Social networks and networking facilitating internationalization: Experiences of two Finnish fashion companies

Background: Fashion is a dynamic and creative industry where larger retailers are enjoying international success. Small businesses however are struggling in the face of international expansion, as they lack the necessary resources and managerial know-how. The Finnish fashion industry has neither been able to develop the industry environment to support small and micro firms nor has Finland relevant finance or public domains, such as, seen in other Nordic countries. Networking has been recognized to facilitate organizational growth and international expansion in industries such as manufacturing and high technology. It has enabled smaller companies to gain resources, knowledge and experiences otherwise unattainable. Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore how networking has been utilized in the Finnish fashion industry. Particularly social relationships and networks are examined, as they emphasize the importance of individuals. Exploration on the past actions should also provide insight how networks and networking could be utilized and developed in the future. Main findings: It was discovered that the Finnish fashion industry (social) network is rather dense. This was mainly due to the small size of the Finnish market. In the early years of the establishment of the company, close contacts seemed to be utilized. As a company expands and extends its business, the relationships tended to move towards more utilitarian in nature. However, in some cases, the long term relationships had also affectionate features, such as trust and commitment. International networking was found to have positive impact on business opportunities. Participation to events, such as trade shows, was perceived as one of the best ways to meet new international contacts and to develop ones network. Active networking in the Finnish market, however, created both domestic and international opportunities. Furthermore, cooperation and open communication were discovered to facilitate innovation and projects. The public sector seemed to lack the interest in supporting the fashion industry according to the interviewees. The major issues for the fashion industry still concerned, among others, funding, administrative guidance and public support for developing the industry as a whole.

Culture in business interaction: an individual perspective : empirical studies in Finnish-Russian business relationships

The main objective of this doctoral dissertation is to reach a holistic and indepth understanding of the intercultural interaction within dyadic business relationships through the perspective of individual managers. The empirical setting is dyadic business relationships between Russian and Finnish firms in construction and engineering industries. The motivation for the study mainly arose from: 1) the lack of business marketing literature considering cultural and individual perspectives; 2) the need to find ways to study intercultural issues in business relationships, other than through the application of models derived from the work of Hofstede (1980). The study consists of two parts, an introductory essay containing the research objectives, theoretical foundations, methodological choices, limitations and contributions, and original research articles. The four articles each address a sub-objective: 1) to develop an understanding of intercultural business relationships development, cultural adaptation, and its role in the development of trust (Article 1); 2) to develop an appropriate methodological framework for studying business interaction from a cultural and individual perspective (Article 2); 3) to develop an understanding of the role of culture in individual manager’s sensemaking of interaction events in business relationships (Article 3); and 4) to develop an appropriate theoretical framework for studying interactive intercultural business relationships in international industrial markets (Article 4). The ontological and epistemological foundations are built on the interpretivist/ social constructivist view of reality. Interaction, in this study, is seen as being conducted between individuals, who are the key representative actors of their firms. In turn, culture is regarded both as an independent context existing prior to the individuals’ participation in it, and as knowledge incorporated by the individuals, who use it in sensemaking and interaction across cultures. The methods applied in the articles are: an interpretive qualitative study (Article 1), a literature review and conceptual analysis (Article 2), a structural analysis of the narratives and a metaphor analysis (Article 3), and a literature review and conceptual analysis (Article 4). The main contributions are the following. First, it contributes to business marketing literature by developing the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological underpinning of IMP theories in relation to culture. Second, the thesis contributes to the growing literature on managerial sensemaking in industrial markets by looking at it from a cultural perspective, as well as emphasizing the importance of figurative language in cultural sensemaking.

Supply network risks and costs in Finnish project business

This report summarizes the results of the survey HAVERI – Supply network risks in business. The survey was conducted in Finland during the spring and summer of year 2013. The survey is part of a large two-year research project started in June 2012 in Finland (on-going 06/2012–07/2014). The project is launched and financed by TEKES, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, and executed together with the researchers from Lappeenranta University of Technology and Tampere University of Technology. The overall goal of this on-going research project is to find out the decision-making practices in the project-oriented companies in their purchasing decisions especially in the mechanical engineering and construction industries in Finland. The objective of the survey was to gain cross-sectional data concerning the challenges, risks and cost factors in Finnish project business companies. The results show that Finnish companies rely on their experience and supplier references in their risk management. In general, the understanding of the total cost structure varies among the industries and companies. The main cost factor in risk management was costs before the actual purchase decision. Overall, it seems that the monetary value of the whole project and capability of purchasing personnel are the main influencing factors on risk management activity in project purchasing.

Finnish SMEs and Russian Business Environment: Challenges and Support Activities

The purpose of this study is based on the need of finding what kind of problems Finnish SMEs face in Russian market and how they could be supported. Used support activities in certain levels of internationalization and internationalization patterns are evaluated, international experience of entrepreneur is compared to used support activities and the most challenging pillars in Russia from the Institutional Theory are defined. The empirical part of the study is a semi structured qualitative analysis of ten case companies that represent different industry fields. All of them are SMEs and they represent different levels of internationalization and internationalization patterns. The results of this study indicated that usefulness of support activities have to be evaluated case by case. All the companies are individual organizations and usefulness of support activities have to be evaluated according to the actual situation of the company. International experience of manager has effect on the use of support activities. SMEs identified many problems related to pillars of Institutional theory and regulative environment seems to be the most challenging one.

Outcome of human papillomavirus infection among men in the Finnish Family HPV Study

Ihmisen papilloomaviruksen taudinkuva suomalaisperheiden seurantatutkimuksen mieskohortissa Tieto ihmisen papilloomaviruksen (HPV) yhteydestä eri anatomisten alueiden sairauksien syntyyn on lisännyt mielenkiintoa miehen papilloomavirustulehduksen taudinkulun selvittämiseksi. Tämä väitöskirjatyö on osa suomalaista seurantatutkimusta, jossa tutkitaan HPVinfektioiden tartuntareittejä 329 perheessä. Väitöstyössä keskitytään tutkimukseen osallistuneiden 131 miehen aineistoon. Suun limakalvonäytteet otettiin seitsemässä aikapisteessä. Lisäksi otettiin sukuelinalueen näytteet kahdella seurantakäynnillä. Riskitekijöitä kartoittava kyselytutkimus teetettiin tutkimuksen alkutilanteessa sekä viimeisellä seurantakäynnillä. Oireettomat HPV infektiot olivat alkutilanteessa yleisiä molemmilla sukupuolilla (miesten suu 18,3 % ja sukuelinalue 35,9 %, naisten suu 17,2 % ja kohdunsuu 18,8 %), mutta HPV:n genotyyppien vastaavuus partnerien välillä oli vähäinen. Naisen, mutta ei miehen, seksuaalinen riskikäyttäytyminen oli yhteydessä pariskunnan HPV tyyppien vastaavuuteen. Partnerin ja siviilisäädyn vaihtaminen lisäsivät miehen riskiä saada uusia HPV infektioita. Miehen suun limakalvonäytteistä löytyi kaikkiaan 17 eri HPV tyyppiä. Suun HPV-tulehduksen esiintyvyys vaihteli eri aikapisteissä 15 %:sta 31 %:iin. Uusien HPV tulehdusten ilmaantumisaika vaihteli 3,9 ja 25,7 kuukauden välillä. Suun HPV infektio parani valtaosalla miehistä. Suun krooninen HPV-infektio todettiin 14 %:lla miehistä. Näiden infektioiden keskimääräinen kesto vaihteli 6.0:sta 30.7:ään kuukauteen. Tupakointi lisäsi korkean riskin HPV tyyppien aiheuttamien suun kroonisten infektioiden riskiä, kun taas aikaisemmin sairastetut sukuelinten kondyloomat suojasivat siltä. Tuloksemme osoittavat, että miehen oireeton HPV tulehdus on yleinen suussa ja sukuelinten alueella. Vakaa parisuhde suojaa uusilta HPV tulehduksilta. Tupakoinnilla on keskeinen merkitys suun HPV-infektion kroonistumisessa.

Improving internal performance of a company - Introducing employee empowerment via job redesign in Finnish small and medium sized enterprises

This bachelor's thesis is about to find out to what extent Finnish managers and small and medium sized organizations are willing and able to put employee empowerment into practice and what experiences they have got from employee empowerment as an approach towards job redesign. Some of the top enterprises in the world are known for their empowered employees as a single most important factor for their success and this thesis focuses on introducing the subject to Finnish managers and organizations to find out what benefits, barriers and other thoughts they have about the whole idea of empowered employees in Finnish organization culture. Most notable findings in this thesis are that Finnish managers do think that their organization's employees are capable to work efficiently if their job is extended and the organizations would perform better when right person's job is enriched and he/she is given more power to solve problems.

The logistic risks of Finnish companies operating in China

Selvitys suomalaisten yritysten kohtaamista logistisista ongelmista Kiinan markkinoilla toimiessa. Tutkielma tuo esiin Kiinan logistiikkaan liittyvät erityispiirteet ja heijastaa niitä haastattelujen avulla suomalaisiin yrityksiin, jotka operoivat Kiinassa.

Search advertising for small Finnish tourism company in Russian Internet – Experimental study: Google AdWords versus Yandex.Direct

Yandex is the dominant search engine in Russia, followed by the world leader Google. This study focuses on the performance differences between the two in search advertising in the context of tourism, by running two identical campaigns and measuring the KPI’s, such as CPA (cost-per-action), on both campaigns. Search engine advertising is a new and fast changing form of advertising, which should be studied frequently in order to keep up with the changes. Research was done as an experimental study in cooperation with a Finnish tourism company and the data is gathered from the clickstream and not from questionnaires, which is recommended method by the literature. The results of the study suggests that Yandex.Direct performed better in the selected niche and that the individual campaign planning for Yandex.Direct and Google AdWords is an important part of the optimization of search advertising in Russia.

The Relationship of Organizational Culture, Employee Motivation and Innovativeness: Evidence from Finnish Technology Industries

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the effects of tangible and intangible incentives on the dimensions of motivation and organizational innovativeness in the context of different organizational cultures. Theory suggests that an antecedent of innovativeness is individual creativity of employees, which is influenced by intrinsic motivation, flexible organizational structures, and transformational leadership. Empirical evidence for this research is derived from 424 respondents representing technology-driven industries in Finland. Data is collected through an online questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS statistics software. The results imply that intangible incentives and intrinsic motivation have an important role in determining organizational innovativeness. The positive relationships of intangible incentives, intrinsic motivation and innovativeness seem to be higher in flexible organizational cultures. As practical implications, managers should foster flexible organizational cultures that highlight employee empowerment. The motivating power of non-financial intrinsic incentives and recognition of good work should not be undermined when compared to tangible monetary rewards.

The Role of networks in the internationalization process of Finnish design companies

Finnish design has attracted global attention lately and companies within the industry have potential in international markets. Because networks have been found to be extremely helpful in a firm’s international business operations and usefulness of networks is not fully exploited, their role in Finnish design companies is investigated. Accordingly, this study concentrates on understanding the role of networks in the internationalization process of Finnish design companies. This was investigated through describing the internationalization process of Finnish design companies, analyzing what kind of networks are related to internationalization process of Finnish design companies, and analyzing how networks are utilized in the internationalization process of Finnish design companies. The theoretical framework explores the Finnish design industry, internationalization process and networks. The Finnish design industry is introduced in general and the concept of design is defined to refer to the industries of textiles, furniture, clothing, and lighting equipment in the research. The theories of internationalization process, the Uppsala model and Luostarinen’s operation modes, are explored in detail. The Born Global theory, which is a contrary view to stage models, is also discussed. The concept of network is investigated, networks are classified into business and social networks, and network approach to internationalization is discussed. The research is conducted empirically and the research method is a descriptive case study. In this study, four case companies are investigated: the interior decoration unit of L-Fashion Group, Globe Hope, Klo Design, and Melaja Ltd. Data is collected by semi-structured interviews and the analysis is done in the following way: the case companies are introduced, their internationalization processes and networks are described and, finally, the comparison of the case companies is done in a form of cross-case analysis. This research showed that cooperation with social networks, such as locals or employees who have experience from the target market can be extremely helpful in the beginning of a Finnish design company’s internationalization process. This study also indicated that public organizations do not necessarily enhance the internationalization process in a design company point-of-view. In addition, the research showed that there is cooperation between small Finnish design companies whereas large design companies are not as open to cooperation with competitors.

Public and private sector cooperative opportunities in the Finnish healthcare internationalization : views from the public sector’s perspective

Traditionally mostly publicly provided Finnish healthcare services are confronted today by the evident challenge of rising healthcare costs as the expenditure on health and social case has exceeded Finland’s national GDP growth significantly since the new millennium. While the opening of the traditional barriers through the EU’s new patient directive resulting in increasing international competition and the free flow of patients within the EU present opportunities for the Finnish healthcare services industry there are also several challenges for the existing healthcare system as proposed by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy in 2011. Due to the structure and nature of the current Finnish healthcare service system the greatest potential for internationalization is seen from a joint cooperation of the public and private sectors in an internationalization network for Finnish healthcare services. As its formation has recently also taken as a strategic initiative to be completed by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and no earlier research exists on how this is seen in practice by the network actors, the purpose of this study is to examine the proposed solution of forming an internationalization network between the public and private sector actors in Finland in practice from the viewpoint of public sector actors. The research relied heavily on the reports by the Finnish Ministries in understanding the current situation of the Finnish healthcare services internationalization and its potential. Suitable theories were also used to build a more comprehensive view of the matter. The study applied a qualitative research approach on the explorative research problem. The data collection was achieved through expert interviews in two of the largest Finnish public healthcare service providers; the Turku and Helsinki Central University Hospitals. Expert interviews were considered as the most suitable method for data collection in order to create an in-depth understanding of the topic within the limitations of this thesis. In turn, two different public healthcare service providers were chosen to give a broader view of the field instead of focusing on a specific unit and also to allow a possible comparison between the two different organizations. The latter however was shown not to be suitable for the purposes of this study as the opinions of the respondents varied largely also within their own organizations. The conclusion is that while the actors agree on the evident internationalization of Finnish healthcare services, there are several large-scale structural challenges effectively preventing such activities while at the same time the opportunities within Finland vary, as there are several niches but no real large-scale advantages in the highly competitive industry. Interest towards cooperation between the sectors are seen especially in exploiting the advantages offered by the private sector in commercialization and marketization, yet however no clear views exist on how these activities should be governed or structured in the short-term as a larger reform of the entire Finnish healthcare service sector is needed in the long-term.