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.

Anatomy, ultrastructure and secretion of Hibiscus pernambucensis Arruda (Malvaceae) extrafloral nectary

This paper reports on the extrafloral nectary (EFN) of Hibiscus pernambucensis, a native shrub species occurring in mangrove and restinga along Brazil's coastline. EFNs occur as furrows with a protuberant border on the abaxial surface veins of the leaf blade. Each nectary consists of numerous secretory multicellular trichomes, epidermal cells in palisade-like arrangements and non-vascularized parenchyma tissue. Nectar secretion is prolonged, since secretion starts in very young leaves and remains up to completely expanded leaves. Reduced sugars, lipids, and proteins were histochemically detected in all the nectary cells; phenolic substances were detected in the vacuoles of the epidermal palisade cells and in some secretory trichome cells. The secretory cells that constitute the body of trichomes have large nuclei, dense cytoplasm with numerous mitochondria, dictyosomes, scattered lipid droplets and plastids with different inclusions: protein, lipid droplets or starch grains; vacuoles with different sizes have membranous material, phenolic and lipophilic substances. The palisade cells show thick periclinal walls, reduced cytoplasm with voluminous lipid drops and developed vacuoles. The nectary parenchyma cells contain abundant plasmodesmata and cytoplasm with scattered lipid droplets, mitochondria, plastids with starch grains and endoplasmic reticulum. Mucilage idioblasts are common in the inner nectary parenchyma. Protoderm and ground meristem participate in the formation of EFN. Our data indicate that all nectary regions are involved in nectar production and secretion, constituting a functional unit. Longevity of the extrafloral nectaries is likely associated with the presence of mucilage idioblasts, which increases the capacity of the nectary parenchyma to store water.

Diurnal changes in storage carbohydrate metabolism in cotyledons of the tropical tree Hymenaea courbaril L. (Leguminosae)

The cotyledons of Hymenaea courbaril store large amounts of xyloglucan, a cell wall polysaccharide that is believed to serve as storage for the period of seedling establishment. During storage mobilisation, xyloglucan seems to be degraded by a continuous process that starts right after radicle protrusion and follows up to the establishment of photosynthesis. Here we show evidence that events related to the hydrolases activities and production (α-xylosidase, β-galactosidase, β-glucosidase and xyloglucan endo-β-transglucosilase) as well as auxin, showed changes that follow the diurnal cycle. The period of higher hydrolases activities was between 6pm and 6am, which is out of phase with photosynthesis. Among the enzymes, α-xilosidase seems to be more important than β-glucosidase and β-galactosidase in the xyloglucan disassembling mechanism. Likewise, the sugars related with sucrose metabolism followed the rhythm of the hydrolases, but starch levels were shown to be practically constant. A high level of auxin was observed during the night, what is compatible with the hypothesis that this hormone would be one of the regulators of the whole process. The probable biological meaning of the existence of such a complex control mechanism during storage mobilisation is likely to be related to a remarkably high level of efficiency of carbon usage by the growing seedling of Hymenaea courbaril, allowing the establishment of very vigorous seedlings in the tropical forest.

Competitive advantage through proprietary erp implementation: analysis of the project Väinämö

In the market where companies similar in size and resources are competing, it is challenging to have any advantage over others. In order to stay afloat company needs to have capability to perform with fewer resources and yet provide better service. Hence development of efficient processes which can cut costs and improve performance is crucial. As business expands, processes become complicated and large amount of data needs to be managed and available on request. Different tools are used in companies to store and manage data, which facilitates better production and transactions. In the modern business world the most utilized tool for that purpose is ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning system. The focus of this research is to study how competitive advantage can be achieved by implementing proprietary ERP system in the company; ERP system that is in-house created, tailor made to match and align business needs and processes. Market is full of ERP software, but choosing the right one is a big challenge. Identifying the key features that need improvement in processes and data management, choosing the right ERP, implementing it and the follow-up is a long and expensive journey companies undergo. Some companies prefer to invest in a ready-made package bought from vendor and adjust it according to own business needs, while others focus on creating own system with in-house IT capabilities. In this research a case company is used and author tries to identify and analyze why organization in question decided to pursue the development of proprietary ERP system, how it has been implemented and whether it has been successful. Main conclusion and recommendation of this research is for companies to know core capabilities and constraints before choosing and implementing ERP system. Knowledge of factors that affect system change outcome is important, to make the right decisions on strategic level and implement on operational level. Duration of the project in the case company has lasted longer than anticipated. It has been reported that in cases of buying ready product from vendor, projects are delayed and completed over budget as well. In general, in case company implementation of proprietary ERP has been successful both from business performance figures and usability of system by employees. In terms of future research, conducting a study to calculate statistically ROI of both approaches; of buying ready product and creating own ERP will be beneficial.

The brain decade in debate: I. Neurobiology of learning and memory

This article is a transcription of an electronic symposium in which some active researchers were invited by the Brazilian Society for Neuroscience and Behavior (SBNeC) to discuss the last decade's advances in neurobiology of learning and memory. The way different parts of the brain are recruited during the storage of different kinds of memory (e.g., short-term vs long-term memory, declarative vs procedural memory) and even the property of these divisions were discussed. It was pointed out that the brain does not really store memories, but stores traces of information that are later used to create memories, not always expressing a completely veridical picture of the past experienced reality. To perform this process different parts of the brain act as important nodes of the neural network that encode, store and retrieve the information that will be used to create memories. Some of the brain regions are recognizably active during the activation of short-term working memory (e.g., prefrontal cortex), or the storage of information retrieved as long-term explicit memories (e.g., hippocampus and related cortical areas) or the modulation of the storage of memories related to emotional events (e.g., amygdala). This does not mean that there is a separate neural structure completely supporting the storage of each kind of memory but means that these memories critically depend on the functioning of these neural structures. The current view is that there is no sense in talking about hippocampus-based or amygdala-based memory since this implies that there is a one-to-one correspondence. The present question to be solved is how systems interact in memory. The pertinence of attributing a critical role to cellular processes like synaptic tagging and protein kinase A activation to explain the memory storage processes at the cellular level was also discussed.

Miten kehittää ketjutoimintaa rautakaupassa; case Rautanet

TIIVISTELMÄ Tekijä: Urpalainen, Mika Tutkielman nimi: Miten kehittää ketjuliiketoimintaa rautakaupassa Case: Rautanet Tiedekunta: Kauppatieteellinen tiedekunta Pääaine / Maisteriohjelma: Kansainvälinen markkinointi Vuosi: 2014 Pro gradu – tutkielma: Lappeenrannan teknillinen yliopisto, 129 sivua, 28 kuvaa, 15 taulukkoa ja kaksi liitettä Tarkastajat: prof. Olli Kuivalainen, prof. Sanna-Katriina Asikainen Hakusanat: ketjutoiminta, Rautanet-ketju, sitoutuminen, markkinointi Keywords: Chain business, Rautanet-chain, commitment, marketing Rautanet-ketju on heterogeeninen, vapaaehtoisuuteen perustuva rautakauppaketju, joka on perustettu vuonna 1998. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää Rautanet-kauppiaille ja koko ketjuorganisaatiolle ketjutoiminnan etuja, haasteita sekä kauppiaskunnan näkemyksiä ketjutoiminnasta tänä päivänä. Tutkimusmenetelmä oli kvalitatiivinen ja kvantitatiivinen, se perustui kauppiaille lähetettyyn kyselylomakkeeseen, joka sisälsi Likert-asteikollisia kysymyksiä 36 ja 3 kysymystä joihin vastattiin kirjallisesti. Kysymykset sisälsivät aiheita mm. Sitoutumisesta, markkinoinnista, sidosryhmistä jne. Tutkimusjoukkona oli Rautanet-kauppiaat. Kokonaisuutena arvioiden kauppiaat ovat tyytyväisiä ketjun toimintaan. Suurimmat edut ovat markkinointituki kuvastojen avulla ja ketjun voima, jonka kauppiaat tekevät yhdessä. Etuna voidaan pitää myös kauppiaiden sitoutumishalukkuutta ketjuun. Suurimpana haasteena on ehkä itsenäisyyden menettämisen pelko. Rautanet-ketjun toiminta on hyvällä tasolla. Kilpailun kiristyessä myös Rautanet-ketjun kauppiaiden sitoutumishalukkuutta on pidettävä yllä. Ketjuorganisaation on kunnioitettava kauppiaan itsenäisyyttä ja kuunneltava jatkossakin kauppiaita. Ketjun ja kauppiaiden selkeä yhteinen päämäärä, rakentaa vahva ketju, joka pystyy vastaamaan kilpailijoiden haasteisiin, on hyvin paljon riippuvainen yhdessä tekemisen halusta.

Letters from the War of Ecosystems – An Analysis of Independent Software Vendors in Mobile Application Marketplaces

The recent emergence of a new generation of mobile application marketplaces has changed the business in the mobile ecosystems. The marketplaces have gathered over a million applications by hundreds of thousands of application developers and publishers. Thus, software ecosystems—consisting of developers, consumers and the orchestrator—have emerged as a part of the mobile ecosystem. This dissertation addresses the new challenges faced by mobile application developers in the new ecosystems through empirical methods. By using the theories of two-sided markets and business ecosystems as the basis, the thesis assesses monetization and value creation in the market as well as the impact of electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) and developer multihoming— i. e. contributing for more than one platform—in the ecosystems. The data for the study was collected with web crawling from the three biggest marketplaces: Apple App Store, Google Play and Windows Phone Store. The dissertation consists of six individual articles. The results of the studies show a gap in monetization among the studied applications, while a majority of applications are produced by small or micro-enterprises. The study finds only weak support for the impact of eWOM on the sales of an application in the studied ecosystem. Finally, the study reveals a clear difference in the multi-homing rates between the top application developers and the rest. This has, as discussed in the thesis, an impact on the future market analyses—it seems that the smart device market can sustain several parallel application marketplaces.

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

Liite 1. Neuvontatilanteiden vertailulomake s. 58-59.

Characterization of renin mRNA expression and enzyme activity in rat and mouse mesangial cells

Renin is an enzyme involved in the stepwise generation of angiotensin II. Juxtaglomerular cells are the main source of plasma renin, but renin activity has been detected in other cell types. In the present study we evaluated the presence of renin mRNA in adult male Wistar rat and mouse (C-57 Black/6) mesangial cells (MC) and their ability to process, store and release both the active and inactive forms of the enzyme. Active renin and total renin content obtained after trypsin treatment were estimated by angiotensinogen consumption analyzed by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis and quantified by angiotensin I generation by HPLC. Renin mRNA, detected by RT-PCR, was present in both rat and mouse MC under basal conditions. Active renin was significantly higher (P<0.05) in the cell lysate (43.5 ± 5.7 ng h-1 10(6) cells) than in the culture medium (12.5 ± 2.5 ng h-1 10(6) cells). Inactive prorenin content was similar for the intra- and extracellular compartments (9.7 ± 3.1 and 3.9 ± 0.9 ng h-1 10(6) cells). Free active renin was the predominant form found in both cell compartments. These results indicate that MC in culture are able to synthesize and translate renin mRNA probably as inactive prorenin which is mostly processed to active renin inside the cell. MC secrete both forms of the enzyme but at a lower level compared with intracellular content, suggesting that the main role of renin synthesized by MC may be the intracellular generation of angiotensin II.

Interactions between intracellular Ca2+ stores: Ca2+ released from the NAADP pool potentiates cADPR-induced Ca2+ release

Cells possess multiple intracellular Ca2+-releasing systems. Sea urchin egg homogenates are a well-established model to study intracellular Ca2+ release. In the present study the mechanism of interaction between three intracellular Ca2+ pools, namely the nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP), the cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR) and the inositol 1',4',5'-trisphosphate (IP3)-regulated Ca2+ stores, is explored. The data indicate that the NAADP Ca2+ pool could be used to sensitize the cADPR system. In contrast, the IP3 pool was not affected by the Ca2+ released by NAADP. The mechanism of potentiation of the cADPR-induced Ca2+ release, promoted by Ca2+ released from the NAADP pool, is mediated by the mechanism of Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release. These data raise the possibility that the NAADP Ca2+ store may have a role as a regulator of the cellular sensitivity to cADPR.

Belterne 1867

Kartta kuuluu A. E. Nordenskiöldin kokoelmaan

Kognitiiviset kartat operatiivisen ketjuliiketoimintajohtamisen taustalla

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, millaiset ajattelumallit korostuvat menestyksekkäässä ketjuliiketoimintajohtamisessa tasapainotetun tuloskortin eri näkökulmien osalta. Tutkimuskohteena olivat kuusi päivittäistavarakaupan ketjuliiketoiminnan asiakasrajapinnassa työskentelevää Osuuskauppa Keskimaan S-marketpäällikköä. Ajattelua tutkittiin kognitiivisesta näkökulmasta. Tutkimus toteutettiin laadullista tutkimusmenetelmää, kognitiivista kartoitusta hyödyntäen. Karttojen rakentamiseen käytetty tutkimusaineisto hankittiin puolistrukturoitujen teemahaastattelujen avulla. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys rakennettiin mielen sisäisten skeemojen ja kognitiivisten karttojen kautta päätöksenteonteorioihin. Tutkimuksen tulosten perusteella asiakasnäkökulmassa menestyminen edellyttää liikeideaa kunnioittavaa ja konseptin tinkimättömään toteuttamiseen keskittyvää johtamisajattelua. Henkilöstönäkökulmassa menestyminen korostaa kokonaisvaltaisen esimiestyön ja moniulotteisten vuorovaikutussuhteiden merkitystä, joiden ilmeneminen on kognitiivisia rakenteita ja prosesseja monimuotoisempi kokonaisuus. Prosessinäkökulmassa menestyminen edellyttää selkeiden ohjeiden vaalimiseen ja niiden johtamiseen keskittyvää ajattelutapaa. Menestys talousnäkökulmassa kokoaa tuloskortin eri näkökulmat yhteen, korostaen kokonaisuuden hahmottamisen tärkeyttä sekä toimialan ja ketjuliiketoiminnan business-logiikan ymmärtämisen merkitystä osana operatiivista ketjuliiketoimintajohtamista. Lisäksi tutkimus vahvistaa aiempien tutkimustulosten mukaisesti, että kognitiivisen kartan rikkaudella, yhtenäisyydellä, johdonmukaisuudella, kartan sisältämien suorituskykymittareihin viittaavien mainintojen määrällä sekä esimiehen kokemalla vaikutusmahdollisuudella on yhteys liiketoimintamenestyksen kanssa. Kokonaisuutena päivittäistavarakaupan ketjuliiketoiminnan menestyksekkäässä johtamisessa näyttää korostuvan rationaalisuutta ja loogisuutta korostava ajattelutapa, joka tukeutuu vahvasti ketjuliiketoiminnan perusprosesseihin.

Forecasting financial weather - can we foresee market sentiment? Quantitative analysis of nodal prices in the New Zealand Electricity Spot Market

Time series of hourly electricity spot prices have peculiar properties. Electricity is by its nature difficult to store and has to be available on demand. There are many reasons for wanting to understand correlations in price movements, e.g. risk management purposes. The entire analysis carried out in this thesis has been applied to the New Zealand nodal electricity prices: offer prices (from 29 May 2002 to 31 March 2009) and final prices (from 1 January 1999 to 31 March 2009). In this paper, such natural factors as location of the node and generation type in the node that effects the correlation between nodal prices have been reviewed. It was noticed that the geographical factor affects the correlation between nodes more than others. Therefore, the visualisation of correlated nodes was done. However, for the offer prices the clear separation of correlated and not correlated nodes was not obtained. Finally, it was concluded that location factor most strongly affects correlation of electricity nodal prices; problems in visualisation probably associated with power losses when the power is transmitted over long distance.

Osaamiskartoitus osaamisen mittaamisen välineenä

Yrityksen aineeton pääoma ja etenkin osaaminen on arvokasta, mutta sen mittaaminen on vaikeaa. Osaaminen on ensin tunnistettava, jotta sitä voidaan kehittää. Tässä tutkimuksessa on tarkoitus luoda kaupan alalle osaamiselle lukuarvo, joka voidaan viedä ketjun tuloskorttiin. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu kuvailevasta ja tilastollisesta osasta. Case yrityksenä on Osuuskauppa Hämeenmaan Sale-ketju ja kartoitus kohdentuu päivittäistavarakaupan myyjän osaamistarpeisiin. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvalitatiivisena tutkimuksena, mutta yhteenvedossa on myös kvantitatiivisia piirteitä. Kuvaileva aineisto koostui ryhmähaastattelusta, joka tehtiin lomakkeen suunnitteluvaiheessa haastattelemalla Osuuskauppa Hämeenmaan Sale-ketjun esimiehiä tulevaisuuden osaamistarpeista. Tilastollinen aineisto koostui osaamistarpeiden kartoituksessa käytetystä kyselystä. Tutkimuksessa tulevaisuuden osaamisen tarve eroaa tutkijoiden esittämästä näkemyksestä ja painottuu asenne osaamiseen. Sale-ketjun asenne osaamisissa vahvuuksia ovat: sitoutuminen omaan työhön ja halu oppia. Ammattiosaamiset kuten hyllytys ja kassatyö ovat myös vahvuuksia. 2013 vuoden tutkimuksessa suurimmat kehitystarpeet olivat tilausjärjestelmien hallitsemisessa sekä kilpailuetuosaamisissa. Yksiköiden välissä tarkastelussa löytyi selkeitä eroja, mutta erot eivät olleet riippuvaisia yksikön koosta tai työryhmän keski-iästä. Tutkimuksen tuloksena jokaiselle yksikölle tuotettiin yhteenveto sen hetkisestä osaamisesta, selvittäen vahvuudet ja kehittämisalueet. Näiden pohjalta tehtiin yksiköille kehityssuunnitelmat sekä jokaiselle työntekijälle henkilökohtainen kehityssuunnitelma kehityskeskustelun yhteydessä. Tämän tutkimuksen mukaan osaaminen, työtyytyväisyys ja asiakastyytyväisyys korreloivat keskenään. Yksikössä, jossa on hyvä osaaminen, ovat myös työtyytyväisyys ja asiakaspalvelu kunnossa. Vaikuttava tekijä taustalla on johtaminen. Esimiehet, jotka jakavat vastuuta työryhmässään saavuttivat osaamisessa suurempaa kehitystä kuin ne esimiehet, jotka eivät vastuuta jakaneet. Päivittäistavarakauppa on murroksessa tällä hetkellä ja tulevaisuuden osaamistarpeet ovat muuttuneet jo tämän tutkimuksen aikana. Vuonna 2014 toteutettiin sama kartoitus kuin vuonna 2013 ja voitiin todeta osaamistarpeen muuttuneen. Kustannustietous ja kriisienhallinta ovat työryhmien arkea ja osaamisalueet kuten työssä jaksaminen, ripeys ja muutosvalmius ovat korostuneet vuoden aikana. Henkilöstöjohtamisen luonteessa on myös havaittavissa muutoksia, kauaskantoinen tekeminen on muuttunut ketteräksi ja joustavaksi strategiseksi kumppanuudeksi. Osaamista johdetaan edelleen hyvin perinteisin menetelmin, johtaminen on vain entistä kohdennetumpaa. Tutkimuksessa syntyi kuvaava malli henkilöstöjohtamisen luonteesta sekä kaupanalan osaamistarpeesta 2014.