Exploring Customer-Oriented Service Offerings in Public Health: Developing Integrated Health Care Services for Rural Areas

Väestön ikääntyminen pakottaa yhteiskunnan ja julkisen terveydenhuollon muutoksiin. Jotta ikääntyvien ihmisten kotona asuminen voidaan mahdollistaa, palvelujärjestelmän pitää mukautua muuttuvaan tilanteeseen. Tämän diplomityön tarkoituksena on tunnistaa asiakaslähtöisiä lähellä asiakasta tarjottavia palvelukokonaisuuksia. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys muodostuu asiakasarvon luomisesta ja palvelutarjoamista. Tarkasteluryhmänä on Etelä-Karjalan alueen 60–90-vuotiaat ja käytetty aineisto on kerätty vastaajilta postitse lähetetyllä kyselyllä. Tutkimus on eksploratiivinen ja tulosten tulkinnassa on hyödynnetty määrällisen tutkimuksen ja verkostoanalyysin menetelmiä. Työn keskeisimmät tulokset ovat tunnistetut asiakassegmentit ja heidän tarpeidensa pohjalta muodostetut palvelupaketit. Tulokset indikoivat asiakkaiden tarpeita ja tuloksia on analysoitu myös tuottajan näkökulmasta. Empiiristen tulosten lisäksi teoriaviitekehystä on kehitetty eteenpäin, jotta palvelukeskeiset teoriat voidaan ymmärtää yritysten näkökulman lisäksi asiakkaan näkökulmasta.

Inbound marketing in practice. Case study: Lainaaja.fi

The general purpose of the thesis was to describe and explain the particularities of inbound marketing methods and the key advantages of those methods. Inbound marketing can be narrowed down to a set of marketing strategies and techniques focused on pulling prospects towards a business and its products on the Internet by producing useful and relevant content to prospects. The main inbound marketing methods and channels were identified as blogging, content publishing, search engine optimization and social media. The best way to utilise these methods is producing great content that should cover subjects that interest the target group, which is usually a composition of buyers, existing customers and influencers, such as analysts and media The study revealed increase in Lainaaja.fi traffic and referral traffic sources that was firmly confirmed as statistically significant, while number of backlinks and SERP placement were clearly positively correlated, but not statistically significant. The number of new registered users along with new loan applicants and deposits did not show correlation with increased content producing. The conclusion of the study shows inbound marketing campaign clearly increasing website traffic and plausible help on getting better search engine results compared to control period. Implications are clear; inbound marketing is an activity that every business should consider implementing. But just producing content online is not enough; equal amount of work should be put into turning the visitors into customers. Further studies are recommended on using inbound marketing combined with monitoring of landing pages and conversion optimization to incoming visitors.

Content marketing and the significance of corporate branding

Tämän tutkielman tavoite on tutkia vahvan brandin merkitystä ja syitä, miksi yritykset käyttävät sisältömarkkinointia brandin rakentamisessa, sekä selvittää mitkä ovat yritysten sisältömarkkinointi-investointien tavoitteet, odotetut seuraukset ja koetut hyödyt ja tulokset. Teoriaosassa esitetään empiriaosaa varten tarvittava akateeminen taustatutkimustieto. Empiria on toteutettu puoli-struktroiduilla kahdenkeskisillä puhelinhaastatteuilla. Haastateltavina ovat työn toimeksiantajan Calcus Kustannus Oy:n viisi asiakasta. Näiden yritysten liikevaihto vaihtelee 23-75M€ välillä, ja yritykset toimivat pääosin suomen B2B yritysmarkkinoilla. Haastateltavat henkilöt ovat yrityksissä vastuussa markkinointipäätöksistä. Tulokset osoittavat, että vahvalla brandilla on erittäin suuri merkitys yrityksen kasvun ja menestyksen kannalta, ja että yritykset käyttävät sisältömarkkinointia brandin rakentamisessa, koska se kasvattaa brandipääomaa tehokkaasti. Sisältömarkkinoinnilla yritykset pyrkivät kasvttamaan heidän asiakkaidensa branditietoisuutta ja brandiuskollisuutta, sekä brandinsa uskottavuutta jakamalla aidosti kiinnostavaa ja lisäarvoa tuottavaa sisältöä. Lisäksi yrityksen asiantuntija-, sekä mielipidejohtajaroolin vahvistaminen koettiin erittäin tärkeäksi. Sisältömarkkinoinnin koetaan olevan brandin rakentamisessa tehokkaampaa kuin traditionaalinen markkinointi, minkä vuoksi yritykset tulevat kasvattamaan sen osuutta markkinointisuunnitelmissaan tulevaisuudessa.

From Persephone to Pan: D. H. Lawrence's mythopoeic vision of the integrated personality with special emphasis on the short fiction and other writings in the early nineteen twenties

This doctoral thesis was published in printed form in 1987. It was digitized from paper copy in 2013. Unfortunately on some pages the digitizaion process has not been complete, i.e there are some minor typographic erros on some pages.

Non-linear analysis of laminated metal matrix composites by an integrated micro/macro-mechanical model

The present paper describes an integrated micro/macro mechanical study of the elastic-viscoplastic behavior of unidirectional metal matrix composites (MMC). The micromechanical analysis of the elastic moduli is based on the Composites Cylinder Assemblage model (CCA) with comparisons also draw with a Representative Unit Cell (RUC) technique. These "homogenization" techniques are later incorporated into the Vanishing Fiber Diameter (VFD) model and a new formulation is proposed. The concept of a smeared element procedure is employed in conjunction with two different versions of the Bodner and Partom elastic-viscoplastic constitutive model for the associated macroscopic analysis. The formulations developed are also compared against experimental and analytical results available in the literature.

Mobile clinics in public health care: Integrated service offerings for rural elderly

This research is an analysis of the value and content of local service offerings that enable longer periods of living at home for elderly people. Mobile health care and new distribution services have provided an interesting solution in this context. The research aim to shed light on the research question, ‘How do we bundle services based on different customer needs?’ A research process consisting of three main phases was applied for this purpose. During this process, elderly customers were segmented, the importance of services was rated and service offerings were defined. Value creation and service offering provides theoretical framework for the research. The target group is South Karelia’s 60 to 90-year old individuals and the data has been acquired via a postal questionnaire. Research has been conducted as exploratory research utilizing the methods of quantitative and social network analysis. The main results of the report are identified customer segments and service packages that fits to the segments’ needs. The results indicate the needs of customers and the results are additionally analysed from the producer’s point of view. In addition to the empirical results, the used theory framework has been developed further in order for the service-related theories to be seen from the customer’s point of view and not just from the producer’s point of view.

ERP Systems: Marketing to Finnish Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

This paper takes a fresh approach to ERP projects by examining the upstream organizations and their sales and marketing processes.

Green Marketing and its Role in Firm’s Strategy

Tässä kandidaatintutkielmassa tutkitaan vihreän markkinoinnin strategista roolia ja sen tuomaa lisäarvoa yritykselle. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään, mitä vihreä markkinointi on, mistä syistä yritykset harjoittavat sitä ja tuoko se lisäarvoa yritykselle. Case-yrityksinä tutkielmassa ovat UPM-Raflatac ja Lappeenrannan Energia Oy.

Weed control under integrated nutrient management systems in faba bean (Vicia faba) production in Egypt

Two field experiments were conducted in two successive seasons, 2005/2006 and 2006/2007, to determine whether management can improve faba bean competitiveness with weeds, thus helping to achieve its yield potential. The experiment included five treatments, composed of organic and mineral fertilizers, alone and mixed at different rates, along with a control and six weed control treatments, including oxadiargyl, prometryn, hand hoeing treatments alone or mixed with the herbicides, and a nonweeded treatment (control).The herbicide treatments were not superior to the two hand-hoeing treatments. Using compost favored growth and yield of faba bean more than of weeds. Adding fertilizer also improved most yield parameters. Application of compost alone or combined with 50 or 100% of the recommended NPK rate improved faba bean growth in terms of net assimilation rate, specific leaf area, and leaf weight ratio as components of relative growth rate. This improvement in growth resulted in increase of seed yield, yield components and protein of faba bean. Faba bean yield performance improved under interactive fertilizer effects and weed control treatments as growth improved, as a result of nutrient release from fertilizers and weed control.

Viral marketing in a Finnish medium sized gaming company: discovering, analyzing and building an improved management process for viral marketing campaigns, case: Nitrogames

The goal of this thesis is to build a viral marketing management framework for a Finnish medium sized gaming company. This is achieved by first finding and building a theoretical five step management process framework based on literature, analyzing current model and giving recommendations for the case company to develop its own management process. In addition, viral marketing research is still in early stage resulting this study to propose its own take on the definition in the theory part. Empirical part is based on qualitative interviews, campaign material and secondary sources and is aimed to find out and analyze the case company’s current viral marketing state and to give recommendations to it. The final outcome of the study is a general, theoretical management framework for viral marketing campaigns and specified recommendations for the case company.

Productizing professional marketing services through service blueprinting

The goal of this research is to study how knowledge-intensive business services can be productized by using the service blueprinting tool. As services provide the majority of jobs, GDP and productivity growth in Europe, their continuous development is needed for Europe to retain its global competitiveness. As services are turning more complex, their development becomes more difficult. The theoretical part of this study is based on researching productization in the context of knowledge-intensive business services. The empirical part is carried out as a case study in a KIBS company, and utilizes qualitative interviews and case materials. The final outcome of this study is an updated productization framework, designed for KIBS companies, and recommendations for the case company. As the results of this study indicate, productization expanded with service blueprinting can be a useful tool for KIBS companies to develop their services. The updated productization framework is provided for future reference.

Customer value assessment in business markets

Understanding how firms create, communicate, and deliver value to customers is a key factor when firms seek to differentiate in increasingly competitive and commoditized business markets. As product and price have become less important differentiators in many industries, suppliers are increasingly seeking ways to differentiate themselves based on delivered customer value. Therefore, to gain a holistic understanding on what their offerings are worth to the customer, suppliers need to conduct customer value assessment, which quantifies the impact of a supplier´s offering to customers’ costs and returns. However, from a managerial perspective, customer value assessment is the single most critical challenge for firms in business markets. Consequently, developing holistic frameworks for customer value assessment is seen as one of the most important research priorities for marketing research. The purpose of this study is to explore the process of customer value assessment in business markets. Business markets represent a context where an increasing number of industrial firms are transitioning from basic product offerings towards service-based and solution-oriented hybrid offerings, which emphasize value co-creation and realization in the long term, thus making it difficult to quantify their monetary value. This study employs exploratory and qualitative research design by applying inductive and discovery-oriented grounded theory and multiple case research methods. The empirical data comprise interviews with 61 managers from 12 industrial firms, including seven best practice firms in customer value assessment. The findings of this study show that customer value assessment is essentially a crossfunctional process, which involves several organizational functions. The process begins well before and continues long after the actual delivery, often until the end of a supplier´s offering’s life-cycle. Furthermore, the findings shed light on alternative strategies that firms in business markets can adopt to implement the customer value assessment process. Overall, the findings contribute to customer value research, the sales and organizational management literature, the service marketing and solutions business literature, and suggest several managerial implications on how firms in business markets can adopt a holistic approach to assess value created for customers.