Music digitalization and its effects on the Finnish music industry stakeholders

For the past two decades the music digitalization has been considered the most significant phenomenon in the music industry as the physical sales have been decreasing rapidly. The advancement of the digital technology and the internet have facilitated the digitalization in the music industry and affected all stages of the music value chain, namely music creation, distribution and consumption. The newly created consumer culture has led to the establishment of novel business models such as music subscriptions and à-la-carte downloads websites and live streaming. The dynamic digital environment has presented the music industry stakeholders with the challenge to adapt to the requirements of the constantly changing modern consumers’ needs and demands. The purpose of this study was to identify how music digitalization can influence change in the Finnish music industry value chain; i.e. how digitalization affects the music industry stakeholders, their functions and inter-relatedness and how the stakeholders are able to react to the changes in the industry. The study was conducted as a qualitative research based entirely on primary data in the form of semi-structured interviews with experts from different units of the Finnish music industry value chain. Since the study offers assessment of diverse viewpoints on the value chain, it further provides an integrated picture of the Finnish music industry current situation and its competitive environment. The results suggest that the music industry is currently in a turbulent stage of experimentation with new business models and digital innovations. However, at this point it is impossible to determine which business model will be approved by the consumers in the longer run. Nevertheless, the study confirmed the claim that consumption of music in its digital form is to become dominant over the traditional physical copies sales in the nearest future. As a result the music industry is becoming more user-oriented; that is the focus is shifting from music production towards artist branding and management and visibility to the audience. Furthermore, the music industry is undergoing the process of integration with other industries such as media, social networks, internet services providers and mobile phone manufacturers in order to better fulfill the consumers’ needs. The previously underrated live music and merchandising are also increasing their significance for the revenues in the stagnant music markets. Therefore, the music industry is developing at present towards becoming an integrated entertainment industry deeply penetrating every point of modern people’s leisure activities.

The value of digitalization of services in the new service development

The purpose of this thesis is to study factors that have an impact on the company’s capabilities to identify and analyze the value of digitalization of services during the early stages of service development process and evaluate them from the perspective of a case company. The research problem was defined: “How digitalization of services affects delivering the services of the future?” The research method of this thesis was based on the qualitative case study which aimed to study both company’s and customer’s set of values. The study included a literature review and a development study. The empirical research part consisted of analyzing three existing services, specifying a new digital service concept and its feasibility analysis as part of a business requirement phase. To understand the set of values, 10 stakeholder interviews were conducted and earlier customer surveys were utilized, and additionally, a number of meetings were conducted with the case company representatives to develop service concept, and evaluate the findings. The impact of the early stages of service development process discovered to reflect directly in the capabilities of the case company to identify and create customer value were related to the themes presented in the literature review. In order to specify the value achieved from the digitalization the following areas of strategic background elements were deepened during the study: Innovations, customer understanding and business service. Based on the findings, the study aims to enhance the case company’s capability to identify and evaluate the impact of the digitalization in delivering services of the future. Recognizing the value of digital service before the beginning of the development project is important to the businesses of both customer and provider. By exploring the various levels of digitalization one can get the overall picture of the value gained from utilizing digital opportunities. From the development perspective, the process of reviewing and discovering the most promising opportunities and solutions is the key step in order to deliver superior services. Ultimately, a company should understand the value outcome determination of the individual services as well as their digital counterparts.

Yhteisö-tv palvelukonseptina, case: Finnish Satellite Television Oy

Menestyäkseen nykymaailmassa ihmiset ovat turvautuneet toisiinsa muodostaen samallaerilaisia yhteisöjä ja verkostoja. Näille yhteisöille on tunnusomaista, että niissä vaikuttavien jäsenien ajatustavat yhtyvät keskenään. Yhteisöissä syntyy uusia ideoita ja keksintöjä. Niiden välittäminen maailmalle on usein kuitenkin ongelmallista. Digitaalisuus, Internet ja monet muut uudet teknologiat tuovat yhden ratkaisun ongelmaan. Eräs uuden teknologian mahdollistama kanava on yhteisötelevisio, jonka kautta yhteisön viestintää voidaan tehokkaasti välittää. Yhteisöilläei kuitenkaan ole teknistä taitoa toteuttaa tällaista palvelua. Yhteisöille, kuten pk-yrityksille, kouluille, seuroille, yhdistyksille ja jopa yksittäisille ihmisille, tuleekin pystyä tarjoamaan valmis konsepti, joka on helposti heidän käytettävissään. Tämä diplomityö toimii teknisenä pohjana Finnish Satellite Television Oy:n yhteisö-tv -palvelukonseptille, joka tullaan ottamaan laajamittaiseen käyttöön vuoden 2007 aikana. Työssä käydään läpi yhteisön ja yhteisöllisyyden tunnusmerkit ja peruspiirteet, luodaan katsaus yhteisötelevision alkutaipaleisiin, nykytilaan ja sen eri ratkaisuihin. Lisäksi tutustutaan yhteisö-tv:n kansainvälisiin ja kotimaisiin kokeiluihin ja pilottiprojekteihin. Työn teknisessä osassa tutkitaan yhteisötelevision mahdollistaviin teknologioihin, siirtoteihin sekä digitaalisiin tuotantojärjestelmiin. Lopuksi työssä kootaan yhteen käytettävyydeltään, liikutettavuudeltaan ja kustannustehokkuudeltaan sopivimmat tekniset toteutusvaihtoehdot konseptin käyttöönottoa varten.

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.

The Design and Implementation of Loudspeaker Control Network Protocols

The networking and digitalization of audio equipment has created a need for control protocols. These protocols offer new services to customers and ensure that the equipment operates correctly. The control protocols used in the computer networks are not directly applicable since embedded systems have resource and cost limitations. In this master's thesis the design and implementation of new loudspeaker control network protocols are presented. The protocol stack was required to be reliable, have short response times, configure the network automatically and support the dynamic addition and removal of loudspeakers. The implemented protocol stack was also required to be as efficient and lightweight as possible because the network nodes are fairly simple and lack processing power. The protocol stack was thoroughly tested, validated and verified. The protocols were formally described using LOTOS (Language of Temporal Ordering Specifications) and verified using reachability analysis. A prototype of the loudspeaker network was built and used for testing the operation and the performance of the control protocols. The implemented control protocol stack met the design specifications and proved to be highly reliable and efficient.

Mittaustieto ilmiöstä Internetiin

Työn tavoitteena oli kehittää laajentumiskykyinen ja tarkka hajautettu mittajärjestelmä venymille ja vastaaville ilmiöille, joka silti kestäisi ankaria olosuhteita. Mittajärjestelmän tehtävä oli esittää keräämänsä tieto Internetissä. Työssä esitellään kehityksen avainkohdat. Työssä on käsitelty koko mittausjärjestelmän suunnitteluun vaikuttavien tekijöitten kaari. Esimerkki-ilmiönä käsitellään venymä. Esittelen sen fysikaalisen luonteen ja tavat joilla venymän rajat vaikuttavat mittausketjun vaatimuksiin. Samoin on esimerkein käsitelty itse anturointitapa ja sen häiriötyypit. Työ luo yhtenäisen matemaattisen katsauksen häiriöihin ja niiden hallitsemiseen ilmiöstä digitointivaiheeseen asti. Eri osa-alueiden häiriötekijät ilmaistaan valitun toisiinsa nivoutuvan terminologian kautta. Työ käsittelee tiedon digitoimisen ja verkottamisen problematiikkaa. Työssä verrataan tarjolla olleita vaihtoehtoja ja dokumentoidaan lopullisessa järjestelmässä käytetyt ratkaisut ja niiden valitsemisen syyt.

Hypeä ja hyssyttelyä : musiikin promootio blogeissa

Tämä parityönä toteutettu opinnäytetyö tutkii blogien käyttöä osana promootiota nykypäivän musiikkibisneksessä ja sen pääpaino on elektronisessa tanssimusiikissa ja dj-kulttuurissa.Työ käsittelee toistaiseksi Suomessa vähälle huomiolle jäänyttä ilmiötä ja valottaa, mikä merkitys blogeilla on jo tällä hetkellä. Opinnäytetyössä selvitetään, miten levy-yhtiöt ja artistit suhtautuvat musiikkinsa vapaaseen jakamiseen ja mihin suuntaan musiikkiblogit kenties ovat tulevaisuudessa kehittymässä. Lisäksi kartoitetaan myös yhtiöiden ja blogien välisiä yhteistyösuhteita ja havainnollistetaan käytännön esimerkein, kuinka tehokkaasti musiikki voi blogosfäärissä levitä. Musiikkiblogien toimintaperiaatteisiin paneudutaan - ilmiön hyötyjä ja haittoja puntaroidaan niin blogien ylläpitäjien kuin artistien ja levy-yhtiöiden näkökulmasta. Tarkoitus on luoda kokonaiskuva siitä, mitä hajanaiselta vaikuttava ilmiö pitää sisällään ja mitä se voi olla ammattimaisimmillaan. Tutkimusmenetelminä käytetään levy-yhtiöiden, artistien ja bloggaajien haastatteluita ja tapaustutkimusta. Kohteiksi on pyritty valitsemaan merkittäviä, mutta konsepteiltaan toisistaan riittävästi poikkeavia kansainvälisiä tekijöitä, sekä olennaisimpia suomalaisia blogikulttuuria tuntevia ja sen parissa aktiivisesti toimivia tahoja. Lisäksi sivutaan muita digitaalisen musiikkikulttuurin ilmenemismuotoja ja niiden synnyttämiä uusia genrejä ja ilmiöitä. Opinnäytetyön tulokset viittaavat siihen, että tietystä amatöörimäisyydestään huolimatta blogit ovat vakiinnuttaneet paikkansa sekä tiedon että yhä useammin myös itse musiikin lähteenä. Ne eivät ehkä korvaa ammattimaisesti toimitettua musiikkimediaa, mutta niiden merkitys jatkuvasti ajankohtaisina eksklusiivisen materiaalin lähteinä kasvaa entisestään.

Digital Cultural Heritage at the National Library of Finland

Short presentation about how digital cultural heritage is created and collected by the National Library of Finland

DIGITAL BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS IN EMERGING MARKETS – Developing Business Marketing in Russia

The core idea of this Master's Thesis was that five key characteristics – market heterogeneity, sociopolitical governance, chronic shortage of resources, unbranded competition, and inadequate infrastructure – of emerging markets are radically different from the traditional industrialized capitalist society and they will require us to rethink the core assumptions of business-to-business marketing, such as business relationships, marketing communication elements, and digitalization. In this research, Russia is considered to be an emerging market that reflects the aforementioned theoretical characteristics. The research was a qualitative case study and furthermore a collective case study. In the beginning three digital marketing professionals were interviewed to better understand digital B2B marketing. The actual research data was collected through seven structured theme interviews with representatives of the case companies operating in Russia. The selection of case companies included three business consulting companies and four industrial companies. The aim of this qualitative study was to understand and clarify how business marketing exploits digital marketing methods as a part of the chosen business marketing strategy under emerging markets’ special conditions. This objective was divided in three research questions: 1) How the chosen marketing strategy reflects in the business marketing process? 2) How digital marketing communication contributes to business marketing? 3) How are the emerging markets’ characteristics reflected in the business marketing process? The main research findings indicate that digital business-to-business marketing communications can be useful and effective. Moreover, business DMC can be defined and structured in a reasonable way. The company's prevalent marketing paradigm and the chosen marketing strategy reflect in the business marketing process, and in utilizing digital marketing communications. The assumption that emerging markets set an environment with special characteristics for business marketing was supported by the study. However, the business environmental aspects were not considerably disturbing digital B2B marketing, but making it even more reasonable to harness in Russia.

Open African Reference Pathology Data Center

Poster at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Informaatiopalveluiden muutosvoimat, muutokset ja liikkuvuusesteet

Tutkimuksessa kartoitettiin informaatiopalveluiden liiketoiminta-alueella Suomessa toimivien yritysten maantieteellisiä ja palvelukohtaisia strategisia valintoja ja näissä tapahtuneita muutoksia. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää informaatiopalveluiden määritelmää ja strategisten ryhmien teoriaa apuna käyttäen mahdollisia muutoksia informaatiopalveluja Suomessa kuluttajille tarjoavien yritysten perinteisissä toimialoissa tutkimuksen kattamina vuosina 2007–2012. Edelleen tavoitteena oli kuvata yleisten muutosvoimien ja alaan vaikuttavien megatrendien sekä alalla havaittujen liikkuvuusesteiden avulla liiketoimintaympäristössä tapahtuneita muutoksia ja pyrkiä löytämään näihin muutoksiin vaikuttavia syitä. Yrityksiä analysoitiin vuosikertomusten perusteella ja tutkimusotteena käytettiin grounded theoryä. Informaatiopalveluilla tarkoitetaan tietotekniikka-, tietoliikenne-, kustannus- ja audiovisuaalisen toiminnan palveluja. Suoritettujen ryhmittelyjen perusteella pystyttiin havaitsemaan, että osa tutkittavista yrityksistä oli laajentanut toimintaansa perinteisten toimialarajojensa ulkopuolelle johonkin toiseen informaatiopalveluiden liiketoiminta-alueella olevaan toimialaan. Aineistosta ei muodostunut perinteisten toimialajaottelujen mukaisia yritysryhmiä. Suurimmat muutokset näyttivät tapahtuneen perinteisen tietoliikennepalveluiden toimialalla. Vuosikertomuksista tunnistettuja yritysten liiketoimintaympäristössä tapahtuneita muutoksia ja niihin vaikuttavia liikkuvuusesteitä ja muita palveluiden laajuuteen ja alueelliseen ulottuvuuteen vaikuttavia seikkoja ryhmiteltiin yhteiskuntasuhteiden kehikkoon kategorioihin: poliittiset ja lainsäädännölliset, teknologiset, sosiaaliset ja kulttuuriset, fyysiset, taloudelliset ja ekologiset tekijät. Muutosvoimista globalisaatio ja teknologinen kehitys vaikuttavat voimakkaasti ja muovaavat informaatiopalveluiden liiketoiminta-alueen yrityksiä. Internetin nopea kasvu, tiedon digitalisoituminen ja rajattoman, aina läsnä olevan viestinnän lisääntyminen ovat vaikuttaneet kuluttajien käyttäytymiseen luomalla ajasta ja paikasta riippumattoman viestimien ja palveluiden hyödyntämisen. Näiden mega-trendien vaikutus välittyy vuosikertomuksista. Juridiset ja poliittiset tekijät vaikuttavat voimakkaasti informaatiopalveluiden alueella eikä lainsäädäntö näytä vielä riittävästi tukevan innovatiivisia digitaalisia globaaleita palveluja vaan muodostaa liik-kuvuusesteitä. Kuluttajakäyttäytyminen muovaa markkinoita ja edistää teknologista kehitystä. Ala on ollut hyvin teknologiavetoinen, mutta vuosikertomusten perusteella olisi pääteltävissä, että asiakasnäkökulma on tutkimusvuosien aikana vahvistunut. Asiakaskäyttäytyminen ja siihen liittyvät tiedot tuovat tulevaisuudessa kilpailuetua.

e-Business and collaboration: A case study of pulp supply chain

This thesis studies how the case company could digitalize its supply chain and what kind of advantages this would create in the light of supply chain efficiency. The case company manufactures several pulp products that are used for paper, fabrics and packaging products by customers worldwide. The paper and pulp industry has been paying more and more attention to increasing supply chain efficiency with new operating and service models made possible by today’s information technology. The main focus of this study is on the supply chain between the case company and its key customers and the goal is to find ways to make the operations between them as efficient as possible. The study relays heavily on collaboration techniques and digitalization technologies. In addition to a theoretical framework, the study includes several empirical studies that offer real-life examples of how these theories and technologies are applied in operating environments similar to the case company. A plan with strategic and operational levels is created according to the findings of the previous sections to support the case company’s future operations. The plan is based on an RFID-supported collaboration model that aims to advance information sharing between the supply chain partners. The time for an RFID-investment is sought to be very optimal and the benefits of such system to be noteworthy, but challenging to measure in monetary terms.

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.

Evaluation of Major E-commerce Companies Business Model

Technological advances have enabled a large spread of online retailers. E-commerce business is challenging the nature of traditional foundation of trade, therefore trade is on transition. The Internet allows consumers to compare and examine online store offerings, regardless of place and time. Digitalization has created new opportunities for creating customer value. The growing trend towards online shopping world has taken place in a very short period of time. Businesses, either use e-commerce as an additional operation, or completely rely, on the Internet business opportunities. The aim of this Master`s thesis is to define and evaluate key business model factors of two major e-commerce companies, Alibaba.com and Amazon.com. These key business model factors have a positive effect on successful e-commerce business. In addition, Alibaba.com and Amazon.com are compared with the help of these identified factors. Moreover, e-commerce business factors provide opportunities to create greater customer value regardless of the industry. Customer value is the core of business and a competitive advantage. Customer value is defined as a ratio between sacrifices and benefits. E-commerce companies should effectively evaluate customer value, so they could customize their offerings to meet better desired customer needs. Even though e-commerce business is a relatively new phenomenon, it has been widely studied

Gearing Towards Omnichannel Grocery Retail Through Business Model Innovation

Technological innovations and the advent of digitalization have led retail business into one of its biggest transformations of all time. Consumer behaviour has changed rapidly and the customers are ever more powerful, demanding, tech-savvy and moving on various plat-forms. These attributes will continue to drive the development and robustly restructure the architecture of value creation in the retail business. The largest retail category, grocery yet awaits for a real disruption, but the signals for major change are already on the horizon. The first wave of online grocery retail was introduced in the mid 1990’s and it throve until millennium. Many overreactions, heavy investments and the burst IT-bubble almost stag-nated the whole industry for a long period of time. The second wave started with a venge-ance around 2010. Some research was carried out during the first wave from a single-viewpoint of online grocery retail, but without a comprehensive approach to online-offline business model integration. Now the accelerating growth of e-business has initiated an increased interest to examine the transformation from traditional business models towards e-business models and their integration on the companies’ traditional business models. This research strove to examine how can we recognize and analyze how digitalization and online channels are affecting the business models of grocery retail, by using business mod-el canvas as an analysis tool. Furthermore business model innovation and omnichannel retail were presented and suggested as potential solutions for these changes. 21 experts in online grocery industry were being interviewed. The thoughts of the informants were being qualitatively analysed by using an analysis tool called the business model canvas. The aim of this research was to portray a holistic view on the Omnichannel grocery retail business model, and the value chain, in which the case company Arina along with its partners are operating. The key conclusions exhibited that online grocery retail business model is not an alterna-tive model nor a substitute for the traditional grocery retail business model, though all of the business model elements are to some extent affected by it, but rather a complementary business model that should be integrated into the prevailing, conventional grocery retail business model. A set of business model elements, such as value proposition and distribu-tion channels were recognized as the most important ones and sources of innovation within these components were being illustrated. Segments for online grocery retail were empiri-cally established as polarized niche markets in contrast of the segmented mass-market of the conventional grocery retail. Business model innovation was proven to be a considera-ble method and a conceptual framework, by which to come across with new value proposi-tions that create competitive advantage for the company in the contemporary, changing business environment. Arina as a retailer can be considered as a industry model innovator, since it has initiated an entire industry in its market area, where other players have later on embarked on, and in which the contributors of the value chain, such as Posti depend on it to a great extent. Consumer behaviour clearly affects and appears everywhere in the digi-talized grocery trade and it drives customers to multiple platforms where retailers need to be present. Omnichannel retail business model was suggested to be the solution, in which the new technologies are being utilized, contemporary consumer behaviour is embedded in decision-making and all of the segments and their value propositions are being served seamlessly across the channels.