Organizational learning from customer interaction

In the fierce competition of today‟s business world an organization‟s capacity to learn maybe its only competitive advantage. This research aims at increasing the understanding on how organizational learning from the customer happens in technology companies. In doing so it provides a synthesized definition of organizational learning and investigates processes of organizational learning within technology companies. A qualitative research method and in-depth interviews with different sized high technology companies, as applied here, enables in-depth study of the learning processes. Research contributes to the understanding of what type of knowledge firms acquire, how new knowledge is transferred and used in a learning firm‟s routines and processes. Research findings show that SMEs and large size companies also, depending on their position in the software value chain, consider different knowledge types as most important and that they use different learning methods to acquire knowledge from their customers.

Climate change and global responsibility - the role of energy consumption, GDP and CO2 emissions

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges faced by this generation. Despite being the single most important environmental challenge facing the planet and despite over two decades of international climate negotiations, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to rise. By the middle of this century, GHGs must be reduced by as much as 40-70% if dangerous climate change is to be avoided. In the Kyoto Protocol no quantitative emission limitation and reduction commitments were placed on the developing countries. For the planning of the future commitments period and possible participation of developing countries, information of the functioning of the energy systems, CO2 emissions development in different sectors, energy use and technological development in developing countries is essential. In addition to the per capita emissions, the efficiency of the energy system in relation to GHG emissions is crucial for the decision of future long-term burden sharing between countries. Country’s future development of CO2 emissions can be defined by the estimated CO2 intensity of the future and the estimated GDP growth. The changes in CO2 intensity depend on several factors, but generally developed countries’ intensity has been increasing in the industrialization phase and decreasing when their economy shifts more towards the system dominated by the service sector. The level of the CO2 intensity depends by a large extent on the production structure and the energy sources that are used. Currently one of the most urgent issues regarding global climate change is to decide the future of the Kyoto Protocol. Negotiations on this topic have already been initiated, with the aim of being finalised by the 2015. This thesis provides insights into the various approaches that can be used to characterise the concept of comparable efforts for developing countries in a future international climate agreement. The thesis examines the post-Kyoto burden sharing questions for developing countries using the contraction and convergence model, which is one approach that has been proposed to allocate commitments regarding future GHG emissions mitigation. This new approach is a practical tool for the evaluation of the Kyoto climate policy process and global climate change negotiations from the perspective of the developing countries.

A multimethod examination of contributors to successful on-the-job learning for vocational students

Rapid changes in working life and competence requirements of different professions have increased interest in workplace learning. It is considered an effective way to learn and update professional skills by performing daily tasks in an authentic environment. Especially, ensuring a supply of skilled future workers is a crucial issue for firms facing tight competition and a shortage of competent employees due to the retirement of current professionals. In order to develop and make the most of workplace learning, it is important to focus on workplace learning environments and the individual characteristics of those participating in workplace learning. The literature has suggested various factors that influence adults' and professionals’ workplace learning of profession-related skills, but lacks empirical studies on contextual and individual-related factors that positively affect students' workplace learning. Workers with vocational education form a large group in modern firms. Therefore, elements of vocational students’ successful workplace learning during their studies, before starting their career paths, need to be examined. To fill this gap in the literature, this dissertation examines contributors to vocational students’ workplace learning in Finland, where students’ workplace learning is included in the vocational education and training system. The study is divided into two parts: the introduction, comprised of the overview of the relevant literature and the conclusion of the entire study, and five separate articles. Three of the articles utilize quantitative methods and two use qualitative methods to examine factors that contribute to vocational students’ workplace learning. The results show that, from the students’ perspective, attitudinal, motivational, and organizationrelated factors enhance the student’s development of professionalism during the on-the-job learning period. Specifically, the organization-related factors such as innovative climate, guidance, and interactions with seniors have a strong positive impact on the students’ perceived development of professional skills because, for example, the seniors’ guidance and provision of new viewpoints for the tasks helps the vocational students to gain autonomy at work performance. A multilevel analysis shows that of those factors enhancing workplace learning from the student perspective, innovative climate, knowledge transfer accuracy, and the students’ performance orientation were significantly related to the workplace instructors’ assessment regarding the students’ professional performance. Furthermore, support from senior colleagues and the students’ self-efficacy were both significantly associated with the formal grades measuring how well the students managed to learn necessary professional skills. In addition, the results suggest that the students’ on-the-job learning can be divided into three main phases, of which two require efforts from both the student and the on-the-job learning organization. The first phase includes the student’s application of basic professional skills, demonstration of potential in performing daily tasks, and orientation provided by the organization at the beginning of the on-the-job learning period. In the second phase, the student actively develops profession-related skills by performing daily tasks, thus learning a fluent working style while observing the seniors’ performance. The organization offers relevant tasks and follows the student’s development. The third level indicates a student who has reached the professional level described as a full occupation. The results suggest that constructing the vocational students’ successful on-the-job learning period requires feedback from seniors, opportunities to learn to manage entire work processes, self-efficacy on the part of the students, proactive behavior, and initiative in learning. The study contributes to research on workplace learning in three ways: firstly, it identifies the key individual- and organization-based factors that influence the vocational students’ successful on-the-job learning from their perspective and examines mutual relationships between these factors. Second, the study provides knowledge of how the factors related to the students’ view of successful workplace learning are associated with the workplace instructors’ perspective and the formal grades. Third, the present study finds elements needed to construct a successful on-the-job learning for the students.

Exploring the strategic impact of technological change - Studies on the role of Internet in magazine publishing

Over the past few decades, turbulent change has characterized the situation in the media industry. It has been noted that digitalization and new media are strongly influencing the industry: it is changing the existing market dynamics and requires new strategies. Prior research on the impact of digitalization and the Internet has emphasized news-focused media such as newspaper publishing and broadcasting, yet magazine publishing is very seldom the focus of the research. This study examines how the Internetimpacts magazine publishing. The work presents a multi-level analysis on the role and impact of the Internet on magazine products, companies and industry. The study is founded on strategic management, technology management and media economics literature. This study consists of two parts. The first part introduces the research topic and discusses the overall results of the study. The second part comprises five research publications. Qualitative research methods are used throughout. The results of the study indicate that the Internet has not had a disruptive effect on magazine publishing, and that its strategic implications could rather be considered complementary to the print magazine and the business as a whole. It seems that the co-specialized assets, together with market-related competencies and unchanged core competence have protected established firms from the disruptive effect of the new technology in magazine publishing. In addition, it seems that the Internet offers a valuable possibility to build and nourish customer relationships. The study contributes tomedia management and economics research by moving from product- or industry-level investigations towards a strategic-management perspective.

Consistency and change in Finnish broadcasting policy : the implementation of digital television and lessons from the Canadian experience

Konsistens och förändring i finländsk etermediapolitik. Implementering av digital television och en jämförelse med Kanada Avhandlingen handlar om hur det finländska televisionssystemet förändrades i slutet av 1990-talet från en nationell institution till ett dualistiskt system som präglas av stark marknadsorientering. Syftet med avhandlingen är att förstå på vilket sätt en så snabb förändring kunde ske och analysera de institutionella faktorerna bakom utvecklingen. På teoretisk nivå diskuteras tesen om det nära sambandet mellan statliga politiska institutioner och rundradioverksamhetens institutioner. Avhandlingen består av två fallstudier. Den första sätter fokus på de första åren av den finländska televisionens digitaliseringsprocess som startade med starka industriell-nationalistiska motiveringar. Analysen, som baserar på offentliga dokument, sträcker sig framtill hösten 2001 då de digitala televisionssändningarna startade och regeringspropositionen om den nya kommunikationsmarknadslagen lämnades till riksdagen. Dessa policy-processer analyseras som en ”marknadisering” av de traditionella styrningsprinciper och idéer gällande finländsk rundradioverksamheten. En jämförelse mellan Finlands och Kanadas nationella rundradiopolitik gör att man kan koppla slutsatserna till den internationella utvecklingen. Jämförelsen visar hur kommunikationspolitiska linjen i de två länderna har kommit att likna varandra trots att ländernas tv-system och deras styrordningar är mycket olika. Exemplet med Kanada visar att den särskilda teknologin inte är viktig utan snarare de kommersiella intressen som står bakom och som beslutsfattare gärna döljer i en nationalistisk retorik. Studien visar att det är viktigt att beakta vilken tyngd man i politiken ger de två sidor som rundradioverksamheten består av: sändningsteknologin och verksamheten som en speciell kulturform. Nationalstatens handlingsutrymme minskar inom fältet om målet är att vara framgångsrik i konkurrensen i den nya internationella ekonomin. Enligt de nyliberalistiska principer som det politiska systemet överlag har tillägnat sig det är önskvärd men också helt inhemska institutionella traditioner och praxis som följdes i den finländska digitaliseringsprocessen främjade utvecklingen som ledde till att nästan alla ursprungliga nationella syften föll sönder.

Letters from Scandinavia, : on the past and present state of the northern nations of Europe : [William Thomson]. Vol. I[-II].

Digital reproduction, The National Library of Finland, Centre for Preservation and Digitisation, Mikkeli

Letters from Scandinavia, : on the past and present state of the northern nations of Europe : [William Thomson]. Vol. I[-II].

Digital reproduction, The National Library of Finland, Centre for Preservation and Digitisation, Mikkeli

The Rebirth of Dinamo Riga: From the Glorious Soviet Past to the Kontinental Hockey League

Since the end of Cold War rivalries, the world of international hockey was deemed to becoming increasingly homogenized along western sportization patterns. The introduction of the Russian-sponsored Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) signified a new era in the global diffusion of modern sports. Its recent expansion in the post-Soviet space and European countries significantly reshuffled the landscape of international hockey, offering new prospects for the studies of the intersection of sports, history, geopolitics and nationalism in the age of globalization. The aim of this study is to conceptualize the KHL and illuminate the role of ice hockey in post-Soviet Latvia. I treat the creation of the KHL and the integration of a Latvian-based team, “Dinamo Riga,” into the KHL within the broader discussion on the globalization of sports and its effects on national communities. The research is based on a case study of the modern rebirth of “Dinamo Riga” and its participation in the KHL and is confined to the scholarly themes in sports research, such as the history of modern sports and globalization, sports and nationalism. The study pays special attention to unveiling the geopolitical links between the restart of Latvian-Russian relations after the EU’s eastern enlargement and the re-emerging Latvian-Russian contacts in ice hockey. The research concludes that with the creation of the KHL, European hockey received a new charismatic “zone of prestige” for sports interaction. The project of “Dinamo Riga” became the new global phenomenon in Latvian sports in terms of its capabilities to transcend the post-Soviet geopolitical stereotypes in relation to Russia and serve as a new national symbol in the promotion and celebration of Latvian sporting nationalism. Further sociological research would require the clarification of the impact of Latvian-Russian cooperation in hockey on the bilateral relations of both countries and the formation of a national community in Latvia.

Pursuit of change versus organizational inertia: a study on strategic renewal in the Finnish broadcasting company

This doctoral dissertation explores the intra-organizational dynamics of a strategic renewal process. The main research question is how the pursuit of change and organizational inertia co-exist, intertwine, and collide in organizational cognition and capabilities during the strategic renewal. It is a comprehensive study on how organizational capabilities, organizational cognition, and structure enhance and inhibit change. Theoretically, the study is positioned in the modern tradition of strategy research, using the dynamic capability view and the organizational and managerial cognition research tradition as the main theoretical frames. Empirically, the study is a longitudinal case study of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle), following the organizational changes during the years of 2011-1014. The analysis is based on both quantitative and qualitative data, which was collected during the research process using surveys, interviews, and archives. The main theoretical contribution is the application of the two theoretical approaches in one study. Empirically, the study contributes to operationalization of the concepts related to the dynamic capability view and organizational cognition, in a media context that is going through drastic changes due to digitalization. Furthermore, the case of a public broadcasting company extends the application of the theoretical concepts to the context of public management. The results suggest that renewal is a complex process, in which an organization’s perceptions intertwine with the strategic actions and decision-making. The change evolves pathdependently: the past experiences, routines, and organizational structures tend to dictate the future visions, desires, and actions. The study also reveals how the public nature of an organization adds to the tensions between change and organizational inertia, and hampers the decision-making. The doctoral dissertation consists of six research papers, each of which explores the phenomenon under study from a different perspective.

University students’ regulation of learning and text processing – examples from medical and teacher education

The general aim of the thesis was to study university students’ learning from the perspective of regulation of learning and text processing. The data were collected from the two academic disciplines of medical and teacher education, which share the features of highly scheduled study, a multidisciplinary character, a complex relationship between theory and practice and a professional nature. Contemporary information society poses new challenges for learning, as it is not possible to learn all the information needed in a profession during a study programme. Therefore, it is increasingly important to learn how to think and learn independently, how to recognise gaps in and update one’s knowledge and how to deal with the huge amount of constantly changing information. In other words, it is critical to regulate one’s learning and to process text effectively. The thesis comprises five sub-studies that employed cross-sectional, longitudinal and experimental designs and multiple methods, from surveys to eye tracking. Study I examined the connections between students’ study orientations and the ways they regulate their learning. In total, 410 second-, fourth- and sixth-year medical students from two Finnish medical schools participated in the study by completing a questionnaire measuring both general study orientations and regulation strategies. The students were generally deeply oriented towards their studies. However, they regulated their studying externally. Several interesting and theoretically reasonable connections between the variables were found. For instance, self-regulation was positively correlated with deep orientation and achievement orientation and was negatively correlated with non-commitment. However, external regulation was likewise positively correlated with deep orientation and achievement orientation but also with surface orientation and systematic orientation. It is argued that external regulation might function as an effective coping strategy in the cognitively loaded medical curriculum. Study II focused on medical students’ regulation of learning and their conceptions of the learning environment in an innovative medical course where traditional lectures were combined wth problem-based learning (PBL) group work. First-year medical and dental students (N = 153) completed a questionnaire assessing their regulation strategies of learning and views about the PBL group work. The results indicated that external regulation and self-regulation of the learning content were the most typical regulation strategies among the participants. In line with previous studies, self-regulation wasconnected with study success. Strictly organised PBL sessions were not considered as useful as lectures, although the students’ views of the teacher/tutor and the group were mainly positive. Therefore, developers of teaching methods are challenged to think of new solutions that facilitate reflection of one’s learning and that improve the development of self-regulation. In Study III, a person-centred approach to studying regulation strategies was employed, in contrast to the traditional variable-centred approach used in Study I and Study II. The aim of Study III was to identify different regulation strategy profiles among medical students (N = 162) across time and to examine to what extent these profiles predict study success in preclinical studies. Four regulation strategy profiles were identified, and connections with study success were found. Students with the lowest self-regulation and with an increasing lack of regulation performed worse than the other groups. As the person-centred approach enables us to individualise students with diverse regulation patterns, it could be used in supporting student learning and in facilitating the early diagnosis of learning difficulties. In Study IV, 91 student teachers participated in a pre-test/post-test design where they answered open-ended questions about a complex science concept both before and after reading either a traditional, expository science text or a refutational text that prompted the reader to change his/her beliefs according to scientific beliefs about the phenomenon. The student teachers completed a questionnaire concerning their regulation and processing strategies. The results showed that the students’ understanding improved after text reading intervention and that refutational text promoted understanding better than the traditional text. Additionally, regulation and processing strategies were found to be connected with understanding the science phenomenon. A weak trend showed that weaker learners would benefit more from the refutational text. It seems that learners with effective learning strategies are able to pick out the relevant content regardless of the text type, whereas weaker learners might benefit from refutational parts that contrast the most typical misconceptions with scientific views. The purpose of Study V was to use eye tracking to determine how third-year medical studets (n = 39) and internal medicine residents (n = 13) read and solve patient case texts. The results revealed differences between medical students and residents in processing patient case texts; compared to the students, the residents were more accurate in their diagnoses and processed the texts significantly faster and with a lower number of fixations. Different reading patterns were also found. The observed differences between medical students and residents in processing patient case texts could be used in medical education to model expert reasoning and to teach how a good medical text should be constructed. The main findings of the thesis indicate that even among very selected student populations, such as high-achieving medical students or student teachers, there seems to be a lot of variation in regulation strategies of learning and text processing. As these learning strategies are related to successful studying, students enter educational programmes with rather different chances of managing and achieving success. Further, the ways of engaging in learning seldom centre on a single strategy or approach; rather, students seem to combine several strategies to a certain degree. Sometimes, it can be a matter of perspective of which way of learning can be considered best; therefore, the reality of studying in higher education is often more complicated than the simplistic view of self-regulation as a good quality and external regulation as a harmful quality. The beginning of university studies may be stressful for many, as the gap between high school and university studies is huge and those strategies that were adequate during high school might not work as well in higher education. Therefore, it is important to map students’ learning strategies and to encourage them to engage in using high-quality learning strategies from the beginning. Instead of separate courses on learning skills, the integration of these skills into course contents should be considered. Furthermore, learning complex scientific phenomena could be facilitated by paying attention to high-quality learning materials and texts and other support from the learning environment also in the university. Eye tracking seems to have great potential in evaluating performance and growing diagnostic expertise in text processing, although more research using texts as stimulus is needed. Both medical and teacher education programmes and the professions themselves are challenging in terms of their multidisciplinary nature and increasing amounts of information and therefore require good lifelong learning skills during the study period and later in work life.

Implementation of educational change in Finland: The case of the undivided basic education reform

For the past decades, educational large-scale reforms have been elaborated and implemented in many countries and often resulted in partial or complete failure. These results brought researchers to study policy processes in order to address this particular challenge. Studies on implementation processes brought to light an existing causal relationship between the implementation process and the effectiveness of a reform. This study aims to describe the implementation process of educational change in Finland, who produced efficient educational reforms over the last 50 years. The case study used for the purpose of this study is the national reform of undivided basic education (yhtenäinen peruskoulu) implemented in the end of the 1990s. Therefore, this research aims to describe how the Finnish undivided basic education reform was implemented. This research was carried out using a pluralist and structuralist approach of policy process and was analyzed according to the hybrid model of implementation process. The data were collected using a triangulation of methods, i.e. documentary research, interviews and questionnaires. The data were qualitative and were analyzed using content analysis methods. This study concludes that the undivided basic education reform was applied in a very decentralized manner, which is a reflection of the decentralized system present in Finland. Central authorities provided a clear vision of the purpose of the reform, but did not control the implementation process. They rather provided extensive support in the form of transmission of information and development of collaborative networks. Local authorities had complete autonomy in terms of decision-making and implementation process. Discussions, debates and decisions regarding implementation processes took place at the local level and included the participation of all actors present on the field. Implementation methods differ from a region to another, with is the consequence of the variation of the level of commitment of local actors but also the diversity of local realities. The reform was implemented according to existing structures and values, which means that it was in cohesion with the context in which it was implemented. These results cannot be generalized to all implementation processes of educational change in Finland but give a great insight of what could be the model used in Finland. Future studies could intent to confirm the model described here by studying other reforms that took place in Finland.

Implementation of educational change in Finland: The case of the undivided basic education reform

For the past decades, educational large-scale reforms have been elaborated and implemented in many countries and often resulted in partial or complete failure. These results brought researchers to study policy processes in order to address this particular challenge. Studies on implementation processes brought to light an existing causal relationship between the implementation process and the effectiveness of a reform. This study aims to describe the implementation process of educational change in Finland, who produced efficient educational reforms over the last 50 years. The case study used for the purpose of this study is the national reform of undivided basic education (yhtenäinen peruskoulu) implemented in the end of the 1990s. Therefore, this research aims to describe how the Finnish undivided basic education reform was implemented. This research was carried out using a pluralist and structuralist approach of policy process and was analyzed according to the hybrid model of implementation process. The data were collected using a triangulation of methods, i.e. documentary research, interviews and questionnaires. The data were qualitative and were analyzed using content analysis methods. This study concludes that the undivided basic education reform was applied in a very decentralized manner, which is a reflection of the decentralized system present in Finland. Central authorities provided a clear vision of the purpose of the reform, but did not control the implementation process. They rather provided extensive support in the form of transmission of information and development of collaborative networks. Local authorities had complete autonomy in terms of decision-making and implementation process. Discussions, debates and decisions regarding implementation processes took place at the local level and included the participation of all actors present on the field. Implementation methods differ from a region to another, with is the consequence of the variation of the level of commitment of local actors but also the diversity of local realities. The reform was implemented according to existing structures and values, which means that it was in cohesion with the context in which it was implemented. These results cannot be generalized to all implementation processes of educational change in Finland but give a great insight of what could be the model used in Finland. Future studies could intent to confirm the model described here by studying other reforms that took place in Finland.