Violations of children's rights in armed conflicts : international treaties, observations by peacekeepers and crisis management training in Finland

Ninety-nine Finnish peacekeepers, who had been serving in 15 different operations around the world, participated in the study (8 women, 27-52 years old, m = 37.4, SD = 8.9; and 91 men, 21-69 years old, m = 41.4, SD = 10.2). Three military crisis management trainers from the Finnish Defence Forces International Centre also participated in the study. The data was collected with two webbased questionnaires. In addition two interviews were made with specialists of civilian crisis management in Finland. The study also provides an overview of international treaties concerning children’s rights in armed conflict. The results show that 48.7 % of dangers for children in conflicts reported by the peacekeepers were related to physical injury (e.g. landmines and traffic), and 27.4 % were related to social problems (e.g. poverty, child soldiers, and trafficking). 24.1 % of the peacekeepers had made observations of children’s rights violations either often or very often during peacekeeping operations. 49.6 % of the observations were related to social problems (e.g. child labour or being forced to beg), and 33.0 % were related to physical injury (e.g. assault). Frequency of observation of children’s rights violations was not associated with either sex or military degree of the peacekeepers; instead it was significantly correlated with the peacekeepers’ degree of knowledge of EU’s child protection guidelines. On the basis of the results, it is recommended that knowledge about children’s rights and protection should be included in the training of Finnish crisis management personnel to a much higher degree than at the present.

Crowdfunding and its utilization for startup finance in Finland – factors of a successful campaign

This thesis studies crowdfunding with qualitive methods to introduce the phenomenon as well as provide guidance to those interested in its utilization. Knowledge and ideas were gathered form several sources, from academic literature to commercial media and expert interviews. Crowdfunding has already demonstrated its ability to impact the startup scene but is still far from being utilized to its full extent, especially in Finland, where even its legality has been questioned. Crowd financing can provide capital to entrepreneurs who might not otherwise be able to obtain funding as well as enable crowdsourcing the funders in several ways. A successful campaign, however, requires a wealth of knowledge on the subject, careful planning and hard work on the implementation. The thesis will provide most benefit to entrepreneurs who are considering the use of this new form of finance, but should also be of value for investors, academics, politicians and everyone else interested in the subject.

Transfer pricing documentation differences in Finland and China - Case company study

This Master’s Thesis deals with the topic of transfer pricing documentation in Finland and China. The goal of the research is to find what kind of differences exist in a single case company’s transfer pricing documentation when following Chinese or Finnish transfer pricing regulations. The study is carried out as a case study research. The theoretical framework consists of information from different transfer pricing topics and transfer pricing documentation regulations in China and Finland. The main research material was the case company’s transfer pricing documents with the support of open discus-sion with one of the case company’s employees. The study compared the 2009 and 2010 documents. The 2009 document was done based on the Finnish method while the 2010 document was based on the Chinese documentation principles. The conclusion made is that the content of the documents was heavily similar, while the main differences come in the way the content is presented and the level of detail used in the documents.

The role of network coordination in business incubation - Comparative evidence from Finland and Russia

Business incubators (BIs) have an important role in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation. Networks have been identified as one of the main factors influencing business incubation success; however, their management has not been widely covered in previous business incubation research. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to investigate the role of network coordination in business incubation. Thus, the research aims to understand how the BI as a hub firm coordinates, i.e. manages and orchestrates, the business incubation process. As business incubation is also claimed to be affected by country specific factors, a cross-country comparison of Finland and Russia is conducted. Based on previous scientific literature on networks, network management, network orchestration and business incubation, a theoretical model combining business incubation and network coordination is developed. Through a qualitative multiple-case study evidence from a cross-country sample of BI managers and their residents was collected via semi-structured interviews. Based on the empirical data the network coordination mechanisms used by BIs are identified, yet only minor differences in network coordination in different countries are found. The results suggest that network coordination enables value creation in business incubation.

Russian SME technology transfer to Finland – Entrepreneurial challenges and motivation

The purpose of this thesis is to study the international technology transfer of transition economy SME entrepreneurs to the developed countries. The research aims to characterize the phenomenon by studying Russian SME technology transfer to Finland with the research methods from case studies. In addition to characterizing the phenomenon, the research finds out factors that motivate Russian entrepreneurs to conduct international technology transfer and what are the challenges the Russian entrepreneurs face when they enter the Finnish business environment. The qualitative data was collected from six semi-structured interviews with the entrepreneurs and several secondary data sources, considering four different technology transfer cases. The data and the analysis showed that the case companies in Finland are mostly linked to manufacturing of physical products. The entrepreneurs are motivated to come to Finland mainly by the opportunities and support the Finnish business and innovation environment provides to the entrepreneurs and by the personal gain that they get by establishing the company in Finland. Major challenges in the process include time constraints and capital requirements, difficulties on achieving sales on the Finnish market and finding skilled personnel to support the Russian management and owners.

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.

Integrating the export distribution channels after an acquisition

This thesis is based on studying integration synergies in a merger or acquisition situation with the interest in distribution channel integration. M&As seem to be forever popular and nowadays companies often use them as a certain kind of strategy to develop their business. M&As have attracted research for decades and also distribution in M&As has been found interesting. Moreover, research often concentrates to the horizontal M&A´s potential synergies that emerge in the integration process and so is the case also in this study as the core issue is to study the integration of the distribution channels and its potential synergies. This study concentrates on a single case, an acquisition which took place in 2011. The case consists of two Finnish companies operating in the same business field. Both of the companies are very export orientated, which gives this study its export view. As the companies operate in the same field this acquisition falls into the categorization of horizontal acquisition. The objective of the thesis is to study how the export channels could be integrated after an acquisition? This research question is divided again to three sub-questions asking how the distribution channels of the acquirer and acquired company are organized, what is pursued by the post-acquisition distribution channel integration and what are the integration challenges especially from the logistics point-of-view. The framework was built from the basis of the literature used in this thesis. The framework combines M&A process and distribution channels to a one united model which presents the progress of this thesis. The study was carried out as a qualitative research and as a holistic single case study. The data used in the research includes two interviews, other material from the case companies and also material of the companies collected by the author independently from different sources. There were many motives for the acquisition as usual. From the research results one can find that the integration process is still very ongoing and the synergies have not yet been fully discovered but also they are there to be found. The concentration of the research was in the export distribution which proved to be meaningful since the exports markets of the case companies were found to be quite complementary. The research results brought up also other issues concerning the post-acquisition integration process rather than the distribution channels and export. M&As are always a risky business. The final result can never be predicted. No matter how good the merging companies look on paper the practice is not the same. The acquisition process of this case has not ended yet and there lies potential synergy benefits to be discovered if enough effort is used to go through the process right.

Developing of Supportive Context for Eco-Industrial Networks in Finland

The aim of the present thesis was to explore possible promotional actions to support the emergence of eco-industrial business networks in Finland. The main objectives were to investigate what kind of factors affect in the development of eco-industrial networks and further make suggestions in what kinds of actions this could be supported. In addition, since the active facilitation was discovered as one potential promoting activity, further investigation about facilitation process in Finnish context was conducted and also main characteristics of nationwide facilitation programme were identified. This thesis contains literature review of network orchestration and eco-industrial networks. The latter consists of green supply chain management and industrial symbiosis, although the main focus of the study leans on the concept of industrial symbiosis. The empirical data of the study was obtained from semi-structured expert interviews. These interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The study identified four main promotional activities for eco-industrial networks: 1) building awareness, 2) incentives, 3) dismantling of legislative barriers and 4) active facilitation. In addition, a framework for facilitation activities in Finnish context was built and main characteristics of nationwide facilitation programme were identified.

Myynti ja toimituskanavan valinta ulkomaan kaupassa, kohdemaa Venäjä

Parissa kymmenessä vuodessa on tapahtunut paljon muutoksia. Neuvostoliitto hajosi, Suomen talousrakenne muuttui, globalisaatio kiihtyy kasvavalla vauhdilla, viennin kuljetusmuotoihin on tullut muutoksia, mutta yritystoiminta edellyttää pysymistä ajan tasalla. Tässä diplomityössä tutkitaan myynti- ja toimituskanavien valintoja EU:sta Venäjälle tapahtuvissa viennissä. Työssä käytetään Venäjältä saatavaa tietoa, sillä suurimmat lopputulokseen vaikuttavat kuljetuskustannukset kuten kuljetus, tavaran käsittely ja välivarastointi syntyvät Venäjän puolella. Vienti EU:sta Venäjälle on kasvanut koko ajan tasaisella vauhdilla ja muodostanut samalla tavanomaisesta poikkeavia kuljetusmenetelmiä. Suomessa pk-yrityksillä ei ole resursseja perehtyä aiheeseen, mutta koko ajan yhä useammat yritykset harjoittavat kauppaa ohjaamalla tavaran valmistajalta suoraan vastaanottajalle. Silloin tavara on lähetettävä esimerkiksi eurooppalaiselta keskusvarastolta Venäjälle, jolloin säästytään turhista kuljetuksista Suomen kautta. Työssä tutkitaan yleisimpiä käytössä olevia kuljetusmuotoja, rautatiekuljetuksen potentiaalia ja maantiekuljetuksen mahdollisuuksia. Siinä analysoidaan logistisen teorian pääpiirteitä, yritystoiminnan logistisia prosesseja samoin kuin EU:n vientisäädöksiä ja EU:sta lähtevien vientikuljetuksien organisointiongelmia. Käytössäni on logististen prosessien rakenteen metodologia. Työssä suoritetaan vientiprosessin tutkimus ja esitetään suoritetun tutkimuksen tulokset. Tuloksien pohjalta tehdään päätökset.

BORIS – It’s never too late to start a repository

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

Bye, ContentDM: Another one bites the dust

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

Integrating CRIS and repository – an overview of the situation in Finland and in three other Nordic countries

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

Preparing for CRIS: Challenges and Opportunities for Systems Integration at Finnish Universities

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

20 Ways to Reuse Repository Metadata

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