Impacts of capacity remunerative mechanisms on cross-border trade

The European ambitious targets to increase the share of renewable generation pose a challenge to the generation adequacy. Many European member states are concerned that energy-only markets alone might not be able to deliver sufficient capacity required to meet the future electricity demand and back up shortfalls of energy from renewable energy sources (RES) during periods of low wind and sun. Many EU members consider to re-design their energy-only markets and establish different forms of capacity remunerative mechanisms (CRMs) to maintain the security of supply. There is a certain concern that market design changes at the level of EU member countries might conflict with the European goal of a single market. As soon as many European markets are highly interconnected, uncoordinated CRMs might create negative crossborder effects and hinder the achievement of the Internal Electricity Market in Europe. The pros and cons of capacity markets are well examined at the national level. However, the cross-border effects of capacity markets within the European market aiming at higher integration have received less attention. This doctoral dissertation examines the cross-border effects of unilateral implementation of CRMs applying both theoretical and case study analyses. The results show that capacity remunerative mechanisms (CRMs) may cause negative cross-border effects, especially if they are implemented unilaterally.

Inclusion or Exclusion? Trade union strategies and Labor migration

Inclusion or Exclusion? Trade Union Strategies and Labor Migration This research identified and analyzed immigration-related strategies of the Finnish Construction Trade Union (FCTU) and the Service Union United (SUU); e.g. how the unions react to labor immigration, whether unions seek to include migrants in the unions, and what is migrants’ position in the unions. The two unions were chosen as the focus of the research because the workforce in the sectors they represent is migrant-dense. The study also analyzed the experiences that migrants who work in these sectors have with trade unions. The Estonian labor market situation –including the role of Estonian trade unions– was also examined as it has a considerable impact on the operating environment of the FCTU. The results of the study indicate that immigration is a contradictory issue for both unions. On the one hand, they strive to include migrants as trade union members and to defend migrants’ labor rights. On the other hand, they, together with their umbrella organization the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), seek to prevent labor immigration from outside the EU and EEA countries. They actively defend current labor immigration restrictions by drawing atten- tion to high unemployment figures and to the breaches of working conditions migrants encounter. In contrast, the employer organizations promote a more liberal state policy on labor immigration because they see it as a boost for business. Both the unions and the employer organizations ground their arguments on national interest. However, the position of the trade union movement is not uniform: unions belonging to the Confederation of Unions for Professionals and Managerial Staff in Finland (Akava) embrace more liberal labor immigration stances than the SAK. A key trade union strategy is to try to guarantee that migrants’ working condi- tions do not differ from those of the natives. The FCTU and the SUU inform migrants about Finnish collective agreements and trade union membership in the most common migrant languages. This is important for the unions because it is not in their interest that migrants’ working conditions are undercut. The interviewed migrants said that natives had more negotiating power with employers, which is often negatively portrayed in migrants’ working conditions. Migrants perceive that trade unions have an important role in protecting their working conditions. However, they stressed that migrants’ knowledge of unions is often very limited. The number of migrants in both two unions studied here is increasing. Espe- cially in the SUU, a considerable proportion of the new members are migrants. The FCTU is in a more challenging situation than the SUU because migrant construc- tion workers often work only for short periods in Finland and are consequently not interested in becoming union members. The unions’ strategies partly differ: the FCTU was the first Finnish trade union to establish a trade union branch/lo- cal for migrant members. The goal is to facilitate migrants’ inclusion in the union and to highlight the specific problems they face. The SUU, for its part, insists that such a special strategy would exclude migrants within the union organization. Despite the unions’ strategies, migrants are still underrepresented as union members and officials, which some of the interviewed migrants saw as a problem. Immigrants’ perception of trade unions was pragmatic: they had joined unions when membership yielded concrete benefits. In spite of the unions’ strategies, migrants –and temporary migrants– encoun- ter specific problems in terms of working conditions. Both unions demand more state intervention to protect migrants’ labor rights because overseeing working conditions consumes union resources. However, without the unions’ intervention, these problems would be more common than is currently the case. For instance, some of the interviewed migrants had received trade union assistance in claim- ing unpaid wages. The study demonstrated with the help of building on Walter Korpi’s power resources theory, that immigration is a power resource issue for the unions: suc- cessful immigration-related strategies strengthen unions –and vice versa. The research also showed how the unions’ operating environments constrain and enable their immigration-related strategies. This study has illuminated a previously ignored dimension: the immigrant- inclusive strategies of the Finnish trade unions. The research material consists of 78 qualitative interviews, observation in trade union events, and trade unions’ and employer organizations’ public state- ments.

Data Governance and Automated Marketing – A Case Study of Expected Benefits of Organizing Data Governance in an ICT Company

This research is looking to find out what benefits employees expect the organization of data governance gains for an organization and how it benefits implementing automated marketing capabilities. Quality and usability of the data are crucial for organizations to meet various business needs. Organizations have more data and technology available what can be utilized for example in automated marketing. Data governance addresses the organization of decision rights and accountabilities for the management of an organization’s data assets. With automated marketing it is meant sending a right message, to a right person, at a right time, automatically. The research is a single case study conducted in Finnish ICT-company. The case company was starting to organize data governance and implementing automated marketing capabilities at the time of the research. Empirical material is interviews of the employees of the case company. Content analysis is used to interpret the interviews in order to find the answers to the research questions. Theoretical framework of the research is derived from the morphology of data governance. Findings of the research indicate that the employees expect the organization of data governance among others to improve customer experience, to improve sales, to provide abilities to identify individual customer’s life-situation, ensure that the handling of the data is according to the regulations and improve operational efficiency. The organization of data governance is expected to solve problems in customer data quality that are currently hindering implementation of automated marketing capabilities.

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.

Integration of marketing research data in new product development. Case study: Food industry company

The aim of this master’s thesis is to provide a real life example of how marketing research data is used by different functions in the NPD process. In order to achieve this goal, a case study in a company was implemented where gathering, analysis, distribution and synthesis of marketing research data in NPD were studied. The main research question was formulated as follows: How is marketing research data integrated and used by different company functions in the NPD process? The theory part of the master’s thesis was focused on the discussion of the marketing function role in NPD, use of marketing research particularly in the food industry, as well as issues related to the marketing/R&D interface during the NPD process. The empirical part of the master’s thesis was based on qualitative explanatory case study research. Individual in-depth interviews with company representatives, company documents and online research were used for data collection and analyzed through triangulation method. The empirical findings advocate that the most important marketing data sources at the concept generation stage of NPD are: global trends monitoring, retailing audit and consumers insights. These data sets are crucial for establishing the potential of the product on the market and defining the desired features for the new product to be developed. The findings also suggest the example of successful crossfunctional communication during the NPD process with formal and informal communication patterns. General managerial recommendations are given on the integration in NPD of a strategy, process, continuous improvement, and motivated cross-functional product development teams.