The aim of this study is to recognize recruiting methods, tools and practices in game development industry in Oulu region. This study tries to discover how game companies recruit new personnel and are there similarities between companies. The study tries to answer five questions: Where does the game industry recruit new employees? Is it common to use social media in recruitment in the game industry? How has the recruitment process changed over the years? Is there a change from traditional recruitment methods to new, modern social networking and virtual recruitment? What are the most popular and efficient recruiting sources in the game industry? This study is a qualitative study. The study includes introduction to previous recruitment theories and discussion about relevant findings of the previous studies in the field of recruiting. Empirical study was conducted in Oulu region by interviewing three game companies. Companies involved had to employ at least 10 full-time employees. Interviews were semi-structured interviews. During this study, it was found out that some recruitment activities were similar among the interviewed companies. To further elaborate this, the study categorizes recruitment sources into four separate recruitment channels. Four recruitment channels are internal exploration, external exploration, external attraction and internal education. Preference to which channel the company uses is highly dependent on the age and surroundings of the company. Companies use social media for various recruitment activities. As there are variations in social media platforms, game companies have chosen to use platforms which they find most useful for their activities. Game development industry has utilized virtual recruitment tools in their recruitment processes. They update tools frequently, in order to improve their processes. More traditional ways of recruiting is less used. Social networking and recruiting through it is highlighted. The findings of this study can be generalized to Oulu region and other medium sized regions of game development industry in Finland. This study provides recruitment viewpoints for small businesses and especially startups in the game industry. It can be used when deciding where to start looking for potential employees.

Tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää millainen ilmiö alisuoriutuminen on työelämässä ja millaisin keinoin henkilöstöjohto pystyisi vaikuttamaan siihen. Pääpaino keskittyy siihen, millaiset tekijät voivat olla yhteydessä alisuoriutumisen syntymiseen ja kuinka alisuoriutuvan työntekijän voi tunnistaa organisaatiossa. Tarkastelu keskittyy työmotivaation vaikutukseen alisuoriutumisen kehittymisessä ja sen kautta pyritään myös löytämään keinoja alisuoriutuvien työntekijöiden johtamiseen. Tarkoituksena on lisätä tietoisuutta alisuoriutumisilmiöstä organisaatiotasolla ja kannustaa tutkijoita ilmiön laaja-alaisempaan tutkimisiin työelämässä. Tutkielma on toteutettu kirjallisuuskatsauksena. Se ei sisällä lainkaan empiiristä osuutta vaan tiedot perustuvat erilaisiin sekundäärilähteisiin. Tutkielma pohjautuu käsitteelliseen viitekehykseen, joka koostuu alisuoriutumisen ja työmotivaation käsitteistä. Käsitteiden pohjalta on toteutettu analyysi alisuoriutumisen ja motivaation yhteydestä sekä mahdollisista keinoista johtaa alisuoriutumista motivaation kautta. Tutkielma osoittaa alisuoriutumisen olevan tärkeä tutkimuskohde myös organisaatiotasolla. Organisaation johdolla on mahdollisuuksia vaikuttaa työntekijöiden suoriutumiseen erilaisin keinoin. Oleellista on, että johtohenkilöt ovat tietoisia alisuoriutumisilmiöstä ja sen vaikutuksista. Henkilöstöjohdon tulee osata tunnistaa alisuoriutuva työntekijä voidakseen tukea hänen suoriutumistaan ja saadakseen hänen täyden potentiaalin organisaation käyttöön. Luomalla avoin ja kannustava työympäristö, jossa määritellään selkeät tavoitteet, jaetaan vastuuta ja osallistetaan työntekijöitä koko organisaation toimintaa, pystytään pitämään työntekijöiden motivaatiotasoa yllä ja vähentää alisuoriutumisen riskiä.

Tässä tutkielmassa selvitetään, miten suomalaiset yritykset teettävät opinnäytteitä (pro gradu ja diplomityö) sekä miten opinnäytteitä hyödynnetään yrityksissä. Lisäksi tutkitaan millaisia vaiheita opinnäytteen teettäminen sisältää yrityksen näkökulmasta käytännössä. Vaiheiden selvittämisen jälkeen on mahdollista tunnistaa haasteita ja kehityskohteita yritysten opinnäyteprosessissa. Tiedon johtamisen ja tietopääoma teorioihin pohjautuen, tavoite on rakentaa prosessimalli toimeksianto-opinnäytteiden teettämisestä. Tutkielmassa siis vastataan kysymykseen: Miten yritysten tulisi johtaa opinnäyteprosessia, jotta tietopääomaa muodostuisi tavalla, joka kasvattaisi innovointikykyä? Tutkimus suoritettiin laadullisena tapaustutkimuksena ja empiirinen aineisto kerättiin teemahaastatteluin. Haastatteluita tehtiin yhteensä viisitoista yhdeksässä eri yrityksessä. Haastateltaviksi valittiin sekä liiketoimintayksiköiden että henkilöstöosastojen asiantuntijoita. Teemoittelu valittiin aineiston analyysimenetelmäksi, koska sen avulla on mahdollista havaita toistuvia teemoja ja yhteisiä ominaisuuksia aineistosta. Saadaksemme selville ja ymmärtääksemme miten useita kymmeniä opinnäytteitä vuodessa teettävät yritykset organisoivat opinnäytteiden teettämisen, rajasimme tutkimuksen suuriin suomalaisiin yrityksiin. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että yritykset hyödyntävät opinnäytteitä sekä rekrytoinnissa että dokumentoinnissa. Aineistoanalyysin pohjalta voidaan todeta onnistuneen opinnäyteprojektin muodostuvan yhdeksästä eri vaiheesta. Tutkimuksessamme saimme selville, että proaktiivisella tietotarpeiden tunnistamisella ja systemaattisella teettämisellä sekä tiedon jakamisella ja varastoinnilla voidaan viedä nykyinen opinnäytteiden teettäminen, joka toimii yksilö- ja ryhmätasolla suhteellisen hyvin, organisatoriselle tasolle. Edellä mainittujen tulosten pohjalta oli mahdollista muodostaa opinnäytteiden teettämisen prosessimalli, joka auttaa yrityksiä rakentamaan ja kehittämään opinnäyteprosessin, joka tukee niin tiedon johtamista organisaation laajuisesti kuin strategisia henkilöstöprosesseja.

Globalization of business and development of new technologies have enabled the emerge of firms that aim at international markets right away or soon after their foundation. In these knowledge-intensive, flexibly operating firms the role of the entrepreneur(s) is highlighted. Earlier studies have reported that entrepreneur’s earlier experience, networks and behaviour influence the performance of a firm. The purpose of this study is to enlighten how entrepreneurs influence the ability of born global high tech start ups to exploit international opportunities. Furthermore, the aim is to understand the influence of the entrepreneur’s earlier experience, networks, behaviour and character as well as to elucidate how the entrepreneur’s influence changes after the start up phase. For this study six entrepreneurs from three case companies were interviewed. The results propose that entrepreneur’s experience, networks and behaviour all have an influence on this kind of firms and by understanding this, entrepreneurs can better understand the consequences of their actions and positively influence the performance of the company.

Yet there are almost countless studies of work motivation and/or workplace happiness and working performance, most of the researches have been in the perspective of older generations like Generation X or The Baby Boomers. The lack of perspective of Millennials (or Generation Y) is natural, since as part of workforce Millennials are still a very young generation. However, since humans do get older, more and more Millennials are joining world’s workforce and will eventually become tomorrow’s leaders. Therefore, it is important to learn how Millennials see the world and what are the features that can be seen as common to them. By understanding what makes a generation that is family-centric but ambitious, education oriented but upbeat, to reach goals and perform effectively, gives a clear advantage. Thus, the goals of this study are to find out what work motivation means to Western world Millennials and understand their values as well as how they perceive trust in a workplace. This study also investigates other generations’ values and generation-specific features, so that it is clearer to understand how much Millennials differ from them and what features have stayed the same over time. Since this study is qualitative in its nature, the research method has been qualitative as well. This study utilizes semi-structured interview with three sub-themes, that all measure certain parts of the bigger picture of work motivation. The interview and the theoretical evidence provided interesting results that have academic value as well as managerial implications. Some of the most important results was the difference of values and the very nature between Millennials and other generations. Based on this study, it is safe to say that Millennials are the first generation for a long time that is clearly a crossroad generation of old and new business methods. This is greatly so because of Internet and its new perspective of technology and business practices. Although, this study provides information that can be widely generalized, the reader should bear in mind the cultural background of this study’s Millennials and the fact that the immediate business field in this study is knowledge-based, which means businesses that are offering expert services like consultancy.

<p> Despite Kelley&rsquo;s (1992) observation that followers are responsible for 80% of organizational success, little is known about how an individual follower could influence decisions that directly impact outcomes in a global organization. Previous research indicates that proactive followers self-describe their workplace behavior as engaging and influencing the leader in support of organizational objectives (Carsten, Uhl-Bien, West, Patera, &amp; McGregor, 2010). Similarly, academics have found that followers who frequently interact with senior executives may be able to wield social influence (Oc &amp; Bashshur, 2013). However, there is no research to suggest that such influence is directed towards or has an effect on executive decision-making. This dissertation employed a qualitative methodology using a case study research design to explore the followership role of executive assistants in global organizations. Gatekeeping theory was used to describe the actions of individuals who control information flows, access, and networks, to include how such control has an influencing effect on individuals who are on the receiving end of the gatekeeper&rsquo;s action (Barzilai-Nahon, 2009; Bouhnik &amp; Giat, 2015). The case study was comprised subcases that focused on five executive/executive assistant dyads in global fashion corporations. </p><p> The findings suggested that executive assistants are followers who serve in a gatekeeper role and that their actions impact the executive decision-making process. Further, the data suggested that executive assistants may also influence an executive&rsquo;s decisions through strong interpersonal relationships. The findings revealed four interrelated themes&mdash;decision-making, efficiency and effectiveness, gatekeeping, and trusting relationship&mdash;that demonstrate how executive assistants were able to influence the executive decisional processes. While the level of influence was varied among the dyads, primarily based on the level of follower proactive behavior, the ability to sway the executive thought process, to include decisions having organizational impact, was found in all five dyads.</p><p>

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University

Globalization and digitalization have removed barriers, reduced costs of multinational interchange and enabled a remarkable speed of information transfer world-wide. Thus, a growing portion of international market players are international start-ups or so called born globals. To overcome the liability of newness, outsiderness and foreigness in international markets, start-up brand building offers strategic focus and tools for accelerating this process. The purpose of this study is to understand start-up brand building in internal and external level in international context and how internationalization and branding as operations support and affect each other. The literature review views internationalization process and start-up branding as separate phenomena since existing literature combining these two is nearly non-existent. Therefore, the study opens discussion and offers new perspectives on the topic. The empirical part of this study was conducted as a single case analysis of global education industry start-up Edunation. Empirical data was gathered through three themed interviews including two of the entrepreneurs and one employee. This study identifies the operations behind successful start-up brand building on internal and external level and finds the linkages between these and accelerated internationalization’s key functions: networks, international opportunity recognition and innovations. The main theoretical contribution of this study is opening discussion of two separate research paths of start-up branding and accelerated internationalization. Study emphasizes the previous studies’ findings on entrepreneurs’ big influence on both processes and how both branding and internationalization happen in networks. This study focuses on identifying and understanding the underlying functions on international start-up branding. It leaves space for future research since the phenomenon lacks universal guidelines and identification of most effective brand building functions.

The paper is a case study with Patria Land (the Company) as a client. The phenomenon behind the research is the complexity of choosing the “right” customers for doing business with. This is the case with virtually every company, not just the client of this paper. The research problem in this research is “How can the Company develop a rigorous and unambiguous internal process for addressing the initial inquiries from potential customers?” To provide an answer to the set problem, there are two additional research questions, which are “What happens within the Company when an initial inquiry comes in?” and “What does creating an unambiguous process for addressing the initial inquiries from potential customers require from the Company?” Because of the complexity of the subject as well as the problem being quite company-specific, there were not any ready-made solutions or theories to be applied. Therefore, providing a solution for the research problem required combining different theories with each other. For the empirical nature of the problem, action research was chosen to be used as a method of conducting this research. The theoretical approach included comparing traditional project management procedures with agile ones and what are the reasons why agile project management should be used in providing an answer for the research problem in this research. In addition to this comparison, the communication aspect was determined as being one of the challenges of the Company. Thus, the concept of business communication is covered in this paper. Bringing the business communication of the Company up-to-date was chosen to be done with the help of mobile applications and a company called AppGyver is used as an example of such provider in this paper. Lastly, the process that is created in the paper is based on using the concept of a hybrid team and therefore it is covered in detail. Because of the empirical nature of the research problem, interviewing certain key employees of the Company was deemed as being the best method of gathering the empirical data. The interviews were qualitative, semi-structured by nature and were conducted as ethnographic interviews. The conclusions of the paper are that the Company did not have an unambiguous process for addressing the initial inquiries from potential customers and it was highly dependent on the person getting the inquiry how it was addressed. As for what does it require to create an unambiguous process for addressing the initial inquiries, it was determined that the Company needs to have a hybrid quotation team that uses specific mobile applications to improve things such as communication and operates according to the agile project management methodology. The actual process created for addressing the initial inquiries is based on forming the said hybrid quotation team. The process has five different stages that are: 1. Initial inquiry comes in, 2. The inquiry is directed to the hybrid quotation team and is evaluated by the team, 3. Deciding on whether to start the quotation process, 4. Quotation process and 5. Decision from the customer.

Start-up industry has boomed recently globally and early-stage ventures requires capital to finance their activities. Venture capital money is a traditional and the most important source for high-tech and risky ventures to seek capital. The aim of this study is to determine how entrepreneurs evaluate their potential Venture Capital investors and what are the most important characteristics of Venture Capital firms for founder teams. To this end, the research question is as follows: How Finnish Start-up companies conduct due-diligence of their potential Venture Capital investors? The research question is answered through semi-structured one-to-one interviews with Finnish entrepreneurs. The data of interviews was analyzed through content analyze method. The results indicate that entrepreneurs do not evaluate Venture Capital investors enough. Entrepreneurs tend to rely on few easily available sources and ignore deeper analysis of their potential VC partners. Evaluation process is seen as a social process that emerges between entrepreneur and investor through interaction. Entrepreneurs are keen to know reputation and values of the VC investors. Entrepreneurs are likely to accept an offer from a VC that has experience from the same industry. International connections and overall network of investor are seen as most important value-added services. Track record of VC is a moderately important for founders but reputation of VC is more important for entrepreneurs. Term sheet and valuation of venture is important for entrepreneurs and they expect to gain knowledge of VCs philosophy and values from the term sheet paper. Investors that have potential to invest to the company in future finance rounds and investors’ connections to later-stage investors are also seen relevant. Formal and informal meetings and discussions with investors are seen most reliable source to gain understanding of VC companies.