MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS IN B2B COMPANIES – The Roles of Marketing Communication Tools in the Digital Age

Marketing communications has gone through significant changes during the last decades and new online tools have been leading this change for the last decade. Now, in the digital age, if wanting to be successful companies need to experiment new things and seize the opportunities online provides and adapt to the new environment. However, during this time the marketing communication mix and the meanings given to the various components of it have not changed dramatically, and personal selling, direct marketing, sales promotion, advertising and public relations activities are still regarded as important tools in the marketing communications mix. The purpose of this study was to examine business-to-business marketing communications and the tools used by companies in their marketing communications efforts in the digital age and in a global environment. The research questions dealt with the marketing communication tools and their roles as well as the role of online marketing communication and the way it has shaped the field of b2b marketing communications. In order to answer these questions, qualitative approach was chosen and the data was collected by theme interviews with six representatives of Finnish global companies from the b2b sector being interviewed. The theoretical framework covers the general field of b2b marketing communications and its main elements. The online environment as well as the concept of a global marketplace and integrated approach to marketing communication activities is also discussed. The theory was supported by the interviews regarding the activities and roles of the marketing communication tools and both theory as well as the interviews found personal selling to be a vital tool. However, the importance of online has grown and online marketing activities have risen right next to personal selling. The use of analytics and marketing automation was found to be of great interest in the interviews and they were seen as a growing domain in b2b marketing communications. The importance of targeted and personalised messages from relevant medias was a repeating theme as was the customer-centric approach in marketing communication activities. Also, offline and online tools and channels were seen as something that should be treated together as an entity rather than as separate activities. Relevant content created according to the needs of the customer with the gathered data from analytics were seen as the future of b2b marketing communications. Online has added its input to the more traditionally perceived tools and they are executed within the framework of the digital age. Nevertheless, even though online has increased its presence in the b2b marketing communications mix, the more traditionally perceived marketing communication tools, especially personal selling, have not lost their meaning or place in the b2b marketing communication mix.

An EDTA-β-cyclodextrin adsorbent for the adsorption of rare earth elements and its application in preconcentration of ultratrace rare earth elements from seawater

The objectives of this work were synthesizing an EDTA-β-CD adsorbent and investigating its adsorption potential and applications in preconcentration of REEs from aqueous phase. The adsorption capacity of EDTA-β-CD was investigated. The adsorption studies were performed by batch techniques both in one- and multi-component systems. The effects of pH, contact time and initial concentration were evaluated. The analytical detection methods and characterization methods were presented. EDTA-β-CD adsorbent was synthesized successfully with high EDTA coverage. The maximum REEs uptake was 0.310 mmol g-1 for La(III), 0.337 mmol g-1 for Ce(III) and 0.353 mmol g-1 for Eu(III), respectively. The kinetics of REEs onto EDTA-β-CD fitted well to pseudo-second-order model and the adsorption rate was affected by intra-particle diffusion. The experimental data of one component studies fitted to Langmuir isotherm model indicating the homogeneous surface of the adsorbent. The extended Sips model was applicable for the isotherm studies in three-component system. The electrostatic interaction, chelation and complexation were all involved in the adsorption mechanism. The preconcentration of RE ions and regeneration of EDTA-β-CD were successful. Overall, EDTA-β-CD is an effective adsorbent in adsorption and preconcentration of REEs.

Emission, kinetic and magnetic phenomena in rare-earth and transition metal doped ZnSe single crystals

In this work emission, optical, electrical and magnetic properties of the d- and f- elements doped zinc selenide crystals were investigated within a wide temperature range. Doping was performed in various technological processes: during the growth by chemical vapor transport method; by thermal diffusion from the Bi or Zn melt. Concentration of the doping impurity in the crystals was controlled by amount of the dopant in the source material or by its concentration in the doping media. Special interest in the work was paid to the influence of the different concentrations of Cr and Yb impurities on ZnSe crystals’ properties, correlations between observed effects and similarities with the Ni, Mn and Gd dopants are analysed. Possibility of formation of the excitons bound to the doping d-ions was shown. In contrast to this, it was observed that f-elements do not bound excitons, but prevent formation of excitons bound to some uncontrolled impurities. A mechanism of Cr doping impurity interaction with background impurities and zinc selenide structural defects was proposed based on experimental data. An assumption about resonant energy transfer between double charged chromium ions and complexes based on crystals’ vacancy defects was made. A correlation between emission and magnetic properties of the d- ions doped samples was established. Based on this correlation a mechanism explaining the concentration quench of the emission was proposed. It was found that f-ions bind electrically active shallow and deep donor and acceptor states of background impurity to electrically neutral complexes. This may be observed as “purification” of ZnSe crystals by doping with the rare-earth elements, resulting i tendency of the properties of f-ion doped crystals to the properties of intrinsic crystals, but with smaller concentration of uncontrolled native and impurity defects. A possible interpretation of this effect was proposed. It was shown that selenium substituting impurities decrease efficiency of the Yb doping. Based on this experimental results an attempt to determine ytterbium ion surroundings in the crystal lattice was made. It was shown that co-doping of zinc selenide crystals with the d- and f- ions leads to the combination of the impurities influence on the material’s properties. On the basis of obtained data an interaction mechanism of the d- and f-elements co-dopants was proposed. Guided by the model of the ytterbium ion incorporation in the selenide sublattice of the ZnSe crystals, an assumption about stabilization of single charged chromium ions in the zinc sublattice crystal nodes, by means of formation of the local charge compensating clusters, was made.

Digital Humanities For Everyone’s Benefit?: interplay in social media with the great audience, high-esteemed researcher and self-conscious library

The National Library of Finland realizes the Digitization Project of Kindred Languages in 2012–15. The project is financially supported by the Kone Foundation. During this project the National Library of Finland has digitized and made available approximately 1200 monograph and more than 100 newspaper titles in several Uralic languages. The materials are available to both researchers and citizens in the National Library’s Fenno-Ugrica collection. The project will produce digitized materials in the Uralic languages as well as their development tools to support linguistic research and citizen science. The resulting materials will constitute the largest resource for the Uralic languages in the world. Through this project, researchers will gain access to corpora which they have not been able to study before and to which all users will have open access regardless of their place of residence. In my presentation, I will discuss 1) how we utilized the social media (Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte etc) to gain audience for our collection and 2) how the needs of researchers and laymen were met in crowdsourcing.

Den digitala musikläraren : aktionsforskning om en digital lärmiljö i musikundervisning

Avhandlingens syfte är att ta reda på hur en digital lärmiljö kan fungera som ett didaktiskt komplement vid undervisning av ett instrument under skolans musiklektioner. Genom att observera den egna undervisningen i musik i en skolklass där en digital lärmiljö använts har jag lyft fram iakttagelser av händelser som anses kritiska för utvärderingen av lärmiljön. Undersökningen är av kvalitativ karaktär där aktionsforskning legat som ansats för avhandlingen. Aktionsforskning bygger på att finna ett fokusområde för undersökning, varefter en fråga eller problemformulering utarbetas. Frågan prövas i praktiken och efter det följer en utvärdering och reflektion kring kritiska händelser som observerats i praktiken. En skolklass bestående av elever i årskurserna 3 och 4 har fungerat som respondenter för undersökningen. En del av eleverna i klassen har arbetat individuellt och försökt lära sig spela gitarr och elbas med hjälp av en digital lärmiljö som jag kallar för Musikskolan.fi. Genom att pröva och utvärdera lärmiljön under tre lektioner med eleverna har styrkor, svagheter och differentiering i användandet av Musikskolan.fi diskuterats. För att dokumentera lektionerna har videokamera använts som komplement till forskarens personliga observationer. Enligt de tolkningar och observationer som framkommit i denna undersökning kan Musikskolan.fi fungera bra som stöd och komplement till musikundervisningen, trots att en del förbättringsförslag angående interaktivitet och differentiering noterats. Lärmiljöns styrkor ligger i att elever kan arbeta individuellt med läromedlet och ett instrument. Dessutom kan läraren använda sig av verktyget för att ackompanjera eleverna i sång och spel. En av nackdelarna är att det krävs en hel del förkunskaper om musikteori och visuell tolkningsförmåga av eleven för att han eller hon ska kunna utnyttja verktyget till dess fulla potential. Genom tillägg av fler funktioner, som möjligheten att justera tempo på musiken som verktyget spelar upp, kunde lärmiljön bättre stöda elevers skillnader i färdigheter och bidra positivt till differentiering av musikundervisningen.

Lean Methods and Digital Technologies in Healtchare

The experiences of several healthcare organizations were considered to distinguish the most frequently used lean tools, the success and failure factors, and the obstacles that may appear while implementing lean. As a result, two approaches to “go lean” were defined, and analyzed from the prospective of the applicability to healthcare processes. Industrialization of healthcare was studied, and the most promising digital technology tools to improve healthcare process were highlighted. Finally, the analysis of healthcare challenges and feasible ways to address them was conducted and presented as the main result of this work. The possible ways of implementation of the findings and limitations were described in the conclusion.

Visuell läsning som kompetensområde : en pedagogisk studie i visuell grammatik inom multimodal digital kommunikation

Avhandlingens primära syfte är att upprätta en förståelse för visuell kompetens som en del av visuell litteracitet inom multimodal digital kommunikation i undervisningen. Avhandlingens sekundära syfte är att ur ett pedagogiskt perspektiv lyfta fram visuell litteracitet och visuell kompetens i multimodala diskussioner kring digital pedagogik. Forskningen är kvalitativ och har både teoretisk och empirisk förankring. Den empiriska studien har en fenomenologisk metodansats. Visuell kompetens innebär att visuell läsning behärskas, vilket förutsätter fungerande vokabulär, kritiskt förhållningssätt och kunskaper i läsning och tolkning och användning av bilder. Den visuella grammatikteorin innefattar bildens syntax och semantik. Bilden är ett kontextbundet fenomen, där kontexten berör sociala aspekter, bildens fysiska omgivning samt innehåll. Det empiriska resultatet är att visuell inverkan i undervisningen präglar förberedelser och lektionsmål, berör visuell kommunikationskompetens, inkluderar visuella element som verktyg, strävar involvera flera element i inlärningen och strävar efter att undvika passiva demonstrationer som undervisningsmetod. Bilder behövs som kommunikativt stöd, som inlärningsmetod och som en del i aktivitetspedagogisk undervisning. Genom stöd från läraren kan barnet nå visuell litteracitet som ett kompetensmål, vilket kan ske genom multimodal undervisning.

Thoughts on work-in-progress crowdsourcing metrics of digital collections

The presentation consists of work-in-progress metrics of #digitalkoot, the crowdsourcing project launched by National Library of Finland

Digital content and making it viral in social media

Tutkimuksen tavoite on selvittää digitaalisen sisällön ominaisuuksia, jotka vaikuttavat ryhtyvätkö kuluttajat jakamaan, tykkäämään ja kommentoimaan sitä sosiaalisessa mediassa. Tällä pyritään auttamaan yrityksiä ymmärtämään paremmin viraalisuutta, jotta he pystyisivät tuottamaan ja julkaisemaan nettisivuillaan ja sosiaalisessa mediassa parempaa sisältöä, jota kuluttajat jakaisivat enemmän. Tutkimus toteutetaan muodostamalla hypoteeseja mahdollisista ominaisuuksista kirjallisuuden perusteella ja testaamalla niitä regressioanalyyseillä empiirisessä osiossa. Tulokset paljastavat yhdeksän piirrettä, jotka lisäävät viraalisuutta: kiinnostavuus, neutraalisuus, yllättävyys, viihdyttävyys, epäkäytännöllisyys, artikkelin ja Facebook julkaisun pituus, eri sisältö taktiikoiden käyttö (erityisesti blogit ja kuvat lisäävät viraalisuutta) sekä kun mielipidevaikuttaja tai kuuluisuus jakaa sisällön.

The influence of high cable penetration in distribution networks on earth fault currents and the operation of relay protection.

Recent Storms in Nordic countries were a reason of long power outages in huge territories. After these disasters distribution networks' operators faced with a problem how to provide adequate quality of supply in such situation. The decision of utilization cable lines rather than overhead lines were made, which brings new features to distribution networks. The main idea of this work is a complex analysis of medium voltage distribution networks with long cable lines. High value of cable’s specific capacitance and length of lines determine such problems as: high values of earth fault currents, excessive amount of reactive power flow from distribution to transmission network, possibility of a high voltage level at the receiving end of cable feeders. However the core tasks was to estimate functional ability of the earth fault protection and the possibility to utilize simplified formulas for operating setting calculations in this network. In order to provide justify solution or evaluation of mentioned above problems corresponding calculations were made and in order to analyze behavior of relay protection principles PSCAD model of the examined network have been created. Evaluation of the voltage rise in the end of a cable line have educed absence of a dangerous increase in a voltage level, while excessive value of reactive power can be a reason of final penalty according to the Finish regulations. It was proved and calculated that for this networks compensation of earth fault currents should be implemented. In PSCAD models of the electrical grid with isolated neutral, central compensation and hybrid compensation were created. For the network with hybrid compensation methodology which allows to select number and rated power of distributed arc suppression coils have been offered. Based on the obtained results from experiments it was determined that in order to guarantee selective and reliable operation of the relay protection should be utilized hybrid compensation with connection of high-ohmic resistor. Directional and admittance based relay protection were tested under these conditions and advantageous of the novel protection were revealed. However, for electrical grids with extensive cabling necessity of a complex approach to the relay protection were explained and illustrated. Thus, in order to organize reliable earth fault protection is recommended to utilize both intermittent and conventional relay protection with operational settings calculated by the use of simplified formulas.

Evaluating digital marketing content management strategies in an international company.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore a different kind of digital content management model and to propose a process in order to manage properly the content on an organization’s website. This process also defines briefly the roles and responsibilities of the different actors implicated. In order to create this process, the thesis has been divided into two parts. First, the theoretical analysis helps to find the two main different content management models, content management adaptation and content management localization model. Each of these models, have been analyzed through a SWOT model in order to identify their particularities and which of them is the best option according to particular organizational objectives. In the empirical part, this thesis has measured the organizational website performance comparing two main data. On one hand, the international website is analyzed in order to identify the results of the content management standardization. On the other hand, content management adaptation, also called content management localization model, is analyzed by looking through the key measure of the Dutch page from the same organization. The resulted output is a process model for localization as well as recommendations on how to proceed when creating a digital content management strategy. However, more research is recommended to provide more comprehensive managerial solutions.

Digital Exhaustion in relation to Video Games – The Consumer Perspective

This thesis regards exhaustion of copyright’s distribution right in intangible transfers of video games. It analyses whether, under the current law of the European Union, the phenomenon of digital exhaustion, especially in relation to games exists. The thesis analyses the consumers’ position in the market for copyright protected goods. It uses video games market as an example of the wider phenomenon of the effect of latest technological developments on consumers. The research conducted for the thesis is mostly legal dogmatic, although also comparative analysis, law and economics and law and technology methods are utilised. The thesis evaluates the effects of the most recent case law of the European Court of Justice to analyse the current state of digital exhaustion. In the analysis of effects that the existence of digital exhaustion has, the thesis uses the consumers’ point of view. The thesis introduces the current state of technology in the field of video games from a legal perspective. Furthermore the thesis analyses the effects on consumers of a scenario that no digital exhaustion exists in the future. Such scenario under the recent European case law at the moment seems realistic. The conclusion of my research is most importantly that the consumer position in the market for digital goods has deteriorated and that the probable exclusion of the exhaustion for digital goods is another piece of evidence of this development. Most importantly however, the state of affairs where no certainty prevails on whether digital exhaustion exists, creates injustice from the consumers’ point of view. Accordingly, acts by EU legislators of the Court of Justice of the European Union are required to clarify the issue.