Voittoa tavoittelemattoman organisaation asiakashankinnan suorituskyvyn mittaaminen

Tutkimuksen ensimmäinen tavoite on kaksiosainen. Aluksi pyrittiin selvittämään, kuinka voittoa tavoittelemattomalla sektorilla voidaan mitata asiakashankinnan suorituskykyä. Toiseksi tutkittiin, mikä on mittauksen tila Suomen voittoa tavoittelemattomassa sektorissa. Toinen tavoite oli rakentaa suorituskykymittaristo suurehkon järjestön asiakashankintaan ja pohtia asiakashankinnan tavoitteiden jalkauttamista mittareiden avulla. Ensimmäinen tavoite toteutettiin kirjallisuuskatsauksen ja kyselytutkimuksen avulla. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen perusteella rakennettiin kyselylomake, jota jaettiin suomalaisiin voittoa tavoittelemattomiin organisaatioihin. Kirjallisuuskatsauksessa selvisi, että suorituskyvyn kannalta tärkeintä olisi mitata kontaktien määrää siinä, missä kontaktien laatu ja prosessin sujuvuus toimivat täydentävinä mittauskohteina. Kyselytutkimuksen perusteella noin puolet vastaajaorganisaatioista mittasi toimintaansa ylipäätään. Käytetyt mittarit painottuivat asiakashankinnan laatuun. Toisen tavoitteen osalta mittaristo luotiin hyödyntämällä LUT:issa rakennetun SAKE-sovelluksen implementointiprosessia. Mittaristo kattaa sekä puhelimitse että kentällä tehdyn asiakashankinnan ja sähköisen markkinoinnin määrä- ja laatumittarit. Lisäksi on arvioitu, asiakashankinnan tavoitteet voidaan jalkauttaa käytännön työhön. Kirjallisuuskatsauksen avulla tehdyt johtopäätökset toimivat ohjenuorana, kun pohditaan vastaavan toiminnan mittaamista. Tehtyä mittaristoa ei ole tarkoituksenmukaista soveltaa muualla sellaisenaan, vaan mittaristo tulee aina sovittaa kohdeorganisaatioon. Kyselytutkimuksen tuloksia ei voida pienen vastaajamäärän takia yleistää järjestökenttään.

A systematic mapping study of web services discovery mechanisms

Context: Web services have been gaining popularity due to the success of service oriented architecture and cloud computing. Web services offer tremendous opportunity for service developers to publish their services and applications over the boundaries of the organization or company. However, to fully exploit these opportunities it is necessary to find efficient discovery mechanism thus, Web services discovering mechanism has attracted a considerable attention in Semantic Web research, however, there have been no literature surveys that systematically map the present research result thus overall impact of these research efforts and level of maturity of their results are still unclear. This thesis aims at providing an overview of the current state of research into Web services discovering mechanism using systematic mapping. The work is based on the papers published 2004 to 2013, and attempts to elaborate various aspects of the analyzed literature including classifying them in terms of the architecture, frameworks and methods used for web services discovery mechanism. Objective: The objective if this work is to summarize the current knowledge that is available as regards to Web service discovery mechanisms as well as to systematically identify and analyze the current published research works in order to identify different approaches presented. Method: A systematic mapping study has been employed to assess the various Web Services discovery approaches presented in the literature. Systematic mapping studies are useful for categorizing and summarizing the level of maturity research area. Results: The result indicates that there are numerous approaches that are consistently being researched and published in this field. In terms of where these researches are published, conferences are major contributing publishing arena as 48% of the selected papers were conference published papers illustrating the level of maturity of the research topic. Additionally selected 52 papers are categorized into two broad segments namely functional and non-functional based approaches taking into consideration architectural aspects and information retrieval approaches, semantic matching, syntactic matching, behavior based matching as well as QOS and other constraints.

Decision making and decision support in service systems

This thesis is a literature study that develops a conceptual model of decision making and decision support in service systems. The study is related to the Ä-Logi, Intelligent Service Logic for Welfare Sector Services research project, and the objective of the study is to develop the necessary theoretical framework to enable further research based on the research project results and material. The study first examines the concepts of service and service systems, focusing on understanding the characteristics of service systems and their implications for decision making and decision support to provide the basis for the development of the conceptual model. Based on the identified service system characteristics, an integrated model of service systems is proposed that views service systems through a number of interrelated perspectives that each offer different, but complementary, implications on the nature of decision making and the requirements for decision support in service systems. Based on the model, it is proposed that different types of decision making contexts can be identified in service systems that may be dominated by different types of decision making processes and where different types of decision support may be required, depending on the characteristics of the decision making context and its decision making processes. The proposed conceptual model of decision making and decision support in service systems examines the characteristics of decision making contexts and processes in service systems, and their typical requirements for decision support. First, a characterization of different types of decision making contexts in service systems is proposed based on the Cynefin framework and the identified service system characteristics. Second, the nature of decision making processes in service systems is proposed to be dual, with both rational and naturalistic decision making processes existing in service systems, and having an important and complementary role in decision making in service systems. Finally, a characterization of typical requirements for decision support in service systems is proposed that examines the decision support requirements associated with different types of decision making processes in characteristically different types of decision making contexts. It is proposed that decision support for the decision making processes that are based on rational decision making can be based on organizational decision support models, while decision support for the decision making processes that are based on naturalistic decision making should be based on supporting the decision makers’ situation awareness and facilitating the development of their tacit knowledge of the system and its tasks. Based on the proposed conceptual model a further research process is proposed. The study additionally provides a number of new perspectives on the characteristics of service systems, and the nature of decision making and requirements for decision support in service systems that can potentially provide a basis for further discussion and research, and support the practice alike.

Mirtazapine versus fluoxetine in the treatment of panic disorder

Mirtazapine is an antidepressant whose side effect profile differs from that of first-line agents (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) used in the treatment of panic disorder. The present study compared the effect of mirtazapine and fluoxetine in the treatment of panic disorder in a double-blind, randomized, flexible-dose trial conducted with outpatients. After a 1-week single-blind placebo run-in, 27 patients entered an 8-week double-blind phase in which they were randomly assigned to treatment with either mirtazapine or fluoxetine. Both groups improved significantly in all but one efficacy measure (P<=0.01). ANOVA showed no significant differences between the two treatment groups in number of panic attacks, Hamilton Anxiety Scale or Sheehan Phobic Scale, whereas measures of patient global evaluation of phobic anxiety were significantly different between groups (F1,20 = 6.91, P = 0.016) favoring mirtazapine. For the 22 patients who completed the study, the mean daily dose of mirtazapine was 18.3 ± 1.3 vs 14.0 ± 1.0 mg for fluoxetine at the endpoint. Weight gain occurred more frequently in the mirtazapine group (50 vs 7.7%, P = 0.04) and nausea and paresthesia occurred more often in the fluoxetine group (P = 0.01). Results suggest that mirtazapine has properties that make it attractive for the treatment of panic disorder.

Patient and physician evaluation of the severity of acute asthma exacerbations

We studied the ability of patients not experienced in the use of peak expiratory flow meters to assess the severity of their asthma exacerbations and compared it to the assessment of experienced clinicians. We also evaluated which data of physical examination and medical history are used by physicians to subjectively evaluate the severity of asthma attacks. Fifty-seven adult patients (15 men and 42 women, with a mean (± SD) age of 37.3 ± 14.5 years and 24.0 ± 17.9 years of asthma symptoms) with asthma exacerbations were evaluated in a University Hospital Emergency Department. Patients and physicians independently evaluated the severity of the asthma attack using a linear scale. Patient score, physician score and forced expiratory volume at the first second (FEV1) were correlated with history and physical examination variables, and were also considered as dependent variables in multiple linear regression models. FEV1 correlated significantly with the physician score (rho = 0.42, P = 0.001), but not with patient score (rho = 0.03; P = 0.77). Use of neck accessory muscles, expiratory time and wheezing intensity were the explanatory variables in the FEV1 regression model and were also present in the physician score model. We conclude that physicians evaluate asthma exacerbation severity better than patients and that physician's scoring of asthma severity correlated significantly with objective measures of airway obstruction (FEV1). Some variables (the use of neck accessory muscles, expiratory time and wheezing intensity) persisted as explanatory variables in physician score and FEV1 regression models, and should be emphasized in medical schools and emergency settings.

Effect of 5-HT1B receptor agonists injected into the prefrontal cortex on maternal aggression in rats

Serotonin (5-HT1B) receptors play an essential role in the inhibition of aggressive behavior in rodents. CP-94,253, a 5-HT1B receptor agonist, can reduce aggression in male mice when administered directly into the ventro-orbitofrontal (VO) prefrontal cortex (PFC). The objective of the current study was to assess the effects of two selective 5-HT1B receptor agonists (CP-94,253 and CP-93,129), microinjected into the VO PFC, on maternal aggressive behavior after social instigation in rats. CP-94,253 (0.56 µg/0.2 µL, N = 8, and 1.0 µg/0.2 µL, N = 8) or CP-93,129 (1.0 µg/0.2 µL, N = 9) was microinjected into the VO PFC of Wistar rats on the 9th day postpartum and 15 min thereafter the aggressive behavior by the resident female against a male intruder was recorded for 10 min. The frequency and duration of aggressive and non-aggressive behaviors were analyzed using ANOVA and post hoc tests. CP-93,129 significantly decreased maternal aggression. The frequency of lateral attacks, bites and pinnings was reduced compared to control, while the non-aggressive behaviors and maternal care were largely unaffected by this treatment. CP-94,253 had no significant effects on aggressive or non-aggressive behaviors when microinjected into the same area of female rats. CP-93,129, a specific 5-HT1B receptor agonist, administered into the VO PFC reduced maternal aggressive behavior, while the CP-94,253 agonist did not significantly affect this behavior after social instigation in female rats. We conclude that only the 5-HT1B receptor agonist CP-93,129 administered into the VO PFC decreased aggression in female rats postpartum after social instigation.

Enhancing business-to-business relationship through value co-creation in traditional business sector: A case of building services engineering

This study discusses the significance of having service as a business logic, and more specifically, how value co-creation can be seen as an enhancing phenomenon to business-to-business relationships in traditional business sector. The purpose of this study is to investigate how value cocreation can enhance a business-to-business relationship in the heating, ventilation and airconditioning (HVAC) industry of building services engineering, through three sub-objectives: to identify what is value in the industry, how value is co-created in the industry, and what is value in a business-to-business relationship in the industry. The theoretical part this study consists of academic knowledge and literature related to the concepts of value, value co-creation and business-to-business relationships. In order to research value co-creation and business-to-business relationships in HVAC industry of building services engineering both, metaphorical and conceptual thinking of service dominant (S-D) logic and more managerial approach of service logic (SL), contributed to the theoretical part of the study. The empirical research conducted for this study is based on seven semi-structured interviews, which constituted the holistic, qualitative single case study method chosen for the research. The data was collected in September 2014 from CEOs, managers and owners representing six building services engineering firms. The interviews were analysed with the help of transcriptions, role-ordered matrices and thematic networks. The findings of this study indicate that value in HVAC industry consists of client expertise and supplier expertise. The result of applying client expertise and supplier expertise to the business-to- business relationship is characterized as value-in-reputation, when continuity, interaction, learning and rapport of the business relationship are ensured. As a result, value co-creation in the industry consists of mutual and separate elements, which the client and the supplier apply in the process, in addition to proactive interaction. The findings of this study, together with the final framework, enhance the understanding of the connection existing between value co-creation and business-to-business relationship. The findings suggest that value in the HVAC industry is characterized by both value-in-use and value-inreputation. Value-in-reputation enhances the formation of value-in-use, and consequently, value cocreation enhances the business-to-business relationship. This study thus contributes to the existing knowledge on the concepts of value and value co-creation in business-to-business relationships.

eWOM communication in social media: A study of its antecedents in higher education context

The aim of this master’s thesis was to examine antecedents of eWOM communication in social media in the higher education context. In order to achieve this goal, eWOM communications of the students’ of international master’s programmes at Lappeenranta University of Technology were studied. The main research question was formulated as follows: What kind of effect do service-, brand-related antecedents, contextual antecedents and moderating factors have on LUT’s international master’s degree students’ eWOM communication in social media regarding their studies? The theory part of the master’s thesis was focused on the discussion of service- and brand related eWOM antecedents, contextual antecedents, as well as moderating relationships between them. The empirical part of the master’s thesis was based on quantitative research method. A web-based survey was carried out among current students of international master’s degree programmes at LUT. Out of 712 e-mail invitations sent, 159 responses were received in total. Thus, response rate was 22%. The results of the study showed that satisfaction, commitment, virtual brand community commitment, need for an advice, positive altruistic concerns, negative altruistic concerns, and attitude towards eWOM communications have an effect on eWOM in higher education context. Several moderating effects on eWOM were determined in the present study as well. On the other hand, it was found that dissatisfaction, loyalty, brand identification, desire to help the organization, need for positive self-enhancement, and social risk perception do not have an effect on eWOM in higher education context.

Psychopharmacotherapy of panic disorder: 8-week randomized trial with clonazepam and paroxetine

The objective of the present randomized, open-label, naturalistic 8-week study was to compare the efficacy and safety of treatment with clonazepam (N = 63) and paroxetine (N = 57) in patients with panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. Efficacy assessment included number of panic attacks and clinician ratings of the global severity of panic disorders with the clinical global impression (CGI) improvement (CGI-I) and CGI severity (CGI-S) scales. Most patients were females (69.8 and 68.4% in the clonazepam and paroxetine groups, respectively) and age (mean ± SD) was 35.9 ± 9.6 years for the clonazepam group and 33.7 ± 8.8 years for the paroxetine group. Treatment with clonazepam versus paroxetine resulted in fewer weekly panic attacks at week 4 (0.1 vs 0.5, respectively; P < 0.01), and greater clinical improvements at week 8 (CGI-I: 1.6 vs 2.9; P = 0.04). Anxiety severity was significantly reduced with clonazepam versus paroxetine at weeks 1 and 2, with no difference in panic disorder severity. Patients treated with clonazepam had fewer adverse events than patients treated with paroxetine (73 vs 95%; P = 0.001). The most common adverse events were drowsiness/fatigue (57%), memory/concentration difficulties (24%), and sexual dysfunction (11%) in the clonazepam group and drowsiness/fatigue (81%), sexual dysfunction (70%), and nausea/vomiting (61%) in the paroxetine group. This naturalistic study confirms the efficacy and tolerability of clonazepam and paroxetine in the acute treatment of patients with panic disorder.

Development of an Ecology-Oriented Software-Defined Networking Framework

ICT contributed to about 0.83 GtCO2 emissions where the 37% comes from the telecoms infrastructures. At the same time, the increasing cost of energy has been hindering the industry in providing more affordable services for the users. One of the sources of these problems is said to be the rigidity of the current network infrastructures which limits innovations in the network. SDN (Software Defined Network) has emerged as one of the prominent solutions with its idea of abstraction, visibility, and programmability in the network. Nevertheless, there are still significant efforts needed to actually utilize it to create a more energy and environmentally friendly network. In this paper, we suggested and developed a platform for developing ecology-related SDN applications. The main approach we take in realizing this goal is by maximizing the abstractions provided by OpenFlow and to expose RESTful interfaces to modules which enable energy saving in the network. While OpenFlow is made to be the standard for SDN protocol, there are still some mechanisms not defined in its specification such as settings related to Quality of Service (QoS). To solve this, we created REST interfaces for setting of QoS in the switches which can maximize network utilization. We also created a module for minimizing the required network resources in delivering packets across the network. This is achieved by utilizing redundant links when it is needed, but disabling them when the load in the network decreases. The usage of multi paths in a network is also evaluated for its benefit in terms of transfer rate improvement and energy savings. Hopefully, the developed framework can be beneficial for developers in creating applications for supporting environmentally friendly network infrastructures.

Creating better customer experiences: Service Design effects on customer experience

Pro gradu –tutkielman tavoitteena oli tutkia, kuinka palvelumuotoilua voidaan käyttää parempien asiakaskokemusten luomisessa. Tutkimuksen teoreettisessa osuudessa keskityttiin tutkimaan palvelumuotoilun ja asiakaskokemuksen käsitteitä. Tutkielman empiirinen osuus tehtiin laadullisena tutkimuksena, jossa vertailtiin asiakaskokemuksia kahdessa Espoon kaupungin yhteispalvelupisteessä: Leppävaarassa sijaitseva yhteispalvelupiste oli hiljattain suunniteltu uudelleen käyttäen palvelumuotoilun periaatteita; Matinkylän palvelupiste oli alkuperäisessä muodossaan tutkimuksen aikana. Tutkimuksen yhtenä tavoitteena oli myös selvittää, oliko palvelumuotoilun menetelmin tehty muotoiluprojekti Leppävaaran yhteispalvelupisteessä onnistunut, kun sitä arvioitiin asiakaskokemuksen näkökulmasta. Tutkielman aineisto kerättiin suoran havainnoinnin ja haastattelun keinoin. Yhteensä 33 yksittäistä asiakasta havannoitiin ja haastateltiin tutkimusta varten toukokuussa 2015. Vastaajat valikoituivat satunnaisesti havannointipäivien asiakkaista. Heitä havainnoitiin koko asiakaspolun ajan minkä jälkeen heitä haastateltiin. Tutkimuksen tulokset ovat kaksiosaiset. 1) Arvioitaessa asiakkaiden kokemuksia liittyen palvelutilan toimivuuteen ja aineelliseen ympäristöön todettiin, että palvelumuotoilulla saavuttettiin parempi asiakaskokemus, ja täten Leppävaaran muotoiluprojekti oli onnistunut tavoitteissaan. 2) Kun taas tuloksia tarkasteltiin asiakaspalvelutilanteiden näkökulmasta, projekti ei ollut päässyt tavoitteisiin ja palvelumuotoilun menetelmillä ei pystytty parantamaan asiakaskokemuksta. Espoon kaupungin muotoiluprojekti on vielä kesken, tulosten perusteella tutkija ehdotti jatkotoimenpiteenä muun muassa lisäkoulutusta palveluhenkilökunnalle.

Roadmap for Service Charging Development

Corporate support functions are increasingly being concentrated into service centers. Service Management principles guide companies in the transition. Service Financial Management is an integral part in supporting the strategic positioning of the service center. The main goal of this thesis is to create a step-by-step plan to improve and automate the service charging processes for the finance service function of the case company. Automating the service transaction data collection for reporting is expected to improve efficiency, reliability and transparency. Interviews with finance service managers are held to define current processes and areas for improvement. These create the basis for the creation of a development roadmap that takes place in two phases. The first phase is to create an environment where automation is possible, and the second phase is the automation of each finance service. Benchmarking interviews are held with the service centers in three other companies to discover best practices. The service charging processes between the studied companies are found incompatible, and suggestions for process automation cannot be inferred. Some implications of Service Financial Management decisions to the strategy of the service center are identified. The bundling of services and charging them inside or outside of the goal-setting frame of the business unit can be used to support the strategic choice and customer acceptance of the service center.

Quality of outsourced IT services in different degrees of offshoring

The Finnish IT service market can be described to be at a turning point. The clients are ever more interested on services delivered from offshore but certain issues keep them cautious. There is a lack of knowledge on what implications different degrees of offshoring have on service quality. Although there has been significant amount of research related to both service quality and offshoring, several questions are unanswered, terminology remains ambivalent and research findings are inconsistent. The study focuses on the interception of these two fields. The purpose of the study is to learn more about service quality in different degrees of offshoring. At the same time it aims to contribute in narrowing the research gaps. The degree of offshoring can be divided to three delivery modes: onshore, collaboration and offshore. The study takes a mixed method approach where the quantitative and qualitative phases are executed sequentially. First data was gathered from incident management system. Resolution time in different degrees of offshoring was analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis and Jonckheere-Terpstra tests. In addition, the compliance to Service Level Agreement (SLA) in different degrees of offshoring was examined with cross tabulation. The findings from the quantitative analysis suggested that the services with offshore delivery mode perform the best in terms of promptness and SLA compliance. However, several issues were found related to the data and for that reason, the findings should be considered with prudence. After the quantitative analysis, the study moved on to qualitative data collection and analysis. Four semi-structured interviews were held. The interviewees represented different organizational roles and had experiences from different delivery modes. Several themes were covered in the interviews, including: the concept of quality, the subjectivity or objectivity of service quality, expectations and prejudices towards offshore deliveries, quality produced in India, proactiveness of offshore resources, quality indicators and the scarcity of collaborative deliveries. Several conclusions can be made from the empirical research. Firstly, the quality in different delivery modes was found to be controversial topic. Secondly, in the collaborative delivery covered in the study, the way tasks and resources are allocated seem to cause issues. On the other hand inexperienced offshore resources are assigned to the delivery and on the other hand only routine tasks are assigned to the resources. This creates a self-enforcing loop that results in low motivation, low ownership and high employee turnover in offshore. Nevertheless, this issue is not characteristic only to collaborative deliveries but rather allocation of tasks and resources. Moreover, prejudices were identified to affect the perceived service quality in non-predictable way. The research also demonstrated that there is a need in focal company for further data gathering and analysis.

The impact on advanced economies of north-south trade in manufacturing and services

Many types of production are being transferred from the rich economies of the North to the poorer economies of the South. Such changes began in manufacturing but are now spreading to services. This paper provides estimates of their past and future impact on employment in the North. About 5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost over the past decade because of trade with low-wage economies. A similar number of service jobs may be lost to low-wage economies over the next decade. Although small compared to total employment, such losses may seriously harm certain localities or types of worker.

Critical elements underpinning the emergence of the medical game ecosystem: gamifying traumatic brain injury rehabilitation in Finland

The healthcare sector is currently in the verge of a reform and thus, the medical game research provide an interesting area of research. The aim of this study is to explore the critical elements underpinning the emergence of the medical game ecosystem with three sub-objectives: (1) to seek who are the key actors involved in the medical game ecosystem and identify their needs, (2) to scrutinise what types of resources are required in medical game development and what types of relationships are needed to secure those resources, and (3) to identify the existing institutions (‘the rules of the game’) affecting the emergence of the medical game ecosystem. The theoretical background consists of service ecosystems literature. The empirical study conducted is based on the semi-structured theme interviews of 25 experts in three relevant fields: games and technology, health and funding. The data was analysed through a theoretical framework that was designed based upon service ecosystems literature. The study proposes that the key actors are divided into five groups: medical game companies, customers, funders, regulatory parties and complementors. Their needs are linked to improving patient motivation and enhancing the healthcare processes resulting in lower costs. Several types of resources, especially skills and knowledge, are required to create a medical game. To gain access to those resources, medical game companies need to build complex networks of relationships. Proficiency in managing those value networks is crucial. In addition, the company should take into account the underlying institutions in the healthcare sector affecting the medical game ecosystem. Three crucial institutions were identified: validation, lack of innovation supporting structures in healthcare and the rising consumerisation. Based on the findings, medical games cannot be made in isolation. A developmental trajectory model of the emerging medical game ecosystem was created based on the empirical data. The relevancy of relationships and resources is dependent on the trajectory that the medical game company at that time resides. Furthermore, creating an official and documented database for clinically valdated medical games was proposed to establish the medical game market and ensure an adequate status for the effective medical games. Finally, ecosystems approach provides interesting future opportunities for research on medical game ecosystems.