CREATION OF INTERNATIONALIZATION CAPABILITIES IN FINNISH ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY SME’S

The purpose of this study is to identify successful capabilities that Finnish SME’s, in the environmental technology industry, use in their internationalization efforts. It is the goal of this study to create a list of guidelines and capabilities that other SME’s in this industry can use to help be more effective in their internationalization efforts. Through a study of three Finnish SME’s, in the growing environmental technologies sector, several common internationalization capabilities were identified to be helpful in their internationalization process. The common capabilities that were identified were then categorized together to show not only what capabilities were identified but if they came from firm, location or network specific advantages. As a result of the study, three dynamic capabilities were formulated as guidelines. These guidelines are designed so that a SME based in Finland, and in the environmental technology industry, could use them to help them in their own internationalization process.

Integration in project business : mechanisms for integrating customers and the project network during the life-cycle of industrial projects

This thesis focuses on integration in project business, i.e. how projectbased companies organize their product and process structures when they deliver industrial solutions to their customers. The customers that invest in these solutions run their businesses in different geographical, political and economical environments, which should be acknowledged by the supplier when providing solutions comprising of larger and more complex scopes than previously supplied to these customers. This means that the suppliers are increasing their supply range by taking over some of the activities in the value chain that have traditionally been handled by the customer. In order to be able to provide the functioning solutions, including more engineering hours, technical equipment and a wider project network, a change is needed in the mindset in order to be able to carry out and take the required responsibility that these new approaches bring. For the supplier it is important to be able to integrate technical products, systems and services, but the supplier also needs to have the capabilities to integrate the cross-functional organizations and departments in the project network, the knowledge and information between and within these organizations and departments, along with inputs from the customer into the product and process structures during the lifecycle of the project under development. Hence, the main objective of this thesis is to explore the challenges of integration that industrial projects meet, and based on that, to suggest a concept of how to manage integration in project business by making use of integration mechanisms. Integration is considered the essential process for accomplishing an industrial project, whereas the accomplishment of the industrial project is considered to be the result of the integration. The thesis consists of an extended summary and four papers, that are based on three studies in which integration mechanisms for value creation in industrial project networks and the management of integration in project business have been explored. The research is based on an inductive approach where in particular the design, commissioning and operations functions of industrial projects have been studied, addressing entire project life-cycles. The studies have been conducted in the shipbuilding and power generation industries where the scopes of supply consist of stand-alone equipment, equipment and engineering, and turnkey solutions. These industrial solutions include demanding efforts in engineering and organization. Addressing the calls for more studies on the evolving value chains of integrated solutions, mechanisms for inter- and intra-organizational integration and subsequent value creation in project networks have been explored. The research results in thirteen integration mechanisms and a typology for integration is proposed. Managing integration consists of integrating the project network (the supplier and the sub-suppliers) and the customer (the customer’s business purpose, operations environment and the end-user) into the project by making use of integration mechanisms. The findings bring new insight into research on industrial project business by proposing integration of technology and engineering related elements with elements related to customer oriented business performance in contemporary project environments. Thirteen mechanisms for combining products and the processes needed to deliver projects are described and categorized according to the impact that they have on the management of knowledge and information. These mechanisms directly relate to the performance of the supplier, and consequently to the functioning of the solution that the project provides. This thesis offers ways to promote integration of knowledge and information during the lifecycle of industrial projects, enhancing the development towards innovative solutions in project business.

Strategic outsourcing of R&D: The location-specific advantages of India to the pharmaceutical industry

Companies are increasingly under pressure to be more efficient both in terms of costs and overall performance and thus, they seek new ways to develop their products and innovate. For pharmaceutical industry it can take several decades to launch a new drug to the markets. Since pharmaceutical industry is one of the most research-intensive industries, is outsourcing one way to enhance the R&D processes of such companies. It is said that outsourcing to offshore locations is vastly more challenging and complicated than any other exporting activity or inter-company relationship that has evoked a lot of discussion. By outsourcing strategically, companies must also thoroughly focus on transaction costs and core competences. Today, the suppliers are looked for beyond national boundaries and furthermore, the location of the outsourcing activity must also be thoroughly considered. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to analyze what is known of strategic outsourcing of pharmaceutical R&D to India. In order to meet the purpose of the study, this study tries to answer three sub-questions set to it: first, what is strategic outsourcing, second, why pharmaceutical companies utilize strategic outsourcing of R&D and last, why pharmaceutical companies select India as the location for outsourcing their R&D. The study is a qualitative study. The purpose of the study was approached by a literature review with systematic elements and sub-questions were analyzed through different relevant theories, such as theory of transaction costs, core competences and location advantages. Applicable academic journal articles were comprehensively included in the study. The data was collected from electronic journal article databases using key words and almost only peer-reviewed, as new as possible articles were included. Also both the reference list of the included articles and article recommendations from professionals generated more articles for inclusion. The data was analyzed through thematization that resulted in themes that illuminate the purpose of the study and sub-questions. As an outcome of the analysis, each of the theory chapters in the study represents one sub-question. The literature used in this study revealed that strategic outsourcing of R&D is increasingly used in pharmaceutical industry and the major motives to practice it has to do with lowering costs, accessing skilled labor, resources and knowledge and enhancing their quality while speeding up the introduction of new drugs. Mainly for the above-mentioned motives India is frequently chosen as the target location for pharma outsourcers. Still, the literature is somewhat incomplete in this complex phenomenon and more research is needed.

From network pictures to network insight in solution business – the role of internal communication

Operating in business-to-business markets requires an in-depth understanding on business networks. Actions and reactions made to compete in markets are fundamentally based on managers‘ subjective perceptions of the network. However, an amalgamation of these individual perceptions, termed a network picture, to a common company level shared understanding on that network, known as network insight, is found to be a substantial challenge for companies. A company‘s capability to enhance common network insight is even argued to lead competitive advantage. Especially companies with value creating logics that require wide comprehension of and collaborating in networks, such as solution business, are necessitated to develop advanced network insight. According to the extant literature, dispersed pieces of atomized network pictures can be unified to a common network insight through a process of amalgamation that comprises barriers/drivers of multilateral exchange, manifold rationality, and recursive time. However, the extant body of literature appears to lack an understanding on the role of internal communication in the development of network insight. Nonetheless, the extant understanding on the amalgamation process indicates that internal communication plays a substantial role in the development of company level network insight. The purpose of the present thesis is to enhance understanding on internal communication in the amalgamation of network pictures to develop network insight in the solution business setting, which was chosen to represent business-to-business value creating logic that emphasizes the capability to understand and utilize networks. Thus, in solution business the role of succeeding in the amalgamation process is expected to emphasize. The study combines qualitative and quantitative research by means of various analytical methods including multiple case analysis, simulation, and social network analysis. Approaching the nascent research topic with differing perspectives and means provides a broader insight on the phenomenon. The study provides empirical evidence from Finnish business-to-business companies which operate globally. The empirical data comprise interviews (n=28) with managers of three case companies. In addition the data includes a questionnaire (n=23) collected mainly for the purpose of social network analysis. In addition, the thesis includes a simulation study more specifically achieved by means of agent based modeling. The findings of the thesis shed light on the role of internal communication in the amalgamation process, contributing to the emergent discussion of network insights and thus to the industrial marketing research. In addition, the thesis increases understanding on internal communication in the change process to solution business, a supplier‘s internal communication in its matrix organization structure during a project sales process, key barriers and drivers that influence internal communication in project sales networks, perceived power within industrial project sales, and the revisioning of network pictures. According to the findings, internal communication is found to play a substantial role in the amalgamation process. First, it is suggested that internal communication is a base of multilateral exchange. Second, it is suggested that internal communication intensifies and maintains manifold rationality. Third, internal communication is needed to explicate the usually differing time perspectives of others and thus it is suggested that internal communication has role as the explicator of recursive time. Furthermore, the role of an efficient amalgamation process is found to be emphasized in solutions business as it requires a more advanced network insight for cross-functional collaboration. Finally, the thesis offers several managerial implications for industrial suppliers to enhance the amalgamation process when operating in solution business.

The Finnish National Digital Library: a national service is developed in collaboration with a network of libraries, archives and museums

Insight-lehden numerossa 26 (Maaliskuu 2013) julkaistu artikkeli.

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.

Finnish cleantech SMEs in China: Challenges and solutions

The rapid economic growth in China has resulted in environmental challenges ranging from air pollution to water-related issues. Thus supporting clean technology, or cleantech, that encompasses industries that focus on alternative energy, pollution and recycling, power supplies and conservation has become one of the focal points in the Chinese economic policy for the next decade. Simultaneously, the Finnish government has initiated programs to support the internationalisation of domestic cleantech companies in an attempt to spiral the industry into one of the pillars of Finnish economic growth. This study concentrates on the conjunction of these two themes and studies the challenges faced by Finnish cleantech SMEs in the Chinese market. Consequently, the study answers the following sub questions: 1. What human and financial resource-based challenges do Finnish cleantech SMEs face in the Chinese market and what are their solutions? 2. What knowledge-based challenges do Finnish cleantech SMEs face in the Chinese market and how can these difficulties be resolved? 3. What network-based challenges do Finnish cleantech SMEs face in the Chinese market, how do they relate to the resource- and knowledge-based challenges, and how can these difficulties be resolved? This qualitative study is conducted by analysing four semi structured interviews collected from four Finnish SMEs that operate in China. The findings of the study indicate that in human resources the most important challenges are related to the hiring and retaining of employees. In contrast to extant academic literature results distinguish salary and social status as the main solutions to this challenge. Regarding financial resources it is discovered that cleantech companies enjoy a benign business environment in China and benefit from the Chinese government’s support for cleantech industry. Challenges related to knowledge resources can be grouped into categories with the most interesting knowledge flows being the stream of local market knowledge into to the foreign parent company and the outward flow of manufacturing and business practice information into the target venture. The challenge related to the first flow is gathering relevant information and the main solutions are clustering at the foreign location and hiring knowledge prior to internationalisation. Regarding the second flow the main challenge is related to intellectual property rights and the most interesting solution is the purposeful transformation of explicit knowledge into tacit knowledge. Finally, it is discovered that networks, called guanxi in China, greatly affect the business processes. Within the guanxi system there is the concept of face which was found to affect employee propensity to stay as well as, as a novel academic result, employees’ knowledge sharing intention.

The Role of Universities in the Triple Helix model of innovation management within the biotechnology industry, Case example: Turku Science Park Network

Biotechnology has been recognized as the key strategic technology for industrial growth. The industry is heavily dependent on basic research. Finland continues to rank in the top 10 of Europe's most innovative countries in terms of tax-policy, education system, infrastructure and the number of patents issued. Regardless of the excellent statistical results, the output of this innovativeness is below acceptable. Research on the issues hindering the output creation has already been done and the identifiable weaknesses in the Finland's National Innovation system are the non-existent growth of entrepreneurship and the missing internationalization. Finland is proven to have all the enablers of the innovation policy tools, but is lacking the incentives and rewards to push the enablers, such as knowledge and human capital, forward. Science Parks are the biggest operator in research institutes in the Finnish Science and Technology system. They exist with the purpose of speeding up the commercialization process of biotechnology innovations which usually include technological uncertainty, technical inexperience, business inexperience and high technology cost. Innovation management only internally is a rather historic approach, current trend drives towards open innovation model with strong triple helix linkages. The evident problems in the innovation management within the biotechnology industry are examined through a case study approach including analysis of the semi-structured interviews which included biotechnology and business expertise from Turku School of Economics. The results from the interviews supported the theoretical implications as well as conclusions derived from the pilot survey, which focused on the companies inside Turku Science Park network. One major issue that the Finland's National innovation system is struggling with is the fact that it is technology driven, not business pulled. Another problem is the university evaluation scale which focuses more on number of graduates and short-term factors, when it should put more emphasis on the cooperation success in the long-term, such as the triple helix connections with interaction and knowledge distribution. The results of this thesis indicated that there is indeed requirement for some structural changes in the Finland's National innovation system and innovation policy in order to generate successful biotechnology companies and innovation output. There is lack of joint output and scales of success, lack of people with experience, lack of language skills, lack of business knowledge and lack of growth companies.

“Valley co-creation” – exploring the emergence of a cultural product in an entrepreneur-driven value network: Case study: Black Weekend festival

The interconnected domains are attracting interest from industries and academia, although this phenomenon, called ‘convergence’ is not new. Organizational research has indeed focused on uncovering co-creation for manufacturing and the industrial organization, with limited implications to entrepreneurship. Although convergence has been characterized as a process connecting seemingly disparate disciplines, it is argued that these studies tend to leave the creative industries unnoticed. With the art market boom and new forms of collaboration riding past the institution-focused arts marketing literature, this thesis takes a leap to uncover the processes of entrepreneurship in the emergence of a cultural product. As a symbolic work of synergism itself, the thesis combines organizational theory with literature in natural sciences and arts. Assuming nonlinearity, a framework is created for analysing aesthetic experience in an empirical event where network actors are connected to multiple contexts. As the focal case in study, the empirical analysis performed for a music festival organized in a skiing resort in the French Alps in March. The researcher attends the festival and models its cocreation process by enquiring from an artist, festival organisers, and a festival visitor. The findings contribute to fields of entrepreneurship, aesthetics and marketing mainly. It is found that the network actors engage in intimate and creative interaction where activity patterns are interrupted and cultural elements combined. This process is considered to both create and destruct value, through identity building, legitimisation, learning, and access to larger audiences, and it is considered particularly useful for domains where resources are too restrained for conventional marketing practices. This thesis uncovered the role of artists and informants and posits that particularly through experience design, this type of skilled individual be regarded more often as a research informant. Future research is encouraged to engage in convergence by experimenting with different fields and research designs, and it is suggested that future studies could arrive at different descriptive results.

Drivers and barriers of mobile travel and tourism service adoption : a study of individual perceptions and business model development in a travel and tourism context

The Travel and Tourism field is undergoing changes due to the rapid development of information technology and digital services. Online travel has profoundly changed the way travel and tourism organizations interact with their customers. Mobile technology such as mobile services for pocket devices (e.g. mobile phones) has the potential to take this development even further. Nevertheless, many issues have been highlighted since the early days of mobile services development (e.g. the lack of relevance, ease of use of many services). However, the wide adoption of smartphones and the mobile Internet in many countries as well as the formation of so-called ecosystems between vendors of mobile technology indicate that many of these issues have been overcome. Also when looking at the numbers of downloaded applications related to travel in application stores like Google Play, it seems obvious that mobile travel and tourism services are adopted and used by many individuals. However, as business is expected to start booming in the mobile era, many issues have a tendency to be overlooked. Travelers are generally on the go and thus services that work effectively in mobile settings (e.g. during a trip) are essential. Hence, the individuals’ perceived drivers and barriers to use mobile travel and tourism services in on-site or during trip settings seem particularly valuable to understand; thus this is one primary aim of the thesis. We are, however, also interested in understanding different types of mobile travel service users. Individuals may indeed be very different in their propensity to adopt and use technology based innovations (services). Research is also switching more from investigating issues of mobile service development to understanding individuals’ usage patterns of mobile services. But designing new mobile services may be a complex matter from a service provider perspective. Hence, our secondary aim is to provide insights into drivers and barriers of mobile travel and tourism service development from a holistic business model perspective. To accomplish the research objectives seven different studies have been conducted over a time period from 2002 – 2013. The studies are founded on and contribute to theories within diffusion of innovations, technology acceptance, value creation, user experience and business model development. Several different research methods are utilized: surveys, field and laboratory experiments and action research. The findings suggest that a successful mobile travel and tourism service is a service which supports one or several mobile motives (needs) of individuals such as spontaneous needs, time-critical arrangements, efficiency ambitions, mobility related needs (location features) and entertainment needs. The service could be customized to support travelers’ style of traveling (e.g. organized travel or independent travel) and should be easy to use, especially easy to take into use (access, install and learn) during a trip, without causing security concerns and/or financial risks for the user. In fact, the findings suggest that the most prominent barrier to the use of mobile travel and tourism services during a trip is an individual’s perceived financial cost (entry costs and usage costs). It should, however, be noted that regulations are put in place in the EU regarding data roaming prices between European countries and national telecom operators are starting to see ‘international data subscriptions’ as a sales advantage (e.g. Finnish Sonera provides a data subscription in the Baltic and Nordic region at the same price as in Finland), which will enhance the adoption of mobile travel and tourism services also in international contexts. In order to speed up the adoption rate travel service providers could consider e.g. more local initiatives of free Wi-Fi networks, development of services that can be used, at least to some extent, in an offline mode (do not require costly network access during a trip) and cooperation with telecom operators (e.g. lower usage costs for travelers who use specific mobile services or travel with specific vendors). Furthermore, based on a developed framework for user experience of mobile trip arrangements, the results show that a well-designed mobile site and/or native application, which preferably supports integration with other mobile services, is a must for true mobile presence. In fact, travel service providers who want to build a relationship with their customers need to consider a downloadable native application, but in order to be found through the mobile channel and make contact with potential new customers, a mobile website should be available. Moreover, we have made a first attempt with cluster analysis to identify user categories of mobile services in a travel and tourism context. The following four categories were identified: info-seekers, checkers, bookers and all-rounders. For example “all-rounders”, represented primarily by individuals who use their pocket device for almost any of the investigated mobile travel services, constituted primarily of 23 to 50 year old males with high travel frequency and great online experience. The results also indicate that travel service providers will increasingly become multi-channel providers. To manage multiple online channels, closely integrated and hybrid online platforms for different devices, supporting all steps in a traveler process should be considered. It could be useful for travel service providers to focus more on developing browser-based mobile services (HTML5-solutions) than native applications that work only with specific operating systems and for specific devices. Based on an action research study and utilizing a holistic business model framework called STOF we found that HTML5 as an emerging platform, at least for now, has some limitations regarding the development of the user experience and monetizing the application. In fact, a native application store (e.g. Google Play) may be a key mediator in the adoption of mobile travel and tourism services both from a traveler and a service provider perspective. Moreover, it must be remembered that many device and mobile operating system developers want service providers to specifically create services for their platforms and see native applications as a strategic advantage to sell more devices of a certain kind. The mobile telecom industry has moved into a battle of ecosystems where device makers, developers of operating systems and service developers are to some extent forced to choose their development platforms.

A cyber security architecture for military networks using a cognitive network approach

Cyber security is one of the main topics that are discussed around the world today. The threat is real, and it is unlikely to diminish. People, business, governments, and even armed forces are networked in a way or another. Thus, the cyber threat is also facing military networking. On the other hand, the concept of Network Centric Warfare sets high requirements for military tactical data communications and security. A challenging networking environment and cyber threats force us to consider new approaches to build security on the military communication systems. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a cyber security architecture for military networks, and to evaluate the designed architecture. The architecture is described as a technical functionality. As a new approach, the thesis introduces Cognitive Networks (CN) which are a theoretical concept to build more intelligent, dynamic and even secure communication networks. The cognitive networks are capable of observe the networking environment, make decisions for optimal performance and adapt its system parameter according to the decisions. As a result, the thesis presents a five-layer cyber security architecture that consists of security elements controlled by a cognitive process. The proposed architecture includes the infrastructure, services and application layers that are managed and controlled by the cognitive and management layers. The architecture defines the tasks of the security elements at a functional level without introducing any new protocols or algorithms. For evaluating two separated method were used. The first method is based on the SABSA framework that uses a layered approach to analyze overall security of an organization. The second method was a scenario based method in which a risk severity level is calculated. The evaluation results show that the proposed architecture fulfills the security requirements at least at a high level. However, the evaluation of the proposed architecture proved to be very challenging. Thus, the evaluation results must be considered very critically. The thesis proves the cognitive networks are a promising approach, and they provide lots of benefits when designing a cyber security architecture for the tactical military networks. However, many implementation problems exist, and several details must be considered and studied during the future work.

Detection of Horizontal Two-Phase Flow Patterns Through a Neural Network Model

One of the main problems related to the transport and manipulation of multiphase fluids concerns the existence of characteristic flow patterns and its strong influence on important operation parameters. A good example of this occurs in gas-liquid chemical reactors in which maximum efficiencies can be achieved by maintaining a finely dispersed bubbly flow to maximize the total interfacial area. Thus, the ability to automatically detect flow patterns is of crucial importance, especially for the adequate operation of multiphase systems. This work describes the application of a neural model to process the signals delivered by a direct imaging probe to produce a diagnostic of the corresponding flow pattern. The neural model is constituted of six independent neural modules, each of which trained to detect one of the main horizontal flow patterns, and a last winner-take-all layer responsible for resolving when two or more patterns are simultaneously detected. Experimental signals representing different bubbly, intermittent, annular and stratified flow patterns were used to validate the neural model.

The Influence of Network Competence on Internationalization of SMEs

This study focuses on the relationship between organizational network competence and the internationalization process of small- and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Over recent decades, the global business environment has become increasingly conducive to internationalization of small firms. A central facilitating factor in the process has been the emergence of networked business relationships between internationalizing firms. Research on SME internationalization has found that certain types of structures and dynamics of business networks allow SMEs access to the resources they need to enter foreign markets. This consequently means that their internationalization often becomes to depend on the networks they are embedded in. However, research so far has mostly ignored the possibility that the organizational ability to develop and manage business network relationships, network competence, may be a major underlying factor in determining how well SMEs can leverage their network relationships to enter foreign markets and consequently may determine in large part how successful their internationalization process turns out to be. This study aims to respond to those gaps, by empirically examining how the development of network competence in internationalizing SMEs influences the internationalization outcomes that they can expect, and how such network competence is conceptualized and developed. Using a mixed methods approach, survey data collected from 298 Finnish SMEs across five industry sectors is first used to examine how levels of network competence are related to internationalization propensity of SMEs and their subsequent international performance, growth and profitability as internationally operating firms. In order to illustrate in more detail the ways in which network competence is conceptualized and how it develops during the internationalization process of an SME, qualitative data from internationally operating Finnish SMEs are used. Longitudinal interview data of an internationalizing Finnish SME is accompanied by data gathered through a series of semistructured interviews of Finnish and Russian managers involved in mutual business relationship dyads. Structurally, this thesis examines the research issue as an article-based dissertation, consisting of five journal and conference publications. Three of these publications are based on the quantitative data, and the remaining two apply the qualitative interview data. The results find several aspects where network competence has a positive influence on the success of internationalizing SMEs, how it develops and what it entails conceptually in this context. Quantitatively, the level of network competence is found to have a positive relationship to various internationalization outcomes, including the propensity of SMEs to enter foreign markets and on their subsequent international performance, their growth and their profitability. Additionally, the positive relationship is divided between the relationship-specific and cross-relational dimension of network competence, in that the influence of the former is relevant for the propensity to internationalize, while the latter is for the growth and profitability of the already internationalized SMEs. Qualitatively, the results suggest, firstly, that the development process of network competence does not necessarily precede the start of the internationalization process, but may occur through a gradual learning process alongside it. And secondly, the results also imply that the conceptualization of network competence by Finnish managers of internationally operating Finnish SMEs is structurally distinct from that of their culturally distinct partner managers in Russia. This study contributes to the literature on SME internationalization in several ways. Firstly, it introduces operationalized organizational competencies to the literature on internationalization of SMEs, which has so far mainly examined the influence of business networking on the internationalization process without having such an organizational viewpoint. Furthermore, this study provides a multi-level analysis of the determinants of successful SME internationalization, by examining various strategic and performance outcomes across the process. These results also contribute to the literature on organizational strategy of internationalizing SMEs, by clarifying how different dimensions of business networking may be optimal in different phases of the internationalization process. Conceptually, the results of this study contribute to the literature on competence development and SME internationalization, by illustrating how the development process of network competence may occur during internationalization process. Thus, they also contribute to the discussion on how SMEs are able to influence the dynamics and structures of their business networks over time. Finally, this study contributes to the literature on the role of culture in the internationalization process, by implying that the cultural background of the manager of the SME may determine whether business networking and network competence is seen as an organizational-level or an individual level capability. The study also includes some additional contributions to the literature on dynamic capabilities in strategic management, and on that of strategic business networks. These include further clarifying the exact nature and tangibility of dynamic capabilities, and being one of the first studies to introduce constructs from both dynamic capabilities and business network literature to the field of international entrepreneurship. And finally, the study also has some contribution on the two streams of literature, in illustrating how both dyadic and network-level capabilities may be relevant, depending on the current strategic goals and market position of the firm. Keywords: network competence, internationalizatio

Performance measurement and management in a collaborative network

This study concerns performance measurement and management in a collaborative network. Collaboration between companies has been increased in recent years due to the turbulent operating environment. The literature shows that there is a need for more comprehensive research on performance measurement in networks and the use of measurement information in their management. This study examines the development process and uses of a performance measurement system supporting performance management in a collaborative network. There are two main research questions: how to design a performance measurement system for a collaborative network and how to manage performance in a collaborative network. The work can be characterised as a qualitative single case study. The empirical data was collected in a Finnish collaborative network, which consists of a leading company and a reseller network. The work is based on five research articles applying various research methods. The research questions are examined at the network level and at the single network partner level. The study contributes to the earlier literature by producing new and deeper understanding of network-level performance measurement and management. A three-step process model is presented to support the performance measurement system design process. The process model has been tested in another collaborative network. The study also examines the factors affecting the process of designing the measurement system. The results show that a participatory development style, network culture, and outside facilitators have a positive effect on the design process. The study increases understanding of how to manage performance in a collaborative network and what kind of uses of performance information can be identified in a collaborative network. The results show that the performance measurement system is an applicable tool to manage the performance of a network. The results reveal that trust and openness increased during the utilisation of the performance measurement system, and operations became more transparent. The study also presents a management model that evaluates the maturity of performance management in a collaborative network. The model is a practical tool that helps to analyse the current stage of the performance management of a collaborative network and to develop it further.