The university role in society and economy is currently shifting from mere education and science to applied research and academic entrepreneurship. Highly competitive universities tend to signal about their entrepreneurial orientation by increasing rate of commercialization of the researches, technologies and inventions created by scholars within the institution. Nevertheless, despite this trend being very powerful nowadays, there are multiple hurdles in a way to successful commercialization. Certain criteria are required to transfer research or technology from university to industry which can be categorized in individual/inventor, institutional, technology and market perspectives. This research is mainly concentrated on studying commercialization of science based technological inventions from the market or business model perspectives. It also suggests that business model could be used by academic entrepreneurs and technology transfer offices as an effective tool to evaluate business opportunity created by the invention and endeavors to prove this suggestion on practice. In addition, this thesis reviews academic literature and provides in-depth view on following topics: university research commercialization and academic entrepreneurship, business model and business opportunity to build theoretical background for further analysis. The empirical part of the research was carried out on the ground of real case of commercialization project conducted within University of Oulu aiming to commercialize 3D solid-state laser scanner and create a university spin-off with this technology as main asset. The study follows qualitative approach based on action research. Selected method is especially beneficial in analyzing data collected during multiple meetings and discussions of project team in a period spanning around six months. The findings of the research revealed that examining the commercialization opportunity of science based technological invention is not an easy task — the evaluation process can be time consuming and requires comprehensive market research on each business opportunity. Proposed business model framework can be used to evaluate and, thus, identify most promising commercialization opportunities created by university based technologies, but under certain conditions. First, important market information on each application area should be available, so researchers should engage themselves into active information search from early stages. Second, real data from potential customers is required especially in case of emerging industry domains in order to answer the main questions making the evaluation process by academic entrepreneur possible — can the opportunity be considered as feasible and desirable. Addressing these queries carries predictive and very subjective nature, but positive assessment enables decision making, thus, being extremely important in entrepreneurship.

This study aims at finding out how ecosystems affect the development of startups. This is a current topic because startups are a prominent phenomenon, the development and growth of which studies have not been able to fully describe or explain so far. Furthermore, it has been noted that more research should be aimed at providing insights and guidelines for startup managers on how to grow their company, especially in the international markets. We are looking at the business ecosystem because it is a good way of describing the complex business environment of the startups today. By looking at the ecosystem that the startup is a part of, we can find out how the characteristics and interactions, as well as other actors and their actions can affect the development of a startup. Therefore, we need close observations on the ecosystem. The study approaches the startup development from a case study point of view and utilizes qualitative interview data as its primary source for analysis. The interviews are recorded and transcribed and the transcription coded. Within case analysis is utilized to get a more comprehensive and reliable understanding of the phenomenon. This study supports the view that ecosystems are important for startups and can offer them opportunities for development. It is noted that startups should take the ecosystem realities into consideration when strategizing and planning the activities and actions of the company. The specific ecosystem structures and ways of interaction and participation are important indicators on how a startup should participate in the ecosystem, what kind of information is available, what areas are to pursue and with what kind of strategies. It is also noted that different ecosystem actors, also other than for-profit companies, can be important for company development in the ecosystem. All, in all, the study offers support to the notion that business ecosystems are important these days, and that startups can benefit from knowing, participating in, and adjusting to these ecosystems. The results of this study can be used by startup managers to gain insights for planning and strategizing. The results can be used as guidance on what the managers should take into consideration when entering new international markets, but also point out the ways in which the ecosystem can affect the company development. The results can be generalized to some extent, even though this is a case study into a certain ecosystem and a certain startup as a part of that ecosystem.

Currently, more and more Chinese tourists choose to have outbound tourism as a way to relax themselves from daily stressful work. The purchasing power of Chinese tourists is noticeable, so that they strongly boost local economy and promote the development of tourism industry. Consequently, an increasingly number of countries realize the great potential of Chinese tourists and take measures to attract Chinese tourists. Finnish government also make great efforts to attract more Chinese tourists, such as setting up more visa centers in China and strengthening the marketing of Finland from tourism perspective by launching many campaigns. Accordingly, this thesis is aimed to contribute to the branding of Finland as a destination to attract more Chinese tourists. The thesis has a very solid theoretical background. It is supported by numerous previous academic achievements and main schools of thoughts in its field, featured by relational network destination branding model, image forming agents’ theory, framework of destination competitiveness. Many related concepts have been mentioned under the three main ideas, structured by destination branding, destination image, destination competitiveness. From this perspective, the thesis exhibits the comprehensive understanding of past literatures and paves the way to the empirical study. The study applies to in-depth interviews to collect data. The interviewee can be classified as two groups. One is from the actual tourists, the other is from practitioners who work in Finnish tourism bureau and are responsible with marketing Finland as the destination. The common findings are expected to generate in the aspect of Chinese tourists and Finland as a destination. Since this thesis is abductive by nature, a new model of destination branding process is proposed to enrich the knowledge in this field. It acknowledges the great importance of Word- of-Mouth in the process of destination branding and connects destination competitiveness with destination branding. Moreover, the study figures out how the destination branding of Finland is conducted in China and examines the effect of current destination branding channels. Suggestions have been proposed in order to get an effective destination branding, represented by expanding the content of destination branding, building psychological link between Chinese tourists and Finland as destination, strengthening the cooperation with destination management organizations. This study has not only theoretical implication in destination branding research field, but also it offers practical and adaptable tools to improve the tourism development of Finland to Chinese tourists.

The purpose of this master’s thesis is to enter into the context of service sector internationalization in Finland by examining one Finnish multinational enterprise offering professional services for consulting and planning. The company under my examination is FCG Finnish Consulting Group Ltd. (FCG) and international operations of the company are mainly focused on international development consultancy sector. In the beginning of 2016 FCG established the new subsidiary in Singapore to offer the best Nordic and international expertise to a growing number of clients in Asian development consultancy markets. The Singapore office has been running in full effect since summer 2016 and it’s derived by Finnish and Chinese employees and managers. The Singapore office is meant to work as an Asian hub that allows FCG to work closely with already existing and future customers in Asia. The goal of this master’s thesis is to research the market position legitimacy of FCG in Asia. The study will focus on the processes that in the early phase of internationalization affect the FCG’s position in the Asian markets and how these processes eventually legitimize FCG to be reliable operator in the market and end up overcoming the entry barriers. The research represents the qualitative research tradition in international business studies. In this master’s thesis the empirical primary data was collected through two semi-structured interviews. The secondary data consists of written documents and reports forming the framework for FCG’s international business and international development consultancy industry. With the systematic qualitative analysis this research offer holistic picture about researched phenomenon. The competitive bidding process and especially high requirements for previous references from previous development projects were identified to be crucial element in achieving market position legitimacy. Primary networks between consultancy firm and international development financiers and international professionals working for the development projects appear to be central networks affecting market position legitimacy formation. Also secondary networks between competitors and local governmental actors in project target countries are identified to have role in legitimacy formation. Mutual trust between consultancy actor and international development financiers creates organizational legitimacy for consultancy firms in new markets and local presence and high quality works carried out in previous projects affect the legitimacy formation. The results of this research can be used in managing and coordinating internationalization processes in international development consultancy sector. The findings are useful for also other type businesses in which public and highly structured and regulated bidding processes determine the transactions.

Nowadays, the great importance of tourism and its impact on the wide range of aspects of progress and globalization, development and international relations promotion does not ask for argumentations. The responsibility of providing this impact lays on every company in the sector: in addition to making profit, enterprises are in charge of satisfying the customers. Furthermore, the key mean to reaching these goals is to be found in experiences that people are so keen on receiving. Consequently, companies representing the tourism industry must focus on creating the best possible experiences, which will ensure them satisfied visitors, who will be willing to return again, and again. Theoretically the discussion is supported by the experience economy theory, which performs as a solid base to investigate the phenomenon of customer satisfaction. However, since the topic is multifaceted and should be analyzed appropriately, the study refers also to such notions as service quality, marketing destination and brand. Additionally, the issues connected to cross-cultural differences cannot be omitted while considering a company that belongs to tourism industry, and therefore serves the international flow of customers. The study is devoted to the exploration of customer satisfaction in an entertainment park in Finland, with the focus on visitors from Russia. The goals and objectives of the research were possible to be realized by using interviews and observation as methods of the study. In total 16 groups of people (mostly families) participated in data collection. The questionnaire was structured around three main topics: expectations from holidays, experience in the Park and Finnish Lapland as a touristic destination, therefore enabled to form a detailed understanding of the four realms of the experience, service quality, destination brand and marketing. Thus, the data analysis allowed evaluating current customer satisfaction level in the organization and offering the recommendations for developing it in the future seasons. The study contributes to customer satisfaction, tourism and cross-cultural research. The results of this research demonstrate the complexity of the analyzed phenomenon and endeavor to present the relation and mutual influence of the simultaneously considered notions. Thus, four realms of experiences appear to have different importance for the interviewed audience and therefore influenced the overall satisfaction accordingly. Next, service quality was planned to be measured on the base of expectations, but the insufficient amount of them led to the conclusion that it is not possible to rely only on expectations in this case. However, the ones that were discovered should be carefully followed in the developing of the services and customer satisfaction in general, in the future. Lastly, the insights about the perception of Lapland and opinion of the brand retrieved from the target group, can be used for improving the destination facilities, infrastructure and overall image, as well as correcting the destination marketing strategy.

The purpose of this study is to examine the motivations of certain entrepreneurs who decide to become social entrepreneurs. There was a gap in the knowledge of how and why social entrepreneurship attracts entrepreneurs and why they choose to operate as social enterprises instead of operating as more traditional companies. Social entrepreneurship is relatively new phenomenon in the field of entrepreneurial research, even though many of its components have existed under a different name for decades. Social entrepreneurs have a mission to solve social problems and their top priority is not to generate as much profit as possible to the shareholders, unlike traditional companies. In Finland, the research on the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship is still in its infancy. Therefore, it was important to add new and valuable information to the existing literature on the topic. Empirical data of the study were collected by conducting five semi-structured individual interviews via VoIP service Skype. The interviewees were social entrepreneurs who all provided health care and social welfare related services. Based on the empirical findings, the main reason why entrepreneurs choose to become social entrepreneurs is their value system. The interviewees expressed their willingness to create social value, help people who are less fortunate, solve social problems in the society, and operate their businesses as morally and ethically as possible. The interviewees want to be open and transparent in their business operations and threat their employees with respect and care for their well-being. Personality traits can contribute to the entrepreneurial orientation as well. Scores in the values of self-transcend, self-enhancement and conservation are the most important determinants of the entrepreneurial orientation. High scores in the values of self-transcend and conservation heavily suggest social orientation whereas high score in the value self-enhancement would indicate traditional orientation. The empirical data suggests that the values do predict entrepreneurial orientation. Indications for high scores in self-transcend and conservation were apparent, while indications for high score in self-enhancement were not present.

Digitalization in the modern economy creates a productivity platform that is regarded by many experts and researchers as the 4th industrial revolution. The dramatic increase of the project management related software development, combined with the decreasing costs of these solutions, have spurred a remarkable interest in these digital PM-solutions reducing the gap between the theory and practice of project management. The selection process of a feasible digital project management solution can be a highly demanding task for any organization regardless of the field it operates in. The aim of this study is to define the concept of project management digitalization, but also to evaluate how project management work can be further developed and supported by digital project management solutions. This research has a qualitative nature, and it is a empiria driven inductive case study, supported by a literature review. As a part of the case study, project management experts within the Supply Chain Engineering (SCE) -unit of Nokia have been interviewed. The empirical case study consists of a current state analysis and requirement specification of project management in Nokia MN/BM/SCE, but also from a comprehensive feasibility study of three state-of-art digital project management solutions available in the markets: JIRA, HP PPM and MS POL. A digitalization proposal was given for the case company on how to proceed in the project management digitalization journey, and what commercial solutions need to be taken in use. These digital PM-solutions can support project planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, but also make projects more predictable and manageable in terms of schedule, costs and quality. This study is strongly tied to recent development trends in the web- and cloud-based Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) and Decisions Support Systems (DSS), that set the basis for defining the new concept of project management digitalization. Several theoretical and business managerial conclusions can be drawn based on this study, that support the project management digitalization pursues of various organizations. Thus, most of the conclusions and results of this study can be exploited in organizations operating in other industries as well, especially when the target is in initiating the project management digitalization journey.

Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, millaisissa organisaation kriisitilanteissa suomalaiset yritykset ovat käyttäneet julkista anteeksipyyntöä tai brändiuudistusta maineen palauttamisen strategioina jouduttuaan negatiivisen julkisuuden tai arvostelun kohteeksi. Toipumisprosessien tutkiminen on tärkeää, sillä kriisin jälkeiset toimenpiteet vaikuttavat vahvasti yrityksen tulevaisuuden liiketoimintaan ja valmiuksiin vastata erilaisiin mediakohuihin ja mainekriiseihin. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin kahta erilaista maineen palauttamisen strategiaa: yritysmaineen palauttamista virheen myöntämisen ja julkisen anteeksipyynnön keinoin sekä maineen palauttamista brändiuudistuksen keinoin. Aineiston keruun menetelmänä käytettiin dokumenttianalyysiä. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittivat, että julkista anteeksipyyntöä on käytetty tilanteissa, joissa ominaista on ollut kriisin yllätyksellisyys, uhka organisaation toiminnalle ja jokin laukaiseva tekijä, joka on edellyttänyt välitöntä reagointia ja anteeksipyyntöä. Brändiuudistusta käytettäessä kriisin laukaisijana ei ole ollut niinkään yksittäinen teko tai sen paljastuminen sidosryhmille, vaan yrityksen tietyn toimintatavan nostaminen median välityksellä julkisuuteen. Lähes kaikki tutkittavat kriisit saivat alkunsa sosiaalisen median keskustelupalstoilta ja sen myötä viestintävälineiden uutisoinnista. Yritysten tulisi seurata näissä kanavissa käytävää keskustelua, sillä yleisön ja sidosryhmien mielipiteet yrityksestä heijastavat suoraan sen maineeseen.

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