Benefits of sales force automation to salespeople and to their customers in business-to-business markets

This study applied qualitative case study method for solving what kind of benefits salespeople and their customers perceived to gain when sales reps used a specific sales force automation tool, that defined the values and identified segment that best fit to each customer. The data consisting of four interviews was collected using semi-structured individual method and analyzed with thematic analysis technique. The analysis revealed five salespeople perceived benefits and four customer perceived benefits. Salespeople perceived benefits were improvements in customer knowledge, guidance of sales operations, salesperson-customer relationship building, time management and growing performance. Customer perceived benefits were information transmission, improved customer service, customer-salesperson relationship building and development of operations, which of the last was found as a new previously unrecognized customer benefit.

Learning information technology business in a changing industry landscape. Introducing Team Entrepreneurship in Renewing Bachelor Education in Renewing Bachelor Education in Information

Speed, uncertainty and complexity are increasing in the business world all the time. When knowledge and skills become quickly irrelevant, new challenges are set for information technology (IT) education. Meta-learning skills – learning how to learn rapidly - and innovation skills have become more essential than single technologies or other specific issues. The drastic changes in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector have caused a need to reconsider how IT Bachelor education in Universities of Applied Sciences should be organized and employed to cope with the change. The objective of the study was to evaluate how a new approach to IT Bachelor education, the ICT entrepreneurship study path (ICT-ESP) fits IT Bachelor education in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences. This kind of educational arrangement has not been employed elsewhere in the context of IT Bachelor education. The study presents the results of a four-year period during which IT Bachelor education was renewed in a Finnish University of Applied Sciences. The learning environment was organized into an ICT-ESP based on Nonaka’s knowledge theory and Kolb’s experiental learning. The IT students who studied in the ICT-ESP established a cooperative and learned ICT by running their cooperative at the University of Applied Sciences. The students (called team entrepreneurs) studied by reading theory in books and other sources of explicit information, doing projects for their customers, and reflecting in training sessions on what was learnt by doing and by studying the literature. Action research was used as the research strategy in this study. Empirical data was collected via theme-based interviews, direct observation, and participative observation. Grounded theory method was utilized in the data analysis and the theoretical sampling was used to guide the data collection. The context of the University of Applied Sciences provided a good basis for fostering team entrepreneurship. However, the results showed that the employment of the ICT-ESP did not fit into the IT Bachelor education well enough. The ICT-ESP was cognitively too tough for the team entrepreneurs because they had two different set of rules to follow in their studies. The conventional courses engaged lot of energy which should have been spent for professional development in the ICT-ESP. The amount of competencies needed in the ICT-ESP for professional development was greater than those needed for any other ways of studying. The team entrepreneurs needed to develop skills in ICT, leadership and self-leadership, team development and entrepreneurship skills. The entrepreneurship skills included skills on marketing and sales, brand development, productization, and business administration. Considering the three-year time the team entrepreneurs spent in the ICT-ESP, the challenges were remarkable. Changes to the organization of IT Bachelor education are also suggested in the study. At first, it should be admitted that the ICT-ESP produces IT Bachelors with a different set of competencies compared to the conventional way of educating IT Bachelors. Secondly, the number of courses on general topics in mathematics, physics, and languages for team entrepreneurs studying in the ICTESP should be reconsidered and the conventional course-based teaching of the topics should be reorganized to support the team coaching process of the team entrepreneurs with their practiceoriented projects. Third, the upcoming team entrepreneurs should be equipped with relevant information about the ICT-ESP and what it would require in practice to study as a team entrepreneur. Finally, the upcoming team entrepreneurs should be carefully selected before they start in the ICT-ESP to have a possibility to eliminate solo players and those who have a too romantic view of being a team entrepreneur. The results gained in the study provided answers to the original research questions and the objectives of the study were met. Even though the IT degree programme was terminated during the research process, the amount of qualitative data gathered made it possible to justify the interpretations done.

From emerging opportunities to successful business networks – evidence from bioenergy

Increasing renewable energy utilization is a challenge that is tried to be solved in different ways. One of the most promising options for renewable energy is different biomasses, and the bioenergy field offers numerous emerging business opportunities. The actors in the field have rarely all the needed know-how and resources for exploiting these opportunities, and thus it is reasonable to seize them in cooperation. Networking is not an easy task to carry out, however, and in addition to its advantages for the firms engaged, it sets numerous challenges as well. The development of a network is a result of several steps firms need to take. In order to gain optimal advantage of their networks, firms need to weigh out with whom, why and how they should cooperate. In addition, everything does not depend on the firms themselves, as several factors in the external environment set their own enablers and barriers for cooperation. The formation of a network around a business opportunity is thus a multiphase process. The objective of this thesis is to depict this process via a step-by-step analysis and thus increase understanding on the whole development path from an entrepreneurial opportunity to a successful business network. The empirical evidence has been gathered by discussing the opportunities of animal manure refinement to biogas and forest biomass utilization for heating in Finland. The thesis comprises two parts. The first part provides an overview of the study, and the second part includes five research publications. The results reveal that it is essential to identify and analyze all the steps in the development process of a network, and several frameworks are used in the thesis to analyze these steps. The frameworks combine the views of theory and practical experiences of empirical study, and thus give new multifaceted views for the discussion on SME networking. The results indicate that the ground for cooperation should be investigated adequately by taking account of the preconditions in all the three contexts in which the actors operate: the social context, the region and the institutional environment. In case the project advances to exploitation, the assets and objectives of the actors should be paired off, which sets a need for relationships and sub-networks differing in breadth and depth. Different relationships and networks require different kinds of maintenance and management. Moreover, the actors should have the capability to change the formality or strategy of the relationships if needed. The drivers for these changes come along with the changing environment, which causes changes in the objectives of the actors and this way in the whole network. Bioenergy as the empirical field of the study represents well an industrial field with many emerging opportunities, a motley group of actors, and sensitivity for fast changes.

Enhancing business-to-business relationship through value co-creation in traditional business sector: A case of building services engineering

This study discusses the significance of having service as a business logic, and more specifically, how value co-creation can be seen as an enhancing phenomenon to business-to-business relationships in traditional business sector. The purpose of this study is to investigate how value cocreation can enhance a business-to-business relationship in the heating, ventilation and airconditioning (HVAC) industry of building services engineering, through three sub-objectives: to identify what is value in the industry, how value is co-created in the industry, and what is value in a business-to-business relationship in the industry. The theoretical part this study consists of academic knowledge and literature related to the concepts of value, value co-creation and business-to-business relationships. In order to research value co-creation and business-to-business relationships in HVAC industry of building services engineering both, metaphorical and conceptual thinking of service dominant (S-D) logic and more managerial approach of service logic (SL), contributed to the theoretical part of the study. The empirical research conducted for this study is based on seven semi-structured interviews, which constituted the holistic, qualitative single case study method chosen for the research. The data was collected in September 2014 from CEOs, managers and owners representing six building services engineering firms. The interviews were analysed with the help of transcriptions, role-ordered matrices and thematic networks. The findings of this study indicate that value in HVAC industry consists of client expertise and supplier expertise. The result of applying client expertise and supplier expertise to the business-to- business relationship is characterized as value-in-reputation, when continuity, interaction, learning and rapport of the business relationship are ensured. As a result, value co-creation in the industry consists of mutual and separate elements, which the client and the supplier apply in the process, in addition to proactive interaction. The findings of this study, together with the final framework, enhance the understanding of the connection existing between value co-creation and business-to-business relationship. The findings suggest that value in the HVAC industry is characterized by both value-in-use and value-inreputation. Value-in-reputation enhances the formation of value-in-use, and consequently, value cocreation enhances the business-to-business relationship. This study thus contributes to the existing knowledge on the concepts of value and value co-creation in business-to-business relationships.

Why to invest more in women's football for your brand and your business?

The aim of this master’s thesis is to study the role of sponsorship in the business value of companies and clubs. In order to achieve this goal, the French women’s football context is studied. The main research question is formulated as follows: What is the business value in sport sponsorship? The literature and theory part consists of three chapters that clearly follow the theoretical framework: from the sport sponsorship to the sponsor brand, from the sponsor brand to the brand equity, from the brand equity to the business value. The empirical part of the master’s thesis is based on qualitative research method. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 4 participants who are Sponsorship Manager or General Manager of French women’s football clubs or sponsors and thus considered as specialists of the study context. The results of the study show that the planning process, the objectives, the sponsor brand, the brand equity components such as the customer behaviour, the economic, financial and immaterial values have positive impacts on the business value in sport sponsorship in the French women’s football context.