identifying the range of intelligence methods in cyber domain, criteria influencing their applicability, and types of operatives utilizing cyber intelligence. The methods and criteria were refined into a hierarchical model. The existing conceptions of cyber intelligence were mapped through an extensive literature study on a wide variety of sources. The established understanding was further developed through 15 semi-structured interviews with experts of different backgrounds, whose wide range of points of view proved to substantially enhance the perspective on the subject. Four of the interviewed experts participated in a relatively extensive survey based on the constructed hierarchical model on cyber intelligence that was formulated in to an AHP hierarchy and executed in the Expert Choice Comparion online application. It was concluded that Intelligence in cyber domain is an endorsing, cross-cutting intelligence discipline that adds value to all aspects of conventional intelligence and furthermore that it bears a substantial amount of characteristic traits – both advantageous and disadvantageous – and furthermore that the applicability of cyber intelligence methods is partly circumstantially limited.

Suitability of LiDAR technology for forest inventory in Russia

LiDAR is an advanced remote sensing technology with many applications, including forest inventory. The most common type is ALS (airborne laser scanning). The method is successfully utilized in many developed markets, where it is replacing traditional forest inventory methods. However, it is innovative for Russian market, where traditional field inventory dominates. ArboLiDAR is a forest inventory solution that engages LiDAR, color infrared imagery, GPS ground control plots and field sample plots, developed by Arbonaut Ltd. This study is an industrial market research for LiDAR technology in Russia focused on customer needs. Russian forestry market is very attractive, because of large growing stock volumes. It underwent drastic changes in 2006, but it is still in transitional stage. There are several types of forest inventory, both with public and private funding. Private forestry enterprises basically need forest inventory in two cases – while making coupe demarcation before timber harvesting and as a part of forest management planning, that is supposed to be done every ten years on the whole leased territory. The study covered 14 companies in total that include private forestry companies with timber harvesting activities, private forest inventory providers, state subordinate companies and forestry software developer. The research strategy is multiple case studies with semi-structured interviews as the main data collection technique. The study focuses on North-West Russia, as it is the most developed Russian region in forestry. The research applies the Voice of the Customer (VOC) concept to elicit customer needs of Russian forestry actors and discovers how these needs are met. It studies forest inventory methods currently applied in Russia and proposes the model of method comparison, based on Multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach, mainly on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Required product attributes are classified in accordance with Kano model. The answer about suitability of LiDAR technology is ambiguous, since many details should be taken into account.

The Mexican Dream, What Drives the Mexican Millennial to invest?

The Mexican dream is the equivalent of the American Dream for Mexico. This thesis explores what is the equivalent of the American Dream for young Mexican adults (25 to 35 year old Mexicans). The aim of the study is to develop an understanding of the core values of young Mexican adults. The study is made for a case company, Expertos Patrimoniales Wealth Management Advisors, who intend to sell financial management services to these young Mexican adults in the next 5 to 10 years. This study implements a cross-cultural consumer behavior framework by David Luna, in order to consider factors like culture, and value systems to uncover the Mexican Dream for young Mexican adults. In order to gather data for this study, key informants were interviewed in specific areas, such as culture, financial consumer behavior and Mexican culture among others. The results suggest that independence is a strong driver for the young Mexican adults, independence from their family, from the corporate hierarchy and men. These core drivers differ from the traditional culture values where hierarchy and a secure job, family which includes the extended family and women´s economic dependency on men have been strong. Images of the future are created in order to understand the young Mexican adults Mexican Dream in the next 5 to 10 years, in order to provide useful information for the case company for the development of products and services that this segment of the Mexican market might find interesting in the near future.

Tiedon jakamiseen vaikuttavat tekijät asiantuntijatyössä

Yhteiskunnan muuttuessa entistä tietovaltaisemmaksi, tiedon jakaminen nähdään kaikkein merkittävimpänä tietoprosessina organisaation kehittymisen kannalta. Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa selvitettiin, mitkä tekijät vaikuttavat tiedon jakamiseen asiantuntijatyössä. Tutkimus toteutettiin tapaustutkimuksena ja aineisto analysoitiin teorialähtöisen sisällönanalyysin avulla. Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella asiantuntijatyötä tekevien tiedon jakamiseen vaikuttavat tekjiät ovat sisäinen motivaatio, yksilöiden välinen luottamus sekä organisaation rakenne ja kulttuuri. Tutkimuksen mukaan työ itsessään palkitsee ja motivoi tiedon jakamiseen, mutta yksilöiden välillä tulee olla hyväntahtoisuuteen ja pätevyyteen liittyvää luottamusta. Organisaation hierarkkisuus, käytettävissä olevan ajan, yhteisöllisyyden ja arvostuksen puute heikentävät tiedon jakamista. Sitä vastoin organisaation avoin kulttuuri tukee tiedon jakamista. Rahallisen palkitsemisen ei nähty vaikuttavan tiedon jakamiseen.

Detecting Deceit – Guessing or Assessing? Study on the Applicability of Veracity Assessment Methods in Human Intelligence

Intelligence from a human source, that is falsely thought to be true, is potentially more harmful than a total lack of it. The veracity assessment of the gathered intelligence is one of the most important phases of the intelligence process. Lie detection and veracity assessment methods have been studied widely but a comprehensive analysis of these methods’ applicability is lacking. There are some problems related to the efficacy of lie detection and veracity assessment. According to a conventional belief an almighty lie detection method, that is almost 100% accurate and suitable for any social encounter, exists. However, scientific studies have shown that this is not the case, and popular approaches are often over simplified. The main research question of this study was: What is the applicability of veracity assessment methods, which are reliable and are based on scientific proof, in terms of the following criteria? o Accuracy, i.e. probability of detecting deception successfully o Ease of Use, i.e. easiness to apply the method correctly o Time Required to apply the method reliably o No Need for Special Equipment o Unobtrusiveness of the method In order to get an answer to the main research question, the following supporting research questions were answered first: What kinds of interviewing and interrogation techniques exist and how could they be used in the intelligence interview context, what kinds of lie detection and veracity assessment methods exist that are reliable and are based on scientific proof and what kind of uncertainty and other limitations are included in these methods? Two major databases, Google Scholar and Science Direct, were used to search and collect existing topic related studies and other papers. After the search phase, the understanding of the existing lie detection and veracity assessment methods was established through a meta-analysis. Multi Criteria Analysis utilizing Analytic Hierarchy Process was conducted to compare scientifically valid lie detection and veracity assessment methods in terms of the assessment criteria. In addition, a field study was arranged to get a firsthand experience of the applicability of different lie detection and veracity assessment methods. The Studied Features of Discourse and the Studied Features of Nonverbal Communication gained the highest ranking in overall applicability. They were assessed to be the easiest and fastest to apply, and to have required temporal and contextual sensitivity. The Plausibility and Inner Logic of the Statement, the Method for Assessing the Credibility of Evidence and the Criteria Based Content Analysis were also found to be useful, but with some limitations. The Discourse Analysis and the Polygraph were assessed to be the least applicable. Results from the field study support these findings. However, it was also discovered that the most applicable methods are not entirely troublefree either. In addition, this study highlighted that three channels of information, Content, Discourse and Nonverbal Communication, can be subjected to veracity assessment methods that are scientifically defensible. There is at least one reliable and applicable veracity assessment method for each of the three channels. All of the methods require disciplined application and a scientific working approach. There are no quick gains if high accuracy and reliability is desired. Since most of the current lie detection studies are concentrated around a scenario, where roughly half of the assessed people are totally truthful and the other half are liars who present a well prepared cover story, it is proposed that in future studies lie detection and veracity assessment methods are tested against partially truthful human sources. This kind of test setup would highlight new challenges and opportunities for the use of existing and widely studied lie detection methods, as well as for the modern ones that are still under development.

THE ADAPTATION PROCESS AND CHALLENGES OF EDUCATION EXPORT

The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges of the adaptation process of education export. The research is conducted as a single case study that concentrates on three education export projects. The case company in the research is Team Academy. The study goes through the different forms of education export, the adaptation of education export and the challenges of the education export –process by means of theory and empirical data. The research is carried out as a qualitative research and the method used is a qualitative content analysis. More specifically the research is an abductive content analysis. The research data is collected in four in-depth interviews from Team academy representatives who have been strongly involved in certain education export –project of Team Academy. The research confirms the theory in the challenge of hierarchy, funding and registration issues, and refutes it in the challenge of competition, legislation, different governmental attitudes and knowledge in productization. The main challenges of the adaptation process are related to funding, differences in values, sudden changes, the complex nature of the learning model, concept of time, teamwork as method and accreditation. It is highlighted that in the future operations, anticipating problems that arise from for example cultural differences and differences in values, communication, managing the money flows and the company form is recommended. Future research could continue with investigating the suitable company form for education exports of this kind, and how to stand out and communicate when operating under another institution. It is considered a potential risk that a brand encloses the brand that operates under it.

Hyviä ja huonoja perusteita kokeelliselle sosiologialle

Referee-artikkeli

Finding Methods for Recognizing and Classifying Spare Part Criticality – Case Full Deposit Stripping Machines

The aim of this Master’s thesis is to find a method for classifying spare part criticality in the case company. Several approaches exist for criticality classification of spare parts. The practical problem in this thesis is the lack of a generic analysis method for classifying spare parts of proprietary equipment of the case company. In order to find a classification method, a literature review of various analysis methods is required. The requirements of the case company also have to be recognized. This is achieved by consulting professionals in the company. The literature review states that the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) combined with decision tree models is a common method for classifying spare parts in academic literature. Most of the literature discusses spare part criticality in stock holding perspective. This is relevant perspective also for a customer orientated original equipment manufacturer (OEM), as the case company. A decision tree model is developed for classifying spare parts. The decision tree classifies spare parts into five criticality classes according to five criteria. The criteria are: safety risk, availability risk, functional criticality, predictability of failure and probability of failure. The criticality classes describe the level of criticality from non-critical to highly critical. The method is verified for classifying spare parts of a full deposit stripping machine. The classification can be utilized as a generic model for recognizing critical spare parts of other similar equipment, according to which spare part recommendations can be created. Purchase price of an item and equipment criticality were found to have no effect on spare part criticality in this context. Decision tree is recognized as the most suitable method for classifying spare part criticality in the company.

Uuden muoviteollisuustuotteen kehittäminen analyyttista hierarkiaprosessia hyödyntäen

Tämä diplomityö on tehty case yritykselle nimeltä yritys X. Yritys X valmistaa alueelliseen lämmön- ja käyttöveden jakamiseen tarkoitettuja eristettyjä muoviputkia. Viime vuosina yrityksen kilpailijat ovat onnistuneet kehittämään omien vastaavien tuotteidensa ominaisuuksia, minkä seurauksena yritys X:n asema markkinoilla on heikentynyt. Vastauksena kiristyneeseen markkinatilanteeseen yritys X on kehittänyt kolme uutta potentiaalista tuotekonseptia, joista yhtä suunnitellaan kehitettäväksi nykyisen tuotteen rinnalle. Uusien tuotekonseptien keskinäinen vertailu on kuitenkin osoittautunut haasteelliseksi. Tämän työn päätavoitteena on hyödyntää analyyttista hierarkiaprosessia ja antaa sen perusteella suositus parhaan tuotekonseptin valinnasta. Työ sisältää kirjallisen osion, jossa käydään läpi tuotekehitystoimintaa yleisesti sekä esitellään analyyttisen hierarkiaprosessin hyödyntäminen yksityiskohtaisesti. Työn jälkimmäisessä osiossa paneudutaan tarkemmin käytännön ongelmaan ja esitellään kuinka analyyttista hierarkiaprosessia on hyödynnetty yritys X:n tapauksessa. Keskeisinä tuloksina työn lopussa esitellään analyyttisen hierarkiaprosessin avulla määritetyt päätöskriteerien painoarvot, vaihtoehtojen saamat kokonaispainoarvot sekä annetaan suositus uuden tuotekonseptin valinnasta.

Organisaatiomuutoksen vaikutukset työtyytyväisyyteen - Case Autolinjat

Tämän kandidaatintutkielman tarkoituksena on tutkia työtyytyväisyyttä organisaatiomuutoksen näkökulmasta ja organisaatiomuutoksen vaikutuksia työtyytyväisyyteen. Tarkasteltavana case-yrityksenä toimii Autolinjat Oy. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on löytää tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat Autolinjojen työntekijöiden työtyytyväisyyteen. Tämän pohjalta tarkoituksena on tehdä yritykselle työtyytyväisyyden kehittämisehdotuksia. Olen lähestynyt työtyytyväisyyttä teoreettisesti työtyytyväisyyden sisältö- ja prosessi-teorioilla, joihin kuuluvat Maslown tarvehierarkia, Herzbergin kaksifaktoriteoria, Lawlerin odotusarvoteoria ja Locken päämääräteoria. Tässä tutkielmassa käytetään laadullista tutkimusta. Valitsin laadullisen näkökulman tutkimukseen sen vuoksi, että täten saadaan paremmin esille työtekijöiden subjektiivista tunnetta suhteessa työhönsä ja sen ominaispiirteisiin. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että organisaatiomuutokseen suhtautuminen on subjektiivista, mikä tarkoittaa sitä, että jokainen yksilö suhtautuu muutokseen eri tavalla. Täten muutos on omiaan ravisuttamaan työn koettuja piirteitä, mikä taas vaikuttaa yksilön turvallisuuden tunteeseen. Joissakin tapauksissa organisaatiomuutos voi olla positiivinen asia, joka ajaa työntekijää kohti parempaa suoritusta, mutta usein organisaatiomuutoksen vaikutukset työtyytyväisyyteen ovat negatiivisia. Muutoksesta selviämiseen auttaa työtyytyväisyyteen vaikuttavien tunteiden selvittäminen, joten vuorovaikutuksen rooli muutostilanteessa on suuri. Kaiken kaikkiaan työtyytyväisyys on moniulotteinen asia, joka näkyy muutostilanteissa monella eri tavalla, johtuen tunnetilan henkilökohtaisuudesta. Muutoksen läpiviemisessä ja siitä selviämisessä on tärkeää tiedostaa lähtökohdat ja se, mihin mennään.

Quest/ion of Identities in African American Feminist Postmodern Drama: A Study of Selected Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks

Innovative and unconventional, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks belongs to the continuum of African American playwrights who have contributed to the quest/ion – the quest for and question – of identities for African Americans. Her plays are sites in which the quest/ion of identities for African Americans is pursued, raised and enacted. She makes use of both page and stage to emphasize the exigency of reshaping African Americans’ identities through questioning the dominant ideologies and metanarratives, delegitimizing some of the prevailing stereotypes imposed on them, drawing out the complicity of the media in perpetuating racism, evoking slavery, lynching and their aftereffects, rehistoricizing African American history, catalyzing reflections on the various intersections of sex, race, class and gender orientations, and proffering alternative perspectives to help readers think more critically about issues facing African Americans. In my dissertation, I approach three plays by Parks – The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (1990), Venus (1996) and Fucking A (2000) – from the standpoints of postmodern drama and African American feminism with a focus on the terrains that reflect the quest/ion of identities for African Americans, especially African American women. I argue that postmodern drama and African American feminism provide the ground for Parks to promote the development of a political agenda in order to call into question a number of dominant ideologies and metanarratives with regard to African Americans and draw upon the roles of those metanarratives as a powerful apparatus of racial and sexual oppressions. I also explore how Parks engages with postmodern drama and African American feminism to incorporate her own mininarratives in the dominant discourses. I argue that Parks in these plays uses postmodern drama and African American feminism to encourage reflections on intersectionality in order to reveal the concerns of African Americans, particularly African American women. Her plays challenge the dominant order of hierarchy and patriarchy, while in some cases urging unity and solidarity between African American men and women by showing how unity and solidarity can help them confront race, class and gender oppressions. Furthermore, I discuss how the utilization of postmodern techniques and devices helps Parks to transform the conventional features of playwriting, to create incredulity toward the dominant systems of oppression and to incorporate her mininarratives within the context of dominant discourses.