Witness is presence : reading Stanley Hauerwas in a Nordic setting

I en postsekulär situation har förutsättningarna för att förstå och kommunicera en kristen tradition förändrats. De etablerade religionerna kan inte längre anta att de har monopol på den ”religiösa marknaden”. Ett centralt påstående i denna studie är att en postsekulär situation, som kännetecknas av minskande medlemskap i etablerade kyrkor och en ny synlighet av alternativa religiösa uttryck, medför ett behov av att reflektera över alternativa förståelser av kristenheten i sin kontext. Denna studie frågar hur man kan meningsfullt kommunicera en kristen tradition i en postsekulär situation. Traditionellt uttryckt: hur kan man förstå kristet vittnesbörd i vår situation? Det är till denna problematik som denna studie hävdar att Stanley Hauerwas ecklesiologi tillför ett viktigt perspektiv. Hauerwas ses som ett kritiskt korrektiv till vissa synsätt som ofta möter hos Nordiska, i denna studie främst finska och svenska, lutherska teologer. Det perspektiv som utvecklas i denna studie anses vara relevant eftersom kristna kyrkor i en postsekulär situation inte längre kan anta en makt- eller majoritetsposition. Därmed uppstår ett behov av att fråga sig hur man kan förstå kristenhet som en gemenskap i en minoritetsposition som bär vittnesbörd utan samhällelig makt. Denna studie hävdar att förkroppsligande av kristna övertygelser intar en central roll i en meningsfull postsekulär förståelse av vittnesbörd.

Hazard Risk Management in Large Nordic Companies' Operations in Russia

The objective of this research was to describe how Nordic companies manage hazard risks in their operations in Russia and how the local business environment is considered to affect the hazard risks. Research methods used in this research were literature review and expert interviews. Twelve Nordic industrial companies operating in different fields of industry were interviewed. Large Nordic companies typically guide risk management centralized from the parent company on behalf of the whole company group and the risk management standards and policies are integrated in all subsidiaries. Parent companies typically control hazard risk management in Russia by regular risk management reporting, auditing the Russian sites and by training local managers and employees to risk management work. Many companies have experienced several losses in the first years of operating in Russia before the risk management policies have been implemented in Russian subsidiaries. The companies have learned to take local characteristics better into account by experience and most companies are quite satisfied with their current risk management standards in Russia. The interviews indicate that companies experience especially the poor quality of infrastructure, some features in Russian organizational culture and high level of criminality to increase hazard risks in Russia. However, understanding these features and risks in the business environment makes the management of these risks possible. Risks related to infrastructure can be managed in advance by decreasing dependencies of infrastructure and considering the infrastructure quality already when planning the business operations. Also good local network is often considered critical in order to overcome the complications related to infrastructure. Russian personnel has typically different attitude towards risk management than Nordic personnel and neglecting safety and maintenance and concealing losses is more typical in Russia. By training and guiding the local personnel risk management and safety work and desired ways of actions these risks can be decreased. Criminality risks are often managed to certain extent by investing in security, increasing supervising and paying attention to reliability of the employees and other interest groups of the company.

IT service catalog : a case study of the implementation need in a Pan-Nordic Insurance Company

IT service catalog is an increasingly important issue as many IT organizations have been realizing it as a central communication and visualization tool to bridge the gap between IT and the business. This study reviews relevant literature on IT service catalog and related issues on IT services delivery. Furthermore, the study shows how IT service catalog can enhance IT effectiveness as well as provide more benefits when integrating with Configuration Management Database. In order to analyze whether IT service catalog is needed to be implemented in a Pan-Nordic Insurance Company, this study also investigates the current IT services delivery of a case study. The findings of the study show the problems in the current situation of IT services delivery in the case. The characteristics of IT service catalog are recommended in order to help with the mentioned flaws.

Configuration management process improvement : a case study of a Pan-Nordic insurance company

Configuration management is often seen as an enabler for the main IT Service Management (ITSM) processes such as Incident and Problem management. A decent level of quality of IT configuration data is required in order to carry out routines of these processes. This case study examines the state of configuration management in a multinational organization and aims at identification of methods for its improvement. The author has stayed five months with this company in order to collect different sources of evidence and to make observations. The main source of data for this study is interviews with some of the key employees of the assigned organization who are involved into the ITSM processes. This study concludes the maturity level of the existing configuration management process to be repeatable but intuitive, and outlines the principal requirements for its improvement. A match between the requirements identified in the organization and the requirements stated in the ISO/IEC 20000 standard indicates the possibility of adopting ITIL guidelines as a method for configuration management process improvement. The outcome of the study presents a set of recommendations for improvement that considers the process, the information model and the information system for configuration management in the case organization.

Smoking during pregnancy and fetal brain development

Background: Although the knowledge of adverse effects of smoking during pregnancy has increased in recent years, more research is needed to gain a better understanding of the effects of smoking during pregnancy. Smoking exposure is the most common preventable factor that causes adverse pregnancy outcomes. Aims and Methods: First, data on smoking habits during pregnancy from the Nordic Medical Birth Registers was used to study the national differences in trends of smoking during pregnancy. Second, the effects of prenatal smoking exposure on fetal brain development, assessed by brain MRI at term age, were studied by using data from the multidisciplinary PIPARI Study consisting of a 6-year cohort of VLBW/VLGA infants (n = 232, of which 18.1% were exposed to prenatal smoking) born in Turku University Hospital, Finland. Third, the effects of prenatal smoking exposure on psychiatric morbidity and use of psychotropic medication were studied in a cohort of children born from 1987–1989 in Finland (n = 175,869, of which 15.3% were exposed). The data used were obtained from population-based longitudinal registers from the National Institute of Health and Welfare, the Statistics Finland, and the Finnish Social Insurance Institution. Results: Smoking rates during pregnancy differed considerably between the countries. Smoking rates were highest among teenagers and women with lower socioeconomic positions. The smoking prevalence was found to be increasing among teenagers in both Finland and Norway. Prenatal smoking exposure was associated with smaller frontal lobe and cerebellar volumes in preterm infants. A clear association was found between prenatal smoking exposure and psychiatric morbidity treated with specialized hospital care and the use of various psychotropic medications. Conclusions: Prenatal smoking exposure had adverse effects on fetal brain development. These effects might explain part of the association found between smoking exposure and psychiatric problems in later life. Our study suggests that prenatal smoking exposure is linked with both mild and severe psychiatric problems. This study emphasizes the importance of efforts to reduce smoking during pregnancy.

Marketed recordings of hymns: old wine in new wineskins? : a musico-sociological study of developments and reception in the Nordic region since 1991

Artikkeli on julkaistu Hymnologi - Nordiskt tidskirft -lehden numerossa 3-4 / 2012.

Microbusiness: A new social business model to alleviate poverty in developing countries?

Poverty alleviation views have shifted from seeing the poor as victims or as potential consumers, to seeing them as gainers. Social businesses include microfinancing and microfranchising, which engage people at the bottom of the pyramid using business instead of charity. There are, however, social business firms that do not fit to the existing social business model theory. These firms provide markets to poor producers and mix traditional, local craftsmanship with western design. Social business models evolve faster than the academic literature can study them. This study contributes to filling this gap. The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to develop the concept of social business as poverty alleviation method in developing countries. It also aims; 1) to describe the means for poverty alleviation in developing countries; 2) to introduce microbusiness as a social business model; and 3) to examine the challenges of microbusinesses. Qualitative case study is used as a research strategy and theme interviews as a data collecting method. The empirical data is gathered from four interviews of Finnish or Finnish-owned firms that employ microbusiness – Mifuko, Tensira, Mangomaa and Tikau – and this is supported with secondary data including articles on case companies. The results show that microbusiness is a valid new social business model that aims at poverty alleviation by engaging the poor at the bottom of the pyramid. It is possible to map the value proposition, value constellation, and economic and social profit equations of the case firms. Two major types of firms emerge from the results; the first consists of design-oriented firms that emphasize the quality and design of the products, and the second consists of bazaar-like firms whose product portfolio is less sophisticated and who promote more the stories of the products – not the design. All microbusiness firms provide markets, promote traditional handicrafts, form close relationships to their producers, and aim at enhancing lives through their businesses. The attitudes towards social businesses are sometimes negative, but this is changing for the better. In conclusion, microbusiness answers to two different needs at the same time – consumers’ needs for ethical products and the social needs of the producers – but the social need is the ultimate reason why the entrepreneurs started business. Microbusiness continues as a poverty alleviation tool that sees the poor as gainers; by providing them steady employment, microbusiness increases the poor’s self-esteem and enables them for a better living. Academic literature has not been able to offer enough alternative business models to cover all social businesses; the current study contributes to this by concluding that microbusiness is another social business model.

Drivers and barriers of mobile travel and tourism service adoption : a study of individual perceptions and business model development in a travel and tourism context

The Travel and Tourism field is undergoing changes due to the rapid development of information technology and digital services. Online travel has profoundly changed the way travel and tourism organizations interact with their customers. Mobile technology such as mobile services for pocket devices (e.g. mobile phones) has the potential to take this development even further. Nevertheless, many issues have been highlighted since the early days of mobile services development (e.g. the lack of relevance, ease of use of many services). However, the wide adoption of smartphones and the mobile Internet in many countries as well as the formation of so-called ecosystems between vendors of mobile technology indicate that many of these issues have been overcome. Also when looking at the numbers of downloaded applications related to travel in application stores like Google Play, it seems obvious that mobile travel and tourism services are adopted and used by many individuals. However, as business is expected to start booming in the mobile era, many issues have a tendency to be overlooked. Travelers are generally on the go and thus services that work effectively in mobile settings (e.g. during a trip) are essential. Hence, the individuals’ perceived drivers and barriers to use mobile travel and tourism services in on-site or during trip settings seem particularly valuable to understand; thus this is one primary aim of the thesis. We are, however, also interested in understanding different types of mobile travel service users. Individuals may indeed be very different in their propensity to adopt and use technology based innovations (services). Research is also switching more from investigating issues of mobile service development to understanding individuals’ usage patterns of mobile services. But designing new mobile services may be a complex matter from a service provider perspective. Hence, our secondary aim is to provide insights into drivers and barriers of mobile travel and tourism service development from a holistic business model perspective. To accomplish the research objectives seven different studies have been conducted over a time period from 2002 – 2013. The studies are founded on and contribute to theories within diffusion of innovations, technology acceptance, value creation, user experience and business model development. Several different research methods are utilized: surveys, field and laboratory experiments and action research. The findings suggest that a successful mobile travel and tourism service is a service which supports one or several mobile motives (needs) of individuals such as spontaneous needs, time-critical arrangements, efficiency ambitions, mobility related needs (location features) and entertainment needs. The service could be customized to support travelers’ style of traveling (e.g. organized travel or independent travel) and should be easy to use, especially easy to take into use (access, install and learn) during a trip, without causing security concerns and/or financial risks for the user. In fact, the findings suggest that the most prominent barrier to the use of mobile travel and tourism services during a trip is an individual’s perceived financial cost (entry costs and usage costs). It should, however, be noted that regulations are put in place in the EU regarding data roaming prices between European countries and national telecom operators are starting to see ‘international data subscriptions’ as a sales advantage (e.g. Finnish Sonera provides a data subscription in the Baltic and Nordic region at the same price as in Finland), which will enhance the adoption of mobile travel and tourism services also in international contexts. In order to speed up the adoption rate travel service providers could consider e.g. more local initiatives of free Wi-Fi networks, development of services that can be used, at least to some extent, in an offline mode (do not require costly network access during a trip) and cooperation with telecom operators (e.g. lower usage costs for travelers who use specific mobile services or travel with specific vendors). Furthermore, based on a developed framework for user experience of mobile trip arrangements, the results show that a well-designed mobile site and/or native application, which preferably supports integration with other mobile services, is a must for true mobile presence. In fact, travel service providers who want to build a relationship with their customers need to consider a downloadable native application, but in order to be found through the mobile channel and make contact with potential new customers, a mobile website should be available. Moreover, we have made a first attempt with cluster analysis to identify user categories of mobile services in a travel and tourism context. The following four categories were identified: info-seekers, checkers, bookers and all-rounders. For example “all-rounders”, represented primarily by individuals who use their pocket device for almost any of the investigated mobile travel services, constituted primarily of 23 to 50 year old males with high travel frequency and great online experience. The results also indicate that travel service providers will increasingly become multi-channel providers. To manage multiple online channels, closely integrated and hybrid online platforms for different devices, supporting all steps in a traveler process should be considered. It could be useful for travel service providers to focus more on developing browser-based mobile services (HTML5-solutions) than native applications that work only with specific operating systems and for specific devices. Based on an action research study and utilizing a holistic business model framework called STOF we found that HTML5 as an emerging platform, at least for now, has some limitations regarding the development of the user experience and monetizing the application. In fact, a native application store (e.g. Google Play) may be a key mediator in the adoption of mobile travel and tourism services both from a traveler and a service provider perspective. Moreover, it must be remembered that many device and mobile operating system developers want service providers to specifically create services for their platforms and see native applications as a strategic advantage to sell more devices of a certain kind. The mobile telecom industry has moved into a battle of ecosystems where device makers, developers of operating systems and service developers are to some extent forced to choose their development platforms.

Open Access at the Nordic Council of Ministers

Presentation at the Nordic Perspectives on Open Access and Open Science seminar, Helsinki, October 15, 2013

How is OpenAIRE supporting open access policies and infrastructures in Europe? A Nordic point of view!

Presentation at the Nordic Perspectives on Open Access and Open Science seminar, Helsinki, October 15, 2013

Applying Nordic Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solutions in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia

RENSOL (Regional Energy Solutions) project deals with the use of energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions in Kaliningrad Oblast to tackle climate change. Overall objective of the RENSOL work package 1 is to build awareness and knowledge on solutions for energy efficient buildings and street lightning applications. The project report describes available solutions to improve housing energy efficiency.

Tulta tekemiseen – Mikä liike-elämän seminaarissa motivoi? Case: Nordic Business Forum 2012

Muuttuvassa työelämässä suoriutuminen vaatii yksilöltä jatkuvaa itsensä kehittämistä ja ammatillista pätevöitymistä. Erinäisten koulutusten ja seminaarien rooli niihin osallistuvien yksilöiden työmotivaation lisäämisessä ja energian uudelleensuuntaamisessa voi olla merkittävä. Aidolla tunne- ja motivaatiotäyttymyksen tilalla onkin keskeinen rooli niin yksilön itsensä kuin organisaatioiden menestyksessä. Tämän tutkimuksen lähtökohtana on kysymys siitä, mikä liike-elämän seminaarin työmotivaatioon sidottu lisäarvo on. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on lisätä ymmärrystä liike-elämän seminaarista kokonaisuutena ja siitä, mikä siellä mahdollisesti motivoi ja innostaa. Tutkimuksessa kuvataan liike-elämän seminaarin motivoivaa vaikutusta tarkastelemalla case-organisaation järjestämän seminaarin aikana koettuja työmotivaatiota lisääviä tekijöitä. Tämä tutkimus on toimeksianto Nordic Business Forum Oy:ltä. Päätutkimusongelma on asetettu kysymyksen muotoon seuraavasti: ”Mikä vuoden 2012 Nordic Business Forum -seminaarissa motivoi?” Tämä tutkimus on luonteeltaan laadullinen case-tutkimus, jossa pyritään kuvailevaan tutkimusotteeseen. Tutkimuksessa keskitytään yksittäiseen tapaukseen ja sitä kuvataan laadullisen tutkimusaineiston pohjalta. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu kuudesta, case-organisaation, vuoden 2012 seminaariosallistujan teemahaastattelusta. Aineistoa pyritään jäsentelemään teemoittelua käyttäen ja analysoimaan teoriasidonnaisesti. Tämän tutkimuksen perusteella voidaan tapauksena olevan liike-elämän seminaarin tyypilliseksi osallistujaksi määritellä jatkuvasta itsensä- ja ammattitaitonsa kehittämisestä motivoituvaksi, kokeneeksi ja korkeasti koulutetuksi asiantuntijaksi. Liike-elämän seminaarin motivoiva vaikutus nähdään rakentuvan verkostoitumisen, uuden oppimisen ja kehittymisen, innostavan ja inspiroivan ilmapiirin sekä seminaaripuheenvuorojen kokonaisuuksista. Tapahtumana liike-elämän seminaari motivoi tarjotessaan osallistujille mahdollisuuden muodostaa uusia verkostoja, saavuttaa uutta tietoa ja päivittää osaamista oivaltavan oppimisen kautta. Aktiivinen ajatusten vaihto ja mahdollisuus yhteisölliseen innovointiin sekä uusien ajatus- ja käyttäytymismallien jäsentäminen omaan toimintaan luovat osallistujissa uutta innostusta omaa työssä suoriutumista kohtaan. Yleisenä johtopäätöksenä voidaan lisäksi todeta seminaariosallistujan proaktiivisen luonteen ja vastuun olevan tärkein edellytys seminaarin aikana saadun, uuden innostuksen ja työmotivaation omaan toimintaan juurruttamisessa.