Understanding the Racial Nature of Police and Immigrant Relations In Finland. The Case of Africans in Turku

The focus of this study is to examine the role of police and immigrants’ relations, as less is known about this process in the country. The studies were approached in two different ways. Firstly, an attempt was made to examine how immigrants view their encounters with the police. Secondly, the studies explored how aware the police are of immigrants’ experiences in their various encounters and interactions on the street level. An ancillary aim of the studies is to clarify, analyse and discuss how prejudice and stereotypes can be tackled, thereby contributing to the general debate about racism and discrimination for better ethnic relations in the country. The data in which this analysis was based is on a group of adults (n=88) from the total of 120 Africans questioned for the entire study (n=45) police cadets and (n=6) serving police officers from Turku. The present thesis is a compilation of five articles. A summary of each article findings follows, as the same data was used in all five studies. In the first study, a theoretical model was developed to examine the perceived knowledge of bias by immigrants resulting from race, culture and belief. This was also an attempt to explore whether this knowledge was predetermined in my attempt to classify and discuss as well as analyse the factors that may be influencing immigrants’ allegations of unfair treatment by the police in Turku. The main finding shows that in the first paper there was ignorance and naivety on the part of the police in their attitudes towards the African immigrant’s prior experiences with the police, and this may probably have resulted from stereotypes or their lack of experience as well as prior training with immigrants where these kinds of experience are rampant in the country (Egharevba, 2003 and 2004a). In exploring what leads to stereotypes, a working definition is the assumption that is prevalent among some segments of the population, including the police, that Finland is a homogenous country by employing certain conducts and behaviour towards ethnic and immigrant groups in the country. This to my understanding is stereotype. Historically this was true, but today the social topography of the country is changing and becoming even more complex. It is true that, on linguistic grounds, the country is multilingual, as there are a few recognised national minority languages (Swedish, Sami and Russian) as well as a number of immigrant languages including English. Apparently it is vital for the police to have a line of communication open when addressing the problem associated with immigrants in the country. The second paper moved a step further by examining African immigrants’ understanding of human rights as well as what human rights violation means or entails in their views as a result of their experiences with the police, both in Finland and in their country of origin. This approach became essential during the course of the study, especially when the participants were completing the questionnaire (N=88), where volunteers were solicited for a later date for an in-depth interview with the author. Many of the respondents came from countries where human rights are not well protected and seldom discussed publicly, therefore understanding their views on the subject can help to explain why some of the immigrants are sceptical about coming forward to report cases of batteries and assaults to the police, or even their experiences of being monitored in shopping malls in their new home and the reason behind their low level of trust in public authorities in Finland. The study showed that knowledge of human rights is notably low among some of the participants. The study also found that female respondents were less aware of human rights when compared with their male counterparts. This has resulted in some of the male participants focussing more on their traditional ways of thinking by not realising that they are in a new country where there is equality in sexes and lack of respect on gender terms is not condoned. The third paper focussed on the respondents’ experiences with the police in Turku and tried to explore police attitudes towards African immigrant clients, in addition to the role stereotype plays in police views of different cultures and how these views have impacted on immigrants’ views of discriminatory policing in Turku. The data is the same throughout the entire studies (n=88), except that some few participants were interviewed for the third paper thirty-five persons. The results showed that there is some bias in mass-media reports on the immigrants’ issues, due to selective portrayal of biases without much investigation being carried out before jumping to conclusions, especially when the issues at stake involve an immigrant (Egharevba, 2005a; Egharevba, 2004a and 2004b). In this vein, there was an allegation that the police are even biased while investigating cases of theft, especially if the stolen property is owned by an immigrant (Egharevba, 2006a, Egharevba, 2006b). One vital observation from the respondents’ various comments was that race has meaning in their encounters and interaction with the police in the country. This result led the author to conclude that the relation between the police and immigrants is still a challenge, as there is rampant fear and distrust towards the police by some segments of the participating respondents in the study. In the fourth paper the focus was on examining the respondents’ view of the police, with special emphasis on race and culture as well as the respondents’ perspective on police behaviour in Turku. This is because race, as it was relayed to me in the study, is a significant predictor of police perception (Egharevba, 2005a; Egharevba and Hannikianen, 2005). It is a known scientific fact that inter-group racial attitudes are the representation of group competition and perceived threat to power and status (Group-position theory). According to Blumer (1958) a sense of group threat is an essential element for the emergence of racial prejudice. Consequently, it was essential that we explored the existing relationship between the respondents and the police in order to have an understanding of this concept. The result indicates some local and international contextual issues and assumptions that were of importance tackling prejudice and discrimination as it exists within the police in the country. Moreover, we have to also remember that, for years, many of these African immigrants have been on the receiving end of unjust law enforcement in their various countries of origin, which has resulted in many of them feeling inferior and distrustful of the police even in their own country of origin. While discussing the issues of cultural difference and how it affects policing, we must also keep in mind the socio-cultural background of the participants, their level of language proficiency and educational background. The research data analysed in this study also confirmed the difficulties associated with cultural misunderstandings in interpreting issues and how these misunderstandings have affected police and immigrant relations in Finland. Finally, the fifth paper focussed on cadets’ attitudes towards African immigrants as well as serving police officers’ interaction with African clients. Secondly, the police level of awareness of African immigrants’ distrustfulness of their profession was unclear. For this reason, my questions in this fifth study examined the experiences and attitudes of police cadets and serving police officers as well as those of African immigrants in understanding how to improve this relationship in the country. The data was based on (n=88) immigrant participants, (n=45) police cadets and 6 serving police officers from the Turku police department. The result suggests that there is distrust of the police in the respondents’ interaction; this tends to have galvanised a heightened tension resulting from the lack of language proficiency (Egharevba and White, 2007; Egharevba and Hannikainen, 2005, and Egharevba, 2006b) The result also shows that the allegation of immigrants as being belittled by the police stems from the misconceptions of both parties as well as the notion of stop and search by the police in Turku. All these factors were observed to have contributed to the alleged police evasiveness and the lack of regular contact between the respondents and the police in their dealings. In other words, the police have only had job-related contact with many of the participants in the present study. The results also demonstrated the complexities caused by the low level of education among some of the African immigrants in their understanding about the Finnish culture, norms and values in the country. Thus, the framework constructed in these studies embodies diversity in national culture as well as the need for a further research study with a greater number of respondents (both from the police and immigrant/majority groups), in order to explore the different role cultures play in immigrant and majority citizens’ understanding of police work.

Technical Aspects of Internet-Shopping, Comparative study in Finland/Russia

Isot ja keskikokoiset yritykset harkitsevat sähköistä kaupankäyntiä Internetissä, Internet - kauppojen muodossa. Organisaatiot pyrkivät kilpailukykyiseen ja moderniin tyyliin kaupankäynnissä sekä yrityksen eri prosessien automatisointiin. Yrityksen on onnistuttava uusimpien tekniikoiden ja työkalujen omaksumisessa kilpailukykynsä parantamiseksi. Sähköinen kaupankäynti on suhteellisen uusi tekniikka, joka mahdollistaa kaupankäynnin esittämisen uudessa, sähköisessä muodossa. Tämä työ sisältää katsauksen yrityksen mahdollisiin sähköisen kaupankäynnin eri muotoihin. Työ sisältää mahdollisia ratkaisuja Internet-kaupan rakentamiseen, sähköisen kaupankäynnin hallintaan sekä erityyppisten Internet- kauppojen kuvauksia. Sähköisen kaupankäynnin ongelmat ovat myös tarkastelussa. Välttämättömät asiat sähköisen kaupankäynnin perustamiseksi on lueteltu. Työn kokeellinen osuus sisältää vertailututkimusta sähköisen kaupankäynnin muodoista Suomessa ja Venäjällä. Sähköisen kaupankäynnin ongelmat, niiden mahdolliset ratkaisut, eroavaisuudet sekä samankaltaisuudet molempien maiden välillä on esitetty tässä työssä. Työssä on arvioitu Internet-kaupan kehittämistä sekä edistämistä esimerkein. Tutkimuksen tulokset on esitetty.

Older Consumers’ Adoption of Online Shopping

The thesis is concerned with the online shopping behavior of older adults, who in this study are at least 60 years old. At the moment, the population is ageing and consumers are buying more and more via the Internet. The objective of the thesis is to understand the large group of older adults in Finland as online customers.The study explores older consumers’ adoption of online shopping with a qualitative research, and it is situated in the research tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology. Phenomenology focuses on the life-world of people. The empirical data was collected by three focus groups with 13 participants altogether. The focus group conversations brought forth that there is not tremendous difference in the motives of older consumers to shop online compared to other age groups. The study strengthened the previous conception of a change toward more ageless market. However, online stores should be designed to accommodate some special needs of older consumers as they occasionally struggle with the logic of websites. Finnish older consumers have adopted online shopping because of perceived convenience and because of tolerable perceived risk during first online shopping experience. Positive experiences strengthen positive attitude toward electronic channel.

Hinnoittelu yrityksen kannattavuuden kehittämisessä

Diplomityössä tutkittiin hinnoittelun merkitystä yrityksen kannattavuuden kehittämisessä. Työn teoriaosassa selvitettiin pöytätutkimuksena hinnoittelun ja kannattavuuden keskeiset tekijät Lifetime Oy:n liiketoiminnan kannalta. Kilpailukykyisen liiketoiminnan kehittämiseksi suoritettiin markkinatutkimuskysely 1857 yrityksen päättäjälle. Saatujen tulosten perusteella(N=132) Lifetime Oy:n Liiketoimintamallit jaoteltiin (B-to-C), (SOT), ja (B-to-B) Liiketoimintamalleihin, brandeihin, kanaviin, ja asiakassegmentteihin. Diplomityön empiriaosuuden muodostivat markkinointitutkimussekä kauppakeskushankkeet Lifetime Value ShopTM 2007 Edition, ja pieniomenaTM.com, sekä näihin liittyvien brandien ja segmenttikohtaisten hinnoittelustrategioiden luominen.

Kauppakeskuksen laadunhallintajärjestelmän laatiminen ISO 9001:2000-standardin avulla

Työn tavoitteena on laatia laadunhallintajärjestelmä ja laatukäsikirja kauppakeskus H-taloon ISO 9001:2000 standardia hyväksi käyttäen. Käsikirjassa kuvataan mahdollisimman yksinkertaisesti toimintaa ohjaavat periaatteet eli yrityksen laatupolitiikka, yrityksen eri prosessit, menettelyohjeet ja laadun toteamiseksi tarvittavat mittarit. Perimmäisenä tarkoituksena on käynnistää jatkuvan parantamisen prosessi ja näin parantaa kauppakeskuksen pitkän tähtäimen suorituskykyä. Työn teoreettisessa osassa tutustutaan laadun merkitykseen ja palveluliiketoiminnan logiikkaan. Keskeisenä teoriana käytetään odotetun ja koetun laadun muodostamaa koettua kokonaislaatua, jota sovelletaan kauppakeskusympäristöön. Lopuksi tutustutaan ISO 9000 standardisarjaan. Seuraavassa osassa H-talon tarjoamien toimitilapalveluiden nykytilaa kartoitetaan kauppakeskuksen yrittäjille tehdyssä kyselyssä. Kysely toteutettiin kauppakeskusympäristöön muokatulla odotetun ja koetun palvelun laadun eroa mittaavalla SERVQUAL-mentelmällä. Lisäksi apuna käytettiin kriittisten tapahtumien menetelmää. Lopuksi laaditaan runko kauppakeskuksen laadunhallintajärjestelmään ja pohditaan toimenpiteitä järjestelmän käyttöön ottamiseksi ja kehittämiseksi. Kauppakeskuksen laatukäsikirja esitetään liitteenä.

Suomalaisten Internet-kauppojen palvelutaso

Työn tavoitteena oli selvittää Suomalaisten Internet-kauppojen palvelutasoa. Ensin tehtiin tutkimus, jossa mitattiin eri muuttujia, jotka vaikuttavat kaupan palvelutasoon. Internet-kaupasta ostettiin tuote ja kun tuote oli saapunut, se palautettiin takaisin kauppiaalle. Tutkimusosuus päättyi siihen, kun kauppias oli palauttanut rahat asiakkaan tilille. Tutkimuksen jälkeen kerätty data analysoitiin ja etsittiin mahdollisia ongelmia koko ostoprosessista. Ongelmakohtiin tehtiin vaihtoehtoisia ratkaisumalleja, joiden avulla pyritään löytämään paras toimintatapa kussakin tilanteessa. Ongelmina esille tulivat koodausvirheet kauppojen sivuilla, kuolleiden linkkien määrä Solo-torin portaalissa, kauppiaan osoitetietojen puuttuminen kaupan sivuilta ja kuluttajansuojalain kiertäminen tuotteen palautusoikeuden osalta. Pääratkaisuvaihtoehdot ongelmien osalta ovat parempi kuluttajansuojalakien noudattaminen tai toisaalta viranomaisten taholta tarkempi valvonta ja toisaalta Solo-torin linkkien tarkistus tasaisin väliajoin ja osoitetietojen päivitys Internet-kauppojen sivuille.

Asiakaslähtöisen myyntiprosessin kehittäminen myyntitilanteessa kuluttajamarkkinoilla: Case Firma Oy

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää henkilökohtaisen myyntityön myyntiprosessia ja myyjän asiakaslähtöisyyttä kuluttajamarkkinoilla. Aiempi tutkimus on kirjallisuudessa keskittynyt enemmän B2B- markkinoiden myyntiprosessiin, joten tutkimuksen tekeminen voidaan nähdä perusteltuna. Tutkimuksen kohteena oli päivittäistavaramarkkinoilla toimiva ketju, jonka viihde-elektroniikan osaston toimintaa tutkittiin haastattelemalla neljää yrityksessä työskentelevää henkilöä. Henkilöt toimivat eri toimipaikoissa ja tehtävissä, minkä avulla pyrittiin saavuttamaan kokonaisvaltaisempi kuva yrityksen toiminnasta. Lisäksi myyntiosastoilla suoritettiin mysteeriostamista asiakaslähtöisyyden selvittämiseksi. Tutkimuksen johtopäätöksenä huomattiin, että asiakaslähtöisen myynnin saavuttamiseksi myyjien tulisi keskittyä myyntiprosessissa kunnollisen tarvekartoituksen tekemiseen ja ehdotettava ratkaisua rohkeammin asiakkaalle. Yrityksen tulisi painottaa näiden vaiheiden tärkeyttä myyjille, sillä molempien osapuolien voidaan nähdä hyötyvän erityisesti kunnollisen tarvekartoituksen tekemisestä. Myyjien tulisi myös panostaa kokonaisuuksien ja ratkaisujen myymiseen myyntityössä. Tutkimus myös esittää yritykselle käytännön kehitysideoita, jotka keskittyvät myyjien motivoimiseen, tuoteosaamisen lisäämiseen, osto- ja myyntiosastojen toiminnan lähentämiseen sekä henkilökohtaisen palveluajan tarjoamiseen asiakkaille.

Venäjän talouden vaikutukset venäläisten matkailuun Etelä-Karjalassa

Etelä-Karjala on viime vuosina saanut osakseen merkittävää kasvua venäläisistä matkailijoista. Tax free -myynti on Lappeenrannassa Suomen toiseksi suurinta, heti Helsingin jälkeen. Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena oli selvittää, mitkä muuttujat vaikuttavat venäläisten ostoskäyttäytymiseen Etelä-Karjalan alueella. Muuttujien selvittyä niiden pohjalta rakennettiin neljä skenaariota, jotka kuvaavat vuoden 2014 tilannetta liittyen venäläisten matkailuun Etelä-Karjalassa. Työssä tutkittiin myös tax free -myyntitilastoja, etsien muutoksia ja trendejä venäläisten ostoskäyttäytymisessä. Tax free -myynnissä ja venäläisten yöpymismäärissä oli havaittavissa useita selviä ja toistuvia trendejä. Esimerkiksi ruokaa myydään vähemmän vuoden lopussa suhteessa käyttötavaroihin. Yöpymismäärät olivat selvästi korkeampia loppukesästä ja vuoden vaihteessa. Venäläisten matkailu Etelä-Karjalaan on kasvanut voimakkaasti vuoden 2005 jälkeen. Työssä havaittiin, että yksi merkittävin tekijä tälle on ruplan reaalinen vahvistuminen, joka alkoi vuoden 2005 aikana. Tämän jälkeen kasvu jatkui erittäin vahvana aina vuonna 2008 alkaneeseen taantumaan asti. Toinen merkittävä seikka, jonka vuoksi venäläiset ostosmatkailijat saapuvat Suomeen ostoksille, on tuotteiden ja palveluiden laatu. Näiden kahden asian pohjalta rakennettiin nelikenttämatriisi, jonka tuloksena oli neljä skenaariota.

Communicating trustworthiness in online stores

Even though e-commerce systems are expected to have many advantages compared to the traditional ways of doing business, it is not always the reality. Lack of trust is still said to be one of the most important barriers to online shopping. In traditional stores, trust has usually been established in a direct contact between the customer and the company or its personnel. In online stores, there is no direct interaction. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the key antecedents to online trust and to distinguish between effective and ineffective practices. A model on how consumers establish initial trust towards an unknown online vendor was proposed based on previous theories. The model was tested empirically by targeting an online survey at higher degree students in Finland and in Germany. The data confirmed the proposed view that trusting intentions are affected by individual characteristics, characteristics of the company as well as characteristics of the website. Additionally national differences were found between Finnish and German respondents. The data suggested that online vendors can convey a message of trustworthiness by improving information quality and overall usefulness of the website. Perceived risk of online shopping was found to depend especially on general trust in the Internet, service quality and ease of use. A trustworthy online store should include several payment methods as well as means to access and modify given data. The vendors should also make sure that inquiries are addressed quickly, transactions are confirmed automatically and that customers have a possibility to track their order. A model that includes three different sources of trust should contribute to the theoretical understanding of trust formation in online stores. The resulting list of trust antecedents can also be used as a checklist when e-commerce practitioners wish to optimize the trust building.

Itsehoidon sudenkuopat - tapauksena ravintolisä : apteekkien ja luontaistuotekauppojen neuvonnan vertailua haamuasiakastapauksen avulla

Liite 1. Neuvontatilanteiden vertailulomake s. 58-59.

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

Functionalisation of spruce O-acetyl-galactoglucomannans for barrier and composite applications

The increasing use of energy, food, and materials by the growing population in the world is leading to the situation where alternative solutions from renewable carbon resources are sought after. The growing use of plastics depends on the raw-oil production while oil refining are politically governed and required for the polymer manufacturing is not sustainable in terms of carbon footprint. The amount of packaging is also increasing. Packaging is not only utilising cardboard and paper, but also plastics. The synthetic petroleum-derived plastics and inner-coatings in food packaging can be substituted with polymeric material from the renewable resources. The trees in Finnish forests constitute a huge resource, which ought to be utilised more effectively than it is today. One underutilised component of the forests is the wood-derived hemicelluloses, although Spruce Oacetyl-galactoglucomannans (GGMs) have previously shown high potential for material applications and can be recovered in large scale. Hemicelluloses are hydrophilic in their native state, which restrains the use of them for food packaging as non-dry item. To cope with this challenge, we intended to make GGMs more hydrophobic or amphiphilic by chemical grafting and consequently with the focus of using them for barrier applications. Methods of esterification with anhydrides and cationic etherification with a trimethyl ammonium moiety were established. A method of controlled synthesis to obtain the desired properties by the means of altering temperature, reaction time, the quantity of the reagent, and even the solvent for purification of the products was developed. Numerous analytical tools, such as NMR, FTIR, SEC-MALLS/RI, MALDI-TOF-MS, RP-HPLC and polyelectrolyte titration were used to evaluate the products from different perspectives and to acquire parallel proofs of their chemical structure. Modified GGMs with different degree of substitution and the correlating level of hydrophobicity was applied as coatings on cartonboard and on nanofibrillated cellulose-GGM films to exhibit barrier functionality. The water dispersibility in processing was maintained with GGM esters with low DS. The use of chemically functionalised GGM was evaluated for the use as barriers against water, oxygen and grease for the food packaging purposes. The results show undoubtedly that GGM derivatives exhibit high potential to function as a barrier material in food packaging.