Get your website noticed How to reach, acquire and retain customers online

The Internet has developed itself as a major tool in marketing. With the advent of the Internet, online marketing has become the main marketing strategy used by most companies to promote their products. However, with the Internet, competition among companies has increased as each company has an opportunity to reach the same type of potential consumers through the Internet. This implies that for a company to attract and retain customers, it has to employ unique features in its website in order to make it stand out. This study was aimed at determining the features of a company’s website which can help to attract and retain customers. It was also meant to find out about the online marketing strategies that can be used to attract customers at the initial stage as well as find out on how companies engage their customers on their site. In this study, the qualitative method of research was used. Data collection was done using interviews. The interviewees were selected from marketing agencies in Finland

The role of trust in business-to-business customer relationship

Pro gradu -tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää, mikä on luottamuksen rooli B2B-asiakassuhteessa. Mitkä ovat B2B-suhteen ominaispiirteet, mikä on luottamuksen rooli ja luonne ja mikä on luottamuksen dynamiikka B2B-asiakassuhteessa. Tavoitteisiin on pyritty laadullisen tutkimuksen avulla. Aineisto kerättiin haastatteluilla ja analysointiin manuaalisesti teemoittain. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että B2B-asiakassuhde on vaativa yhteistyömuoto, joka tarjoaa molemmille osapuolille hyötyjä sekä mahdollisuuksia kehittyä ja menestyä. Luottamus on suhteen ja menestyksellisen yhteistyön perusedellytys. Se perustuu hyvään mainee-seen, yhteiseen historiaan ja kokemuksiin ja sitä tarvitaan erityisesti viestinnässä, oppimisessa ja ongelmanratkaisussa. Henkilökohtaisten kontaktien ja partnereiden välisen henkilökemian lisäksi tehokkaimmat tavat rakentaa luottamusta ovat lupausten pitäminen jaerinomainen päivittäinen liiketoiminta asiakkaan kanssa.

Waste-to-Energy Scenarios in the China Context

Waste incineration plants are increasingly established in China. A low heating value and high moisture content, due to a large proportion of biowaste in the municipal solid waste (MSW), can be regarded as typical characteristics of Chinese MSW. Two incineration technologies have been mainly established in China: stoker grate and circular fluidized bed (CFB). Both of them are designed to incinerate mixed MSW. However, there have been difficulties to reach the sufficient temperature in the combustion process due to the low heating value of the MSW. That is contributed to the usage of an auxiliary fossil fuel, which is often used during the whole incineration process. The objective of this study was to design alternative Waste-to-energy (WTE) scenarios for existing WTE plants with the aim to improve the material and energy efficiency as well as the feasibility of the plants. Moreover, the aim of this thesis was to find the key factors that affect to the feasibility of the scenarios. Five different WTE plants were selected as study targets. The necessary data for calculation was gained from literature as well as received from the operators of the target WTE plants. The created scenarios were based on mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) technologies, in which the produced solid recovered fuel (SRF) was fed as an auxiliary fuel into a WTE plant replacing the fossil fuel. The mechanically separated biowaste was treated either in an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, a biodrying plant, a thermal drying plant, or a combined AD plant + thermal drying plant. An interactive excel spreadsheet based computation tool was designed to estimate the viability of the scenarios in different WTE cases. The key figures of the improved material and energy efficiency, such as additional electricity generated and avoided waste for landfill, were got as results. Furthermore, economic indicators such as annual profits (or costs), payback period, and internal rate of return (IRR) were gained as results. The results show that the AD scenario was the most profitable in most of the cases. The current heating value of MSW and the tipping fee for the received MSW appeared as the most important factor in terms of feasibility.

Invenio as a platform to implement the SCOAP3 Repository

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

How to reach more potential global b2b customers to Finnish high tech company websites

This thesis examines the optimization of a website in terms of creating website visibility and interesting and attractive online information, with the aim of finding ways how the case company can increase the number of online visitors for the websites, who would even-tually contact the case company, and become customers. The theoretical part concentrates on website visibility, academic knowledge about search engine optimization, integrated marketing communications, website effectiveness and influence tactics (mostly non-coercive) in an online b2b buying context. The empirical part included an experiment of two weeks on the case website. Search engine optimization requires the most relevant key terms and keywords to be selected and carefully implemented to meta descriptions of the most informational pages. The information visible to visitors on these pages was also opti-mized to make it interesting and purposeful for the targeted audience. The most suitable influence tactics were implemented to certain pages to attract the website visitors to con-tact the case company. The results suggest that relevant key terms in meta descriptions do improve, or maintain the same high, ranking a page has on search engine result pages, but this is not directly connected to the amount of visitors to the website. The number of visi-tors does not either affect the amount of customer contacts the company received during the experiment period.

Timing incorporation of different green manure crops to minimize the risk of nitrogen leaching

Selostus: Viherlannoituskasvuston kynnön viivyttäminen vähentää typen huuhtoutumista

Market entry order and competitive advantage of the firm

A firm that wishes to launch a new product to the market is faced with a difficult task of deciding what the best moment for the launch is. Timing may also be critical when a firm plans to adopt new processes or intends to head for new markets. The critical question the firm needs to tackle is whether it will try to reach the so-called first-mover advantage by acting earlier than its rivals. The first-mover position may reward the entrant with various opportunities to gain competitive advantage over later movers. However, there are also great risks involved in the early market entry, and sometimes the very first entrant fails even before the followers enter the market. The follower, on the other hand, may be able to free-ride on the earlier entrants' investments and gain from the languished uncertainties that characterize the new markets. According to the current understanding the occurrence of entry order advantages depends not only on the mechanism and attributes in the firm's environment that provide the initial opportunities but also on the firm's ability to capitalize on these advantage opportunities. This study contributes to this discussion by analyzing the linkages between the asset base of the firm, characteristics of the operating environment and the firm's entry timing orientation. To shed light on the relationship between the entry timing strategy and competitive advantage, this study utilizes the concept of entry timing orientation. The rationale for choosing this type of approach arises from the inability of previously employed research tools to reach the underlying factors that result in entry timing advantage. The work consists of an introductory theoretical discussion on entry timing advantages and of four research publication. The empirical findings support the understanding that entry timing advantage is related to the characteristics of the firm's operating environment but may also be related to firm-specific factors. This in turn suggests that some of the traditional ways of detecting and measuring first-mover advantage - which to some extent ignore these dimensions - may be outdated.

Challenges in packaging waste management: A case study in the fast food industry

The main research problem of this thesis is to find out the means of promoting the recovery of packaging waste generated in thefast food industry. The recovery of packaging waste generated in the fast food industry is demanded by the packaging waste legislation and expected by the public. The means are revealed by the general factors influencing the recovery of packaging waste, analysed by a multidisciplinary literature review and a case study focusing on the packaging waste managementof McDonald's Oy operating in Finland. The existing solid waste infrastructure does not promote the recovery ofpackaging waste generated in the fast food industry. The theoretical recovery rate of the packaging waste is high, 93 %, while the actual recovery rate is only 29 % consisting of secondary packaging manufactured from cardboard. The total recovery potential of packaging waste is 64 %, resulting in 1 230 tonnes ofrecoverable packaging waste. The achievable recovery potential of 33 %, equalling 647 tonnes of packaging waste could be recovered, but is not recovered mainly because of non-working waste management practises. The theoretical recovery potential of 31 %, equalling 583 tonnes of packaging waste can not be recovered by the existing solid waste infrastructure because of the obscure status of commecial waste, the improper operation ofproducer organisations, and the municipal autonomy. The sorting experiment indicated that it is possible to reach the achievable recovery potential inthe existing solid waste infrastructure. The achievement is promoted by waste producer -oriented waste management practises. The theoretical recovery potential can be reached by increasing the consistency of the solid waste infrastructure through governmental action.

Propagation of the Ignition Front against Airflow in Packed Beds of Wood Particles

Combustion of wood is increasing because of the needs of decreasing the emissions of carbon dioxide and the amount of waste going to landfills. Wood based fuels are often scattered on a large area. The transport distances should be short enough to prevent too high costs, and so the size of heating and power plants using wood fuels is often rather small. Combustion technologies of small-size units have to be developed to reach efficient and environmentally friendly energy production. Furnaces that use different packed bed combustion or gasification techniques areoften most economic in small-scale energy production. Ignition front propagation rate affects the stability, heat release rate and emissions of packed bed combustion. Ignition front propagation against airflow in packed beds of wood fuels has been studied. The research has been carried out mainly experimentally. Theoretical aspects have been considered to draw conclusions about the experimental results. The effects of airflow rate, moisture content of the fuel, size, shape and density of particles, and porosity of the bed on the propagation rate of the ignition front have been studied. The experiments were carried out in a pot furnace. The fuels used in the experiments were mainly real wood fuels that are often burned in the production of energy. The fuel types were thin wood chips, saw dust, shavings, wood chips, and pellets with different sizes. Also a few mixturesof the above were tested. Increase in the moisture content of the fuel decreases the propagation rates of the ignition front and makes the range of possible airflow rates narrower because of the energy needed for the evaporation of water and the dilution of volatile gases due to evaporated steam. Increase in the airflow rate increases the ignition rate until a maximum rate of propagation is reached after which it decreases. The maximum flame propagation rate is not always reached in stoichiometric combustion conditions. Increase in particle size and density transfers the optimum airflow rate towards fuel lean conditions. Mixing of small and large particles is often advantageous, because small particles make itpossible to reach the maximum ignition rate in fuel rich conditions, and large particles widen the range of possible airflow rates. A correlation was found forthe maximum rate of ignition front propagation in different wood fuels. According to the correlation, the maximum ignition mass flux is increased when the sphericity of the particles and the porosity of the bed are increased and the moisture content of the fuel is decreased. Another fit was found between sphericity and porosity. Increase in sphericity decreases the porosity of the bed. The reasons of the observed results are discussed.

The natives of Torneå Lapmark, afsembled at Enontekis to witness the launching the first balloon within the Arctic Circle

E. D. Clarken retkikunta lennätti kuumailmapalloa Enontekiöllä heinäkuussa 1799. - Digitoitu valokuvasta, joka julkaistu kirjassa: R. Knapas & P. Koistinen: Historiallisia kuvia, 1993.