IAS 14 - Segment Reporting; The Requirements and Implementation

The principal aim of this study is to clarify the requirements of segment reporting and compare the requirements with the actual! implementation on different business lines. The empirical part was concluded by interviewing randomly selected companies that are publicly listed on the Helsinki Exchanges. The theoretical part of the study (chapters 2 and 3) will give basic information about shifting to IAS -standards and the requirements of IAS -standards. In order to meet the principal aim, a pre-empiric research was conducted by studying the annual accounts (year 2002) of randomly selected companies that already follow the IAS -standards of reporting. The companies in the pre-empiric research consist of both domestic and foreign companies. The aim of the pre-empiric study was to give a basis for the interview process on the empiric part of the study. The study indicates that implementing segment reporting has not brought any major concerns or problems. This is due to the fact that most companies that were examined - being publicly listed companies - have traditionally had a clear division between their geographical and commercial segments, and also been obliged to give reports according to these segments. In case of changes in corporate structure, shifting on new lines of businesses or downsizing of operations, the problems in reporting according to IAS -standards, may arise. Such changes will also require changes on information systems, providing the essential information for segment reporting. According to this study, most companies choose the commercial segment as their primary segment for reporting. The pre-empiric study indicates, that most of the companies already following the IAS -standards, still have a lot of improvement to do, in order to meet all the IAS requirements.

Search Interfaces on the Web: Querying and Characterizing

Current-day web search engines (e.g., Google) do not crawl and index a significant portion of theWeb and, hence, web users relying on search engines only are unable to discover and access a large amount of information from the non-indexable part of the Web. Specifically, dynamic pages generated based on parameters provided by a user via web search forms (or search interfaces) are not indexed by search engines and cannot be found in searchers’ results. Such search interfaces provide web users with an online access to myriads of databases on the Web. In order to obtain some information from a web database of interest, a user issues his/her query by specifying query terms in a search form and receives the query results, a set of dynamic pages that embed required information from a database. At the same time, issuing a query via an arbitrary search interface is an extremely complex task for any kind of automatic agents including web crawlers, which, at least up to the present day, do not even attempt to pass through web forms on a large scale. In this thesis, our primary and key object of study is a huge portion of the Web (hereafter referred as the deep Web) hidden behind web search interfaces. We concentrate on three classes of problems around the deep Web: characterization of deep Web, finding and classifying deep web resources, and querying web databases. Characterizing deep Web: Though the term deep Web was coined in 2000, which is sufficiently long ago for any web-related concept/technology, we still do not know many important characteristics of the deep Web. Another matter of concern is that surveys of the deep Web existing so far are predominantly based on study of deep web sites in English. One can then expect that findings from these surveys may be biased, especially owing to a steady increase in non-English web content. In this way, surveying of national segments of the deep Web is of interest not only to national communities but to the whole web community as well. In this thesis, we propose two new methods for estimating the main parameters of deep Web. We use the suggested methods to estimate the scale of one specific national segment of the Web and report our findings. We also build and make publicly available a dataset describing more than 200 web databases from the national segment of the Web. Finding deep web resources: The deep Web has been growing at a very fast pace. It has been estimated that there are hundred thousands of deep web sites. Due to the huge volume of information in the deep Web, there has been a significant interest to approaches that allow users and computer applications to leverage this information. Most approaches assumed that search interfaces to web databases of interest are already discovered and known to query systems. However, such assumptions do not hold true mostly because of the large scale of the deep Web – indeed, for any given domain of interest there are too many web databases with relevant content. Thus, the ability to locate search interfaces to web databases becomes a key requirement for any application accessing the deep Web. In this thesis, we describe the architecture of the I-Crawler, a system for finding and classifying search interfaces. Specifically, the I-Crawler is intentionally designed to be used in deepWeb characterization studies and for constructing directories of deep web resources. Unlike almost all other approaches to the deep Web existing so far, the I-Crawler is able to recognize and analyze JavaScript-rich and non-HTML searchable forms. Querying web databases: Retrieving information by filling out web search forms is a typical task for a web user. This is all the more so as interfaces of conventional search engines are also web forms. At present, a user needs to manually provide input values to search interfaces and then extract required data from the pages with results. The manual filling out forms is not feasible and cumbersome in cases of complex queries but such kind of queries are essential for many web searches especially in the area of e-commerce. In this way, the automation of querying and retrieving data behind search interfaces is desirable and essential for such tasks as building domain-independent deep web crawlers and automated web agents, searching for domain-specific information (vertical search engines), and for extraction and integration of information from various deep web resources. We present a data model for representing search interfaces and discuss techniques for extracting field labels, client-side scripts and structured data from HTML pages. We also describe a representation of result pages and discuss how to extract and store results of form queries. Besides, we present a user-friendly and expressive form query language that allows one to retrieve information behind search interfaces and extract useful data from the result pages based on specified conditions. We implement a prototype system for querying web databases and describe its architecture and components design.

Designing a user interface for game developers to enter game specific information

Designing user interfaces for novel software systems can be challenging since the usability preferences of the users are not well known. This thesis presents a usability study conducted for the development of a user interface for game developers to enter game specific information. By conducting usability testing, the usability preferences of game developers were explored and the design was shaped according to their needs. An assessment of the overall usability of the final design is provided together with the main findings that include the usability preferences and design recommendations. The results showed that the most valuable usability preferences are quickness, error tolerance and the ability to constantly inspect the entered information.

Collecting valuable consumer data: Motivating consumers to disclose personal information

Collecting and analyzing consumer data is essential in today’s data-driven business environment. However, consumers are becoming more aware of the value of the information they can provide to companies, thereby being more reluctant to share it for free. Therefore, companies need to find ways to motivate consumers to disclose personal information. The main research question of the study was formed as “How can companies motivate consumers to disclose personal information?” and it was further divided into two subquestions: 1) What types of benefits motivate consumers to disclose personal information? 2) How does the disclosure context affect the consumers’ information disclosure behavior? The conceptual framework consisted of a classification of extrinsic and intrinsic benefits, and moderating factors, which were recognized on the basis of prior research in the field. The study was conducted by using qualitative research methods. The primary data was collected by interviewing ten representatives from eight companies. The data was analyzed and reported according to predetermined themes. The findings of the study confirm that consumers can be motivated to disclose personal information by offering different types of extrinsic (monetary saving, time saving, self-enhancement, and social adjustment) and intrinsic (novelty, pleasure, and altruism) benefits. However, not all the benefits are equally useful ways to convince the customer to disclose information. Moreover, different factors in the disclosure context can either alleviate or increase the effectiveness of the benefits and the consumers’ motivation to disclose personal information. Such factors include the consumer’s privacy concerns, perceived trust towards the company, the relevancy of the requested information, personalization, website elements (especially security, usability, and aesthetics of a website), and the consumer’s shopping motivation. This study has several contributions. It is essential that companies recognize the most attractive benefits regarding their business and their customers, and that they understand how the disclosure context affects the consumer’s information disclosure behavior. The likelihood of information disclosure can be increased, for example, by offering benefits that meet the consumers’ needs and preferences, improving the relevancy of the asked information, stating the reasons for data collection, creating and maintaining a trustworthy image of the company, and enhancing the quality of the company’s website.

Tarkkuusannostelulaitteen kehittäminen

Prosessiteollisuuden aloilla, kuten lasin raaka-ainelaitoksissa ja laasti- ja tasoitetehtaissa, prosessin onnistumisen kannalta jauhemaisten raaka-aineiden tarkka annostelu on avainasemassa. Diplomityön tarkoituksena oli kehittää olemassa olevan idean pohjalta uusi materiaalin annostelulaite jauhemaisille ja fluidisoituville aineille. Tavoitteena oli suunnitella annostelulaite toimivalle prototyyppiasteelle ja saamaan siitä informaatiota materiaalilaboratoriossa tehtävien annostuskokeiden avulla. Työssä tarkasteltiin aluksi yleisesti jauhemaisen aineen ominaisuuksia ja ongelmia, tyypillisiä annostelulaitteita ja annostustarkkuuteen ja punnitustarkkuuteen vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Varsinainen laitekehitys eteni tyypillisen tuotekehitystyön mukaisesti. Annostuslaite kattaa laaj an dynaamisen toiminta-alueen eli massavirran säätömandollisuus on samalla toimilaitteella aikaisempia annostelulaitteita laajempi. Laite soveltuu erittäin tarkkaan annostukseen hyvin lyhyellä annostusajalla. Hyvät ja luotettavat annostusjärjestelmät myötävaikuttavat merkittävästi koko tehdaskaupan saamiseen, koska asiakas säästää työvoimakustannuksissa ja laatukustannuksissa. Kehittämällä jauhemaisten aineiden annostusta saadaan tekninen etumatka kilpailijoihin nähden.

Työpisteiden tiedonkäyttö ja hyödyntäminen osana palveluyhtiön johtamisjärjestelmää

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli etsiä kohdeorganisaation taustalla olevia tekijöitä, jotka joko edesauttavat tai estävät nykyisen johtamisjärjestelmän soveltamista, tiedon käyttöä ja hyödyntämistä organisaation työpisteissä. Kohdeorganisaatio on Varenso Oy, Tekniset tuotantopalvelut. Teoriaosiossa käsitellään tietojohtamiseen liittyvää käsitteistöä sekä tiedon luomiseen, johtamiseen ja hyödyntämiseen liittyviä tekijöitä. Johtamista lähestytään myös perustehtävän, strategian ja muutosvalmiuden, valta- ja organisaatiorakenteiden sekä informaatio- ohjauksen näkökulmasta. Lopuksi käsitellään suorituskykyä, tavoitteiden asettamista, mittaamista funktionaalisissa- ja prosessijohdetuissa organisaatioissa. Empiirisessä osiossa tehtiin kyselytutkimus. Tulokset analysoitiin monimuuttujamenetelmiä soveltaen ja löydettiin faktorit, joiden avulla on mahdollista vaikuttaa kohdeorganisaation toimintaan. Kyselytutkimuksen avulla tulkittiin organisaation tämän hetkistä suorituskykyä ja asemaa suhteessa tavoitteisiin. Tuloksena syntyi myös toimenpideehdotuksia.

Financial Modeling to Support Organizational Control

Tutkimus tarkastelee taloudellisia mallintamismahdollisuuksia metsäteollisuuden liiketoimintayksikössä. Tavoitteena on suunnitella ja luoda taloudellinen malli liiketoimintayksikölle, jonka avulla sen tuloksen analysoiminen ja ennustaminen on mahdollista. Tutkimusta tarkastellaan konstruktiivisen tutkimusmenetelmän avulla. Teoreettinen viitekehys tarkastelee olemassa olevan informaation muotoilemista keskittyen tiedon jalostamisen tarpeisiin, päätöksenteon asettamiin vaatimuksiin sekä mallintamiseen. Toiseksi, teoria esittää informaatiolle asetettavia vaatimuksia organisatorisen ohjauksen näkökulmasta.Empiirinen tieto kerätään osallistuvan havainnoinnin avulla hyödyntäen epävirallisia keskusteluja, tietojärjestelmiä ja laskentatoimen dokumentteja. Tulokset osoittavat, että liikevoiton ennustaminen mallin avulla on vaikeaa, koska taustalla vaikuttavien muuttujien määrä on suuri. Tästä johtuen malli täytyykin rakentaa niin, että se tarkastelee liikevoittoa niin yksityiskohtaisella tasolla kuin mahdollista. Testauksessa mallin tarkkuus osoittautui sitä paremmaksi, mitä tarkemmalla tasolla ennustaminen tapahtui. Lisäksi testaus osoitti, että malli on käyttökelpoinen liiketoiminnan ohjauksessa lyhyellä aikavälillä. Näin se luo myös pohjan pitkän aikavälin ennustamiselle.

The governmental organization's role in railway freight market's liberalization -building knowledge through Swedish and Polish operators' experiences

Globalization has increased transport aggregates’ demand. Whilst transport volumes increase, ecological values’im portance has sharpened: carbon footprint has become a measure known world widely. European Union together with other communities emphasizes friendliness to the environment: same trend has extended to transports. As a potential substitute for road transport is noted railway transport, which decreases the congestions and lowers the emission levels. Railway freight market was liberalized in the European Union 2007, which enabled new operators to enter the markets. This research had two main objectives. Firstly, it examined the main market entry strategies utilized and the barriers to entry confronted by the operators who entered the markets after the liberalization. Secondly, the aim was to find ways the governmental organization could enhance its service towards potential railway freight operators. Research is a qualitative case study, utilizing descriptive analytical research method with a normative shade. Empirical data was gathered by interviewing Swedish and Polish railway freight operators by using a semi-structured theme-interview. This research provided novel information by using first-hand data; topic has been researched previously by utilizing second-hand data and literature analyses. Based on this research, rolling stock acquisition, needed investments and bureaucracy generate the main barriers to entry. The research results show that the mostly utilized market entry strategies are start-up and vertical integration. The governmental organization could enhance the market entry process by organizing courses, paying extra attention on flexibility, internal know-how and educating the staff.

Heikkojen signaalien hyödyntäminen PK-yrityksissä, tapaustutkimus osaamiskeskuksen toimintamalli

Diplomityössä tutkitaan heikkojen signaalien hyödyntämistä pienissä ja keskisuurissa yrityksissä (pk-yritykset). Tutkimuksen pääkysymys on, miten pk-yritykset voivat hyödyntää kansallisten toimijoiden, kuten FinNode Venäjän ja Finpron, tuottamia heikkoja signaaleita päätöksenteossaan. Tutkimuksessa käsitellään heikkoja signaaleja ja ulkoista liiketoimintatietoa. Käsittely pohjautuu kirjallisuudessa esitettyihin keinoihin ja menetelmiin, jotka liittyvät heikkojen signaalien havainnointiin, lähteisiin, keräämiseen ja hyödyntämiseen. Ulkoisen liiketoimintatiedon perustana on informaatioketju ja uuden tiedon luomisen yhteys ulkoisen liiketoimintatiedon hyödyntämiseen. Kirjallisuusmallien avulla on käsitelty myös haasteita, jotka ilmenevät heikkojen signaalien hyödyntämisessä, ja miten ulkoisen liiketoimintatiedon hankinnassa käytettävää prosessia pystytään hyödyntämään osana heikkojen signaalien seulontaa ja analysointia. Diplomityön tutkimusosassa kerättiin teemahaastatteluilla pk-yrityksiltä ja kansallisilta innovaatiojärjestelmän toimijoilta tietoa. Yrityksiltä saatiin tietoa ulkoisen liiketoimintatiedon ja heikkojen signaalien keräämisestä ja hyödyntämisestä. Kansallisilta innovaatiojärjestelmän toimijoilta kerättiin tietoa rakennetusta ennakointijärjestelmästä ja sen hyödynnettävyydestä pk-yrityksissä sekä osaamiskeskusohjelman roolista tiedon välittäjänä. Kirjallisuus ja haastattelut yhdistämällä tutkimuksessa syntyi toimintamalli Kaakkois-Suomen osaamiskeskukselle. Toimintamallin avulla pk-yritykset voivat hyödyntää kansallisen innovaatiojärjestelmän toimijoiden keräämää, liiketoiminnalleen tärkeää signaalitietoa strategiaprosessissaan. Suomen innovaatiojärjestelmä on toimiva ennakoinnin osalta, kun taas pk-yrityksissä ei useinkaan suunnata resursseja ennakointiin ja heikkojen signaalien keräämiseen. Ajankohta toimintamallin käyttöönotolle vaikuttaa tutkimuksen pohjalta sopivalta, sillä järjestelmää on rakennettu ja testattu jo muutamien vuosien ajan.

Venäjän informaatio-psykologinen sodankäyntitapa terrorismin torjunnassa ja viiden päivän sodassa

This study examines Russia’s Pattern of Information-Psychologic Warfare in Counter-terrorism and in the Five Day War. The first case of this comparative case study research examines an internal national security crisis, namely two of the most notorious terrorist strikes that took place firstly in The Moscow Dubrovka Theater in October 2002 and two years later in Beslan School 2004 in September. In the second case an external national security crisis, the Five Day War conducted in August 2008 between the Russian Federation and the state of Georgia will be analyzed. At the centre of this research report lays an idea: a war of information by using information as the target and as a weapon. Based on a comparative case study setting this study tries to understand how Russian pattern of information warfare manifests itself in the light of these two internal / external national security crises. Three hypotheses that guide this research report are: Russian pattern of information warfare has a long tradition which can be traced back to the Cold War era; it is possible to discern specifically Russian, partially divergent information warfare pattern; and finally by exploring the two recent internal / external national security crises, it becomes possible to sketch specifically Russian systematics. In this research report the main focus of interest is on the information-psychological dimension of the overall information warfare concept as part of the military science tradition. After such theoretical review the two empirical cases will be contextualized and chronologically introduced. Analysis will be sharpened on the parties’ actions especially from the information-psychological perspective. This will be done with the help of the developed Russia’s six action fields-model which has been divided into two main dimensions: political and military with three levels: strategic informa-tion-psychological level, and two tactical levels, namely information-technical and information-PSYOP. This creates six possible actions fields. As the empirical analysis will reveal, many of these six action fields have been used by Russia in its internal / external national security crises, which proves the study’s hypotheses: Russia has its own pattern of information psychologic warfare that is based on its historical tradition and as such it creates a base for Russian systematics.

How (not) to interview children : interviews with young children in sexual abuse investigations in Finland

The present thesis had two main objectives: The first was to assess how child sexual abuse (CSA) interviews in Finland are conducted through analysing the interviewing techniques applied and the language used by the interviewers, as well as to suggest ways to improve interviews if they were found to have deficiencies. The second main aim was to contribute to the growing research corpus concerning CSA interviews, in particular, by addressing how interviewers follow up information provided by the child, by analysing whether child health care professionals would use childadapted language, and by studying the kind of modifications in the verbal behaviour of interviewers and children that were associated with a) repeated interviews, b) a support person’s presence at the interview, and c) the use of anatomically detailed dolls. Two complementary samples of CSA interviews were analysed. The first one was composed of child interviews with 3-12-year-old children (N = 27) that had been considered problematic by lawyers or other involved professionals (Studies I and IV). The second sample consisted of unselected interviews (N = 43) with children aged 3 to 8 years conducted in a number of hospitals in different parts of the country (Studies II and III). Study I: The verbal interaction between interviewer and child was analysed in a sample of interviews that had been considered to be problematic by involved professionals. Results showed that interviewers used inappropriate questioning techniques, relying on option-posing, specific suggestive and unspecific suggestive questions to a significant extent, these comprising around 50% of all interviewer utterances. The proportion of invitations, which the research community recommends interviewers to rely on, was strikingly low. Invitations and directive utterances were associated with an increase in informative responses by the child in terms of response type, number of new details reported, as well as length of response. The opposite was true for option-posing and suggestive utterances. Longer questions by the interviewer (in number of words) often rendered no reply from the child, whereas shorter questions were followed by descriptive answers. Even after the child had provided an informative answer, interviewers failed to follow up the information in an adequate way and instead continued to rely on focused and leading questions. Study II: Due to the possible bias of the sample analysed in Study I, the most important analyses were rerun with the unselected sample and reported separately. Results were quite similar between the two studies, indicating that the problems observed in Study I, with interviewers relying on option-posing and suggestive questions to a significant extent, are likely to be general and not specific for those interviews. Even if suggestive questions were slightly less and invitations slightly more common in this sample than in the previous study, almost half of the interviewer questions were still optionposing or suggestive, and also in this sample, interviewers failed to follow up information by the child in a facilitating manner. Differentiating between judicial and contextual details showed that while facilitators, invitations, and directive utterances elicited more contextual than judicial details, the opposite was true for specific suggestive utterances. These results might be explained by the reluctance of children to describe sexual details related to the abuse events. Alternatively, they may also be due to children describing incorrect sexual details as a result of suggestive interviewing techniques. Study III: This study examined features of the language used by the interviewers. Interviewer utterances included multiple questions, long statements, complicated grammar and concepts, as well as unclear references to persons and situations. More than a fifth of the interviewer utterances were coded as belonging to at least one of these categories. The results suggest that even professionals who are experienced in interacting with children may have difficulties in using a child-sensitive language, adding to the pool of studies showing similar problems to occur in legal hearings with children conducted by lawyers. As children rarely comment on, or even recognise, their lack of comprehension, the use of a language that is too complex can have detrimental consequences for the outcomes of investigative interviews. Interviewers used different approaches to introduce the topic of abuse. While 15% of the children spontaneously addressed the topic of abuse, probably indicating that they felt confident with the interviewer and the situation, in almost 50% of the cases, the interviewer introduced the topic of abuse in a way that can be considered leading. Interviews were characterised by a lack of structure, apparent in frequent rapid switches of topic by the interviewer. This manner was associated with a decrease in the number of new details provided by the children. Study IV: This study analysed possible changes in the interview dynamics associated with repeated interviewing, the presence of a support person (related to the child), and the use of anatomically detailed (AD) dolls. Repeated interviewing, in combination with suggestive questions, has previously been found to seriously contaminate children’s accounts. In the present material, interviewers used significantly more suggestive utterances in the repeated condition, thus endangering the reliability of the children’s reports. Few studies have investigated the effects of a support person’s presence at the interview. The results of the present study showed that interviewers talked more and children provided less information when a support person was present. Supporting some earlier findings regarding the use of AD dolls, the present results showed that using AD dolls was associated with longer interviewer utterances and shorter, less responsive, and less detailed child responses. Interviewers used up to five times more unspecific suggestive utterances when dolls were used, for instance through repeatedly asking the child to show “what really happened” with the dolls. Conclusion: The results indicate that CSA interviews in Finland are not conducted in a manner that follows best practice as defined by the research community and as stated in a number of guidelines. When comparing these questioning strategies with the recommendations, which have been predominant in the field for more than ten years now, it can be concluded that the interviews analysed were conducted in a manner that undermines the possibility to elicit an uncontaminated and accurate narrative from the children. A particularly worrying finding was the fact that interviewers did not follow up relevant information by the children in an adequate way. A number of clinical implications can be drawn from the results, particularly concerning the need for improvement in the quality of CSA interviews. There is convincing research regarding how to improve CSA interviews, notably through training forensic child interviewers to use a structured interviewing protocol, and providing them with continuous supervision and feedback. Allocating appropriate resources to improve the quality of forensic child interviews is a matter of protecting the rights of all persons involved in CSA investigations, in particular those of the children.

Evaluation of Location Intelligence exploitation in capital-intensive business

As technology has developed it has increased the number of data produced and collected from business environment. Over 80% of that data includes some sort of reference to geographical location. Individuals have used that information by utilizing Google Maps or different GPS devices, however such information has remained unexploited in business. This thesis will study the use and utilization of geographically referenced data in capital-intensive business by first providing theoretical insight into how data and data-driven management enables and enhances the business and how especially geographically referenced data adds value to the company and then examining empirical case evidence how geographical information can truly be exploited in capital-intensive business and what are the value adding elements of geographical information to the business. The study contains semi-structured interviews that are used to scan attitudes and beliefs of an organization towards the geographic information and to discover fields of applications for the use of geographic information system within the case company. Additionally geographical data is tested in order to illustrate how the data could be used in practice. Finally the outcome of the thesis provides understanding from which elements the added value of geographical information in business is consisted of and how such data can be utilized in the case company and in capital-intensive business.

Vertaileva tutkimus suomalaisten päivittäistavara kaupan alan yritysten likviditeetin hallinnasta vuosina 2009 - 2013

Tämän Pro gradu -tutkielman aiheena on tutkia suomalaisten päivittäistavarakaupan alan yritysten likviditeetin hallintaa vuosina 2009 - 2013. Tutkielmassa tutkitaan, millä tavalla suomalaisten päivittäistavarakaupan alan yritysten käyttöpääoman hallinta on muuttunut rajatulla ajanjaksolla. Lisäksi työssä tutkitaan millä tavoin valikoitujen yritysten kannattavuus, maksuvalmius ja vakavaraisuus ovat muuttuneet vuosina 2009 - 2013. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan myös, miten suomalainen päivittäistavarakauppa on kehittynyt tarkasteluajanjaksolla. Tutkimus on rajattu koskemaan neljää suurinta suomalaista päivittäistavarakaupan, pois lukien Lild Suomi Ky taloudellisten tietojen puuttumisen takia, alan ryhmittymää käyttäen kriteerinä vuoden 2013 päivittäistavaramyyntiä sekä markkinaosuuksia. Edellä mainittujen kriteerien perusteella tutkimukseen valikoitui seuraavat ryhmittymät: S-ryhmä, K-ryhmä, Suomen Lähikauppa Oy sekä Stockmann Oyj Abp.Teoriapohjaan tutkimuksessa käytetään aikaisempaa kirjallisuutta ja julkaistuja akateemisia tutkimuksia toimitusketjun ja sen hallinnasta, sekä käyttöpääomasta ja sen hallinnasta. Valikoitujen yritysten tilinpäätöstiedot on koottu Virre -tietokannasta ja toimiala tiedot tilastokeskuksen ohjelmalla PC -Axis 2008. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin käyttöpääomaprosentin ja quick ratio - tunnusluvun välillä pieniä yhtymäkohtia. Kun käyttöpääomaprosentti pienenee, quick ratio -tunnusluku paranee. Käyttöpääomaprosentin muutoksilla oli negatiivinen korrelaatio koko pääoman tuottoprosenttiin sekä liikevoittoprosenttiin. Tutkimuksen kohdeyritykset ovat pystyneet pitämään käyttöpääomaprosentin erilaisilla tehostamistoiminnoilla hyvin tasaisena tiukasta taloustilanteesta huolimatta.

Hiljaisen tietämyksen jakamista edistävät yksilötekijät työyhteisössä

Pro gradu -tutkielman tavoitteena oli tutkia yksilöiden välistä hiljaisen tietämyksen jakamista edistäviä tekijöitä. Yksilötason olosuhteiden tunteminen on tarpeen, jotta organisaation toteuttamat toimenpiteet hiljaisen tietämyksen jakamisen tehostamiseksi ovat tarkoituksenmukaisesti kohdennettuja. Työn teoriaosuudessa keskityttiin tarkastelemaan hiljaisen tietämyksen olemusta sekä hiljaisen tietämyksen jakamista yksilöiden välillä. Tutkielman empiirisessä osuudessa edellä mainittuja tekijöitä tarkasteltiin käytännössä ja pyrittiin selvittämään miten yksilön motivaatioon, mahdollisuuksiin, kykyihin sekä kommunikaatioon liittyvät tekijät edistävät hiljaisen tietämyksen jakamista työyhteisössä. Tutkimuksen kohteena oli erityisesti työtehtävissä esiintyvä hiljainen tietämys ja sen jakamiseen liittyvät yksilötason tekijät. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin haastattelujen ja kyselylomakkeiden avulla. Tutkimuksen perusteella saatiin selkeä kuva siitä, millaiset motivaatioon, mahdollisuuksiin ja kykyihin liittyvät tekijät edistävät hiljaisen tietämyksen jakamista sekä millainen kommunikaatio tukee sitä. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittivat, että MOA-tekijät ovat merkittävästi vaikuttamassa yksilöiden väliseen hiljaisen tietämyksen jakamiseen. Tulokset tukivat pääosin aiempaa tutkimusta, mutta tuottivat samalla tieteellistä lisäarvoa tuomalla esiin yksityiskohtaisempia havaintoja eri tekijöiden vaikutuksesta hiljaisen tietämyksen jakamiseen. Erityisesti esiin nousivat yksilöiden väliset hyöty- ja etäisyysnäkökulmat.

Motivations behind clicking the share-button

The main objective of this study is to examine the motivations behind sharing information and other content in social media. The goal was also to research how social media has changed information sharing behavior online. The theoretical part of the study covers social media marketing, motivations and Rioux’s framework of Information-Acquiring–and-Sharing in Internet environments. Marketer’s abilities to influence information sharing is explained through the MOA-model. The empirical research was conducted by using deductive research methods to assess Rioux’s framework of IA&S behavior in social media. This study included interviews of 12 respondents. The data was collected and analyzed by using qualitative research methods. This study confirms Rioux’s findings. Everyday information needs motivate information acquiring behavior. The findings show that social and emotional needs for maintaining relationships and the need for participation are considered as the most important internal motivations of sharing information and other content on social media. External motivations include expectations of others, environmental norms, and opportunities to win money. Social media strengthens the motivation for sharing information by offering a platform for satisfying these needs. It has also increased information sharing online due to its ease of use.