The potential of social networking sites in inpatriate adjustment

People make up one of the most important resources for a corporation and therefore it has to continuously seek an ever more diverse and international workforce. Inpatriation is another way of utilizing foreign expertise in a corporation. An inpatriate refers to a person that is on an international assignment at the headquarters of a corporation, where they have been sent either from a subsidiary abroad or from a third country outside the corporation. Strengthening the social network of the inpatriate and their family contributes to the adjustment process and furthermore the success of the work assignment. As social networking sites are currently the fastest developing personal networking tools in the world, it is interesting to see how they can help in inpatriate adjustment. The objective of this thesis is to explore the potential of social networking sites (SNS) in inpatriate adjustment. The main objective can be divided into three sub objectives: 1. What is SNS used for during the inpatriate assignment? 2. What are the inpatriates’ motivations to use SNS? 3. Could the three facets of adjustment (work, interaction and general) be gained through SNS? This qualitative study utilizes the theme interview data collection method and the thematic analysis approach for analysing the interview data. From the interviews with five Indian inpatriates in Finland the most mentioned uses of SNS were related to participating (sharing opinions, recommendations and discussing things and connecting to friends, family and colleagues) and consuming (collecting information for work and free time), the least mentioned use of SNS was producing (posting videos, photos and updates). An interesting finding was that the five interviewees did not use SNS for purely entertainment motives at all during their assignment. This thesis found that all three facets of adjustment could potentially be gained through SNS.

Social Networking Sites as a part of Medical Device Manufacturer's Marketing Communications

The purpose of the thesis is to examine how a medical device manufacturer can exploit social networking sites as a part of its everyday marketing communications. The ultimate goal is to create an ideal process of developing marketing communications in social networking sites as a medical device manufacturer with the help of theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience. Theoretical part examines the traditional process of developing marketing communications, defines social networking sites and presents marketing activities carried out on these sites as well as introduces the characteristics of healthcare technology industry. Empirical part is collected through participation in medical device manufacturer’s marketing operations and by observing effects of different factors and actions on social media marketing. In addition, completed interviews and a meeting with company’s personnel have been utilized for data collection. This part offers comprehensive information on the examined company’s current marketing operations, industry, and activities carried out on social networking sites. As a result of the thesis a comprehensive process description of integrating and using social networking sites as a part of company’s marketing communications was formed. With the help of the process description factors and actions which have an effect on marketing operations in social networking sites are presented and methods for further developing these activities are introduced.

Social Networking on Mobile Environment on top of PeerHood

Social networking and social networking sites have gained popularity among internet users during the past few years. Social networks fulfill the need of users to stay connected to friends and other people interested in the same issues. Combining social networks to the mobile environment is a growing interest of mobile device users as it allows the users to be in their online social community despite their mobility. This thesis highlights the basics of mobile environment, social networking and PeerHood and introduces a new approach of social networking on mobile environment, which is a new concept in mobile social networking. This approach is based on dynamic group discovery in accordance to some common user interests and management in the PeerHood environment. A reference implementation of a social networking application built on top of PeerHood is presented and it is tested and analyzed to understand the social networking on mobile environment and the new concept of dynamic group discovery in it.

Predicting the need for ditch network maintenance in drained peatland sites in Finland

Kunnostusojitustarpeen ennustaminen ojitusalueilla

Absorptive capacity and the effect of social integration mechanisms in knowledge utilization

Tiedosta on tullut määräävä tekijä yrityksensuorituskyvylle. Yritykset hankkivat aktiivisesti uutta tietoa ulkoisesta ympäristöstään ja tallentavat sitä tietokantoihinsa. Uusi tieto on innovaatioiden ja uusien ideoiden peruselementti. Uudet ideat pitää myös kaupallistaa, jotta niiden avulla voidaan hankkia kilpailuetua. Absorptiivisen kapasiteetin malli yhdistää tiedon prosessointiin liittyvät kyvykkyydet, jotka vaikuttavat yrityksen kykyyn hyödyntää tietoa tehokkaasti. Ennen kuin tietoa voidaan käyttää uusien tuotteiden ja palveluiden luomiseen, täytyy sitä jakaa yrityksessä ja muuttaa se yrityksen toimintaa palvelevaksi. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa innovaatiot ovat vahvasti liitetty yrityksen kykyyn uudistua. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma tutkii sosiaalisten integraatiomekanismien vaikutusta potentiaalisen absorptiivisen kapasiteetin muuttamiseen toteutuneeksi absorptiiviseksi kapasiteetiksi. Yksilöiden ja osastojen välisen yhteistyön sekä luottamuksen vaikutus tiedon sisäistämiseen tutkittiin. Tutkielma pohjautuu monikansallisessa yrityksessä keväällä 2006 suoritettuun uudistumiskyky-tutkimukseen. Tutkielma keskittyy yrityksen kykyyn uudistua uuden tiedon ja innovaatioiden avulla. Tutkielma on kvantitatiivinen tapaustutkimus. Tutkielmassa tehtyjen havaintojen mukaan sosiaaliset integraatiomekanismit ovat tärkeitä uuden tiedon hyödyntämisessä. Tiedon eksplisiittyyden havaitaan vaikuttavan tiedon muuttamiseen yritykselle hyödylliseksi resurssiksi.

Sosiaaliset verkkoyhteisöt osana teollisyrityksen markkinointiviestintää

Tämän kandidaatintyön tarkoituksena oli löytää selkeitä rooleja sosiaalisille verkkoyhteisöille osana teollisyrityksen markkinointiviestintää. Lisäksi työssä pyrittiin selvittämään kuinka teollisyrityksen erityispiirteet vaikuttavat sosiaalisissa verkkoyhteisöissä tehtyyn markkinointiviestintään ja kuinka sosiaalisissa verkkoyhteisöissä tehtyjä toimia voidaan mitata. Teoriaosassa käytiin läpi aiheeseen liittyviä käsitteitä sosiaalisten verkkoyhteisöjen, markkinointiviestinnän, teollisen markkinoinnin erityispiirteiden ja mittaamisen osalta. Käytännön osassa teoriaosan tietoja käytiin läpi esimerkkiyrityksen kautta. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin teoriaosassa kirjallisuuskatsauksena ja käytännön osuudessa tarkastelemalla lisäksi sosiaalista verkkoyhteisösivustoa. Tutkimustuloksista nähdään mihin markkinointiviestintämixin tehtäviin sosiaaliset verkkoyhteisöt sopivat teollisyrityksissä. Analysoidessa tehtäviä tutkimus osoittaa missä tehtävissä sosiaalisten verkkoyhteisöjen käytöllä voidaan tukeaperinteisiä kanavia ja missä ne voivat korvata perinteiset kanavat. Tämän lisäksi esitellään kuinka sosiaalisissa verkkoyhteisöissä tehtyjä toimia voidaan mitata ja kuinka mittaustulokset auttavat teollisyrityksiä sosiaalisien verkkoyhteisöjen roolin määrittämisessä osaksi markkinointiviestintämixiä. Esimerkkiyrityksen ja esiteltyjen teorioiden kautta muut teollisyritykset voivat saada itselleen suuntaviivoja siitä, kuinka sosiaalisissa verkkoyhteisöissä tulisi toimia.

Social entrepreneurship – Believe in it or not!

The practice of social entrepreneurship already exists for a long time but the concept is quite new and has more recently raised a growing interest among academics. However, the majority of researches and considerations about the subject have taken a strong positive concern by omitting some sort of a critical reflection. The idea of this study is to consider the gap between the very optimistic and the more precautious concerns about social entrepreneurship. It means presenting the advantages and downsides connected to the topic in the business, public and third sector. The aim is to help the reader building his/her own belief on social entrepreneurship by considering the positive and negative sides of social entrepreneurship. Hence, the research is intended to take a critical step and aims to answer to the following research questions:  Shall we believe in social entrepreneurship?  What are the reasons for believing or not in social entrepreneurship taking into account the advantages and possible risks of it in the business, public, and third sector? The theoretical framework consists of the comparison between the promising and precautious sides about social entrepreneurship for private, public and non-governmental organizations including the actors or participants inside these sectors. The empirical part is conducted using a qualitative method. Personal interviews of experts in the fields of business, public and third sectors were handled. The purpose of this approach is to compare the critics in theory with the experience of persons dealing with social entrepreneurship. The results from the interviews revealed that in general, reasons for believing in social entrepreneurship prevail over critics about the subject. Social entrepreneurship may not yet represent a full performing business. Concerns for weakening the public power and putting aside the interests of communities in need may exist too. Furthermore, naïve and extra liberal ways of thinking or doing can lead to practices going in opposition with initial social objectives. Nevertheless, problems about social entrepreneurship would be mainly due to the young age of the movement. Time and experience would give better foundations and results to social entrepreneurs. Critics about social entrepreneurship could also easily be done to any sorts of business. Overall, the positive considerations of social entrepreneurship with skillful, motivated and responsible actors could represent some useful tools for enterprises, governments and charities. Some tools among many other possibilities to help people in need.

Understanding Online Game Players' Post-adoption Behavior: an Investigation of Social Network Games in China

Retaining players and re-attracting switching players has long been a central topic for SNG providers with regard to the post-adoption stage of playing an online game. However, there has not been much research which has explored players’ post-adoption behavior by incorporating the continuance intention and the switching intention. In addition, traditional IS continuance theories were mainly developed to investigate users’ continued use of utilitarian IS, and thus they may fall short when trying to explain the continued use of hedonic IS. Furthermore, compared to the richer literature on IS continuance, far too little attention has been paid to IS switching, leading to a dearth of knowledge on the subject, despite the increased incidence of the switching phenomenon in the IS field. By addressing the limitations of prior literature, this study seeks to examine the determinants of SNG players’ two different post-adoption behaviors, including the continuance intention and the switching intention. This study takes a positivist approach and uses survey research method to test five proposed research models based on Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2; Use and Gratification Theory; Push-Pull-Mooring model; Cognitive Dissonance Theory; and a self-developed model respectively with empirical data collected from the SNG players of one of the biggest SNG providers in China. A total of 3919 valid responses and 541 valid responses were used to examine the continuance intention and the switching intention, respectively. SEM is utilized as the data analysis method. The proposed research models are supported by the empirical data. The continuance intention is determined by enjoyment, fantasy, escapism, social interaction, social presence, social influence, achievement and habit. The switching intention is determined by enjoyment, satisfaction, subjective norms, descriptive norms, alternative attractiveness, the need for variety, change experience, and adaptation cost. This study contributes to IS theories in three important ways. Firstly, it shows IS switching should be included in IS post-adoption research together with IS continuance. Secondly, a modern IS is usually multi-functional and SNG players have multiple reasons for using a SNG, thus a player’s beliefs about the hedonic, social and utilitarian perceptions of their continued use of the SNG exert significant effects on the continuance intention. Thirdly, the determinants of the switch ing intention mainly exert push, pull, and mooring effects. Players’ beliefs about their current SNG and the available alternatives, as well as their individual characteristics are all significant determinants of the switching intention. SNG players combine these effects in order to formulate the switching intention. Finally, this study presents limitations and suggestions for future research.