Show me your brain! Stories of interdisciplinary knowledge creation in practice. Experiences and observations from Aalto Design Factory, Finland.

This dissertation centres on the themes of knowledge creation, interdisciplinarity and knowledge work. My research approaches interdisciplinary knowledge creation (IKC) as practical situated activity. I argue that by approaching IKC from the practice-based perspective makes it possible to “deconstruct” how knowledge creation actually happens, and demystify its strong intellectual, mentalistic and expertise-based connotations. I have rendered the work of the observed knowledge workers into something ordinary, accessible and routinized. Consequently this has made it possible to grasp the pragmatic challenges as well the concrete drivers of such activity. Thus the effective way of organizing such activities becomes a question of organizing and leading effective everyday practices. To achieve that end, I have conducted ethnographic research of one explicitly interdisciplinary space within higher education, Aalto Design Factory in Helsinki, Finland, where I observed how students from different disciplines collaborated in new product development projects. I argue that IKC is a multi-dimensional construct that intertwines a particular way of doing; a way of experiencing; a way of embodied being; and a way of reflecting on the very doing itself. This places emphasis not only the practices themselves, but also on the way the individual experiences the practices, as this directly affects how the individual practices. My findings suggest that in order to effectively organize and execute knowledge creation activities organizations need to better accept and manage the emergent diversity and complexity inherent in such activities. In order to accomplish this, I highlight the importance of understanding and using a variety of (material) objects, the centrality of mundane everyday practices, the acceptance of contradictions and negotiations well as the role of management that is involved and engaged. To succeed in interdisciplinary knowledge creation is to lead not only by example, but also by being very much present in the very everyday practices that make it happen.

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.

Verkostoanalyysi yritysten verkostoitumista tukevien EAKR-hankkeiden arvioinnin menetelmänä

Lehden supplementin Arvioinnin teemanumero 2013 ovat toimittaneet: Liisa Horelli, Marketta Rajavaara ja Riitta Seppänen-Järvelä.