Browsing by department "Metsätieteiden laitos"

Heterobasidion annosum s.l. is a devastating forest pathogen species complex which causes extensive damage to timber products in northern Europe. This study examined resistance of Norway spruce (Picea abies) in two field sites in Finland to annosum root rot (Heterobasidion parviporum) utilizing non-clonal stocks of P. abies. The northern field site in Rovaniemi does not have a historical presence of the pathogen, whereas the southern field site in Lapinjärvi has extensive historical presence of the pathogen. The goals of the study were to assess potential difference in susceptibility between the sites, as well as to examine the differences in susceptibility between tissue types and organs in the trees examined. The study inoculated treatment trees with H. parviporum, as well as mock inoculations without the pathogen for control trees. Six inoculations of one treatment type were placed into each of thirty randomly selected trees at both field sites. Three inoculations were done in the stem, and three in the roots, for a total of 360 inoculations. After being left in situ for three months, the trees were harvested, and resulting lesions in the phloem and xylem tissues in both the roots and stem were measured to determine the extent of visible lesion extensions from the inoculation point. Data collected from the experiment was analyzed in the context of three mixed effects models, with the assumption that larger lesions indicated lower resistance to the pathogen. The measurements considered as response variables for the models were the total length of the lesion, total width of the lesion, and total area of the lesion. Results indicated minor overall differences in the lesion sizes between site in the lesion width and lesion area models. Significant differences were found between tissue types in the lesion width, and lesion area models. Additionally, interactions between treatment and organ, as well as treatment and tissue were significant across all models. Several other interactions were significant across some, but not all models The results indicate that further research into the potential effects of historical or geographic isolation on the resistance of P. abies to H. parviporum should include strict genetic controls with crossing of genotypes across sites, and should also consider the differences due to abiotic factors which may influence resistance in field trials.

Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study is to research the usage of different mixed reality devices in sales and marketing. The technology is improving fast and has now abled the mixed reality devices to be more accurate and precise. They can now deliver the expectations that they have not been able to do in the past. Growing number of companies are using this technology in their sales and marketing activities. There are numerous studies made on mixed reality devices but not in the area of sales and marketing. This study wants to find out how MR technologies work in sales and marketing and in different phases. Methods: The study consists of two parts. Study one investigates three groups: customers, companies that want to use MR technologies in sales and marketing and developers who design and create programs to these MR technologies. The groups answered series of marketing and sales related questions after using VR device called HTC VIVE. The first study compares three groups, companies, developers and customers. The second study seeks the differences between developers that an- swered questions related to MR, VR and AR. After these two studies there is a part to find out the goals of using these devices on sales and marketing. Results: The results in the study 1 showed that VR technology works in marketing when customers attention is wanted. In sales, closing a deal and making more profitable co-operation with customers, VR was preferred. The customers were more pessimistic towards VR than companies and developers. In the study two The MR technology was dividing companies and developers the most. VR was the most preferred in both marketing and sales activities. Still overall image of all the groups was positive towards these devices in sales and market- ing. Factor analysis test demonstrated that the goals of the usage of MR devices where loaded in three factors. 1. At the end of the sales and marketing funnel 2. Beginning of the sales and marketing funnel. 3. Branding. Overall the test revealed that MR technology had a positive image among all groups when used in sales and marketing. VR was preferred the most in every sales and marketing activity. AR and MR had differences among developers and companies. Companies preferred MR over AR and developers had an opposite opinion.

The objective of this thesis was to compare the effects of thermal modification under saturated steam and flowing steam on the Scots Pine and the Silver Birch, respectively. One method used in this article complied with the basic principles of traditional ThermoWood process. Treatment temperatures were chosen to be 180℃ and 200℃which are widely used in this method. Super-heated steam and flow-through system were applied in this system. Another one followed the principles as Wood Treatment technology (WTT) developed in Denmark. For this treatment, lower temperatures of 125℃ and 145℃ were applied. The treatment was conducted in a closed system with saturated steam. According to my results, modification under 125℃ saturated steam was ineffective for both Scots Pine and Silver Birch. 200℃ flowing steam is most suitable for the Silver Birch modification. While for the Scots Pine, I would recommend 145℃ saturated steam modification, because under this condition, there is a moderate bending and impact strength reduction but effective anti-swelling efficiency (ASE) improvement. The effects of thermal modification are better on the Silver Birch than the Scots Pine. Modification equipment and chosen of modified specimens need to be considered carefully as they influence the wood properties a lot. In general, mass loss as an indicator value to compare different thermal modification methods is not directly recommended.

China’s high-speed economic growth has accelerated consumers’ disposable income evidently. With the improvement of living standards, people have increasingly been concerned about their life quality, especially when buying consumables like food, toys and clothing as well as durable commodities like furniture for their children. In the past ten years, the Chinese children's furniture market has developed rapidly, making up 9% of total furniture market. However, no studies concerning the analysis of consumer behavior in this market segment exist so far. The objective of this study is to fill this gap by examining Chinese consumers’ perceptions of children’s furniture based on their socio-demographics, their attitudes towards product, supplier and environmental attributes. The empirical part of the study focused on analyzing quantitative data, which were collected by using a structured questionnaire in Shanghai and Shenzhen of China.The data were analyzed by a wide array of statistical analysis methods using SPSS software package. The final sample size was made up of 299 respondents. The data reveal that females accounted for 67% of the total respondents, with 63% of all respondents being in the range of 31-40 years old and 23% in the range of 20-30 years old. The results indicate that safety and environmental friendliness were the primary consideration for parents to purchase children’s furniture. And supplier quality was detected as the central dimension when respondents perceived different attributes of children’s furniture. In addition, 83% of the respondents chose solid wood as the primary raw material for children’s furniture, and 35% of them stated that they were willing to pay 6-10% more for environmentally friendly children's furniture. The choice of environmentally friendly products was closely connected with consumers’ lifestyle and majority of respondents expressed positive attitudes towards healthy and sustainable lifestyle. However, Chinese consumers showed low brand awareness in the children’s furniture market and their price expectations on solid wood furniture were below current market levels. Nevertheless, the Chinese children’s furniture presents a tremendous market potential not only for wooden furniture producers but also for both domestic and international wood raw material suppliers.

This exploratory study aims to analyze the CR reporting by eleven largest forest products companies in North America. Both annual reports and sustainability reports produced in year 2006 by eleven largest forest products companies in North America were chosen for this very study. To ensure the comparability of the results, the study adopts the similar variables in operationalizations by Routto (2008), who studied the CR reporting of European forest products companies. The methodology applied in the study is content analysis. Mean, T-test and One-way Anova analysis were used in data analysis. Though all the three pillars of CR (economic, environmental, and social) were covered in their CR reporting, the North American companies seem to give more weight to Social Focus, followed by Economic Focus and Environmental Focus respectively, whereas the largest European companies considered Environmental Focus as the most important area, Social Focus the second, whereas Economic Focus was least emphasized. A number of notable differences and similarities between the European companies and the North American companies towards CR reporting were also identified. For example, the North American companies obviously seek for more efforts to co-operate with interest groups and business partners to ensure responsible actions than the European companies. The European companies emphasize energy consumption more frequently than the North American companies. Neither the European companies nor the North American companies perceived environmental welfare at the expense of corporate profits an important element concerning Economic Focus. It would be interesting to note that neither the European companies nor the North American companies considered shareholders, NGOs and forest owners as primary target audience groups in their CR reporting, since the communication benefits were not frequently mentioned for these stakeholder groups. The study also observes some variation of CR practices within a common industrial and cultural environment. The results suggest that the US companies seem to particularly emphasize a number of issues more than the Canadian companies, namely: 1) Business behavior, 2) Social principles & guidelines, 3) Internal communication, 4) Social focus, 5) External communication, and 6) Audience. No significant difference was found concerning Social & ethical accounting and Economic focus between the US companies and the Canadian companies. Sector of Integrated forest products placed notably much more weight on Social & ethical accounting than Sectors of Consumer products and Sector of Pulp & paper & packaging in this study, whereas no other significant difference was indicated by the pair-wise comparison of means between Sector and the nine summative variables respectively. In addition, sustainability reports seem to have much clear focus on environmental-related issues than annual reports, whereas issues concerning Social Focus and External Communication received more attention in annual reports than in sustainability reports. No further significant difference was suggested between Type of report and the nine summative variables in this study. In short, the comparison between the reports by North American companies and those by the European companies showed some regional variations in CR reporting. These regional characteristics include 1) the emphasis on Social Focus by North American companies, and Environmental Focus by European companies, 2) the emphasis on partnership by North American companies, and workplace safety by European companies, 3) the emphasis on employees’ benefits by North American companies, and customers’ benefits by European companies, 4) the emphasis on commitment of top management to CR by North American companies, and existence of CR policy statements by European companies, 5) the emphasis on recycled raw materials by North American companies, and energy consumption by European companies, and 6) the emphasis on profitability by North American companies, and investing to socially/environmentally responsible targets by European companies. Such differences could also be argued to be related to the different institutional arrangements in the regions. The comparison between different sectors suggests that, Sector of Integrated forest products emphasized Social & Ethical Accounting more than Sector of Consumer products and Sector of Pulp & paper & packaging, whereas Sector of Consumer products paid more attention to Economic Focus issues than the other two sectors. The results also suggests that, sustainability reports emphasized Environmental Focus more than annual reports, whereas annual reports clearly focused on Social Focus and External Communication more than sustainability reports.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important topic in forest industries, and other global companies, in recent years. Globalisation, faster information delivery and demand for sustainable development have set new challenges for global companies in their business operations. Also the importance of stakeholder relations, and pressure to become more transparent has increased in the forest industries. Three dimensions of corporate responsibility economic, environmental and social, are often included in the concept of CSR. Global companies mostly claim that these dimensions are equally important. This study analyses CSR in forest industry and has focus on reporting and implementation of social responsibility in three international companies. These case-companies are Stora Enso, SCA and Sappi, and they have different geographical base, product portfolios and therefore present interesting differences about forest industry strategy and CSR. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has created the most known and used reporting framework in CSR reporting. GRI Guidelines have made CSR reporting a uniform function, which can also be measured between companies and different sectors. GRI Guidelines have also made it possible to record and control CSR data in the companies. In recent years the use of GRI Guidelines has increased substantially. Typically CSR reporting on economic and environmental responsibility have been systematic in the global companies and often driven by legistlation and other regulations. However the social responsibility has been less regulated and more difficult to compare. Therefore it has previously been often less focused in the CSR reporting of the global companies. The implementation and use of GRI Guidelines have also increased dialogue on social responsibility issues and stakeholder management in global companies. This study analyses the use of GRI´s framework in the forest industry companies´ CSR reporting. This is a qualitative study and the disclosure of data is empricially analysed using content analysis. Content analysis has been selected as a method for this study because it makes it possible to use different sources of information. The data of this study consists of existing academic literature of CSR, sustainability reports of thecase-companies during 2005-2009, and the semi-structured interviews with company representatives. Different sources provide the possibility to look at specific subject from more than one viewpoint. The results of the study show that all case-companies have relatively common themes in their CSR disclosure, and the differences rise mainly from their product-portfolios, and geographic base. Social impacts to local communities, in the CSR of the companies, were mainly dominated by issues concerning creating wealth to the society and impacting communities through creation of work. The comparability of the CSR reporting, and especially social indicators increased significally from 2007 onwards in all case-companies. Even though the companies claim that three dimensions of CSR economic, environmental and social are equally important economic issues and profit improvement still seem to drive most of the operations in the global companies. Many issues that are covered by laws and regulations are still essentially presented as social responsibility in CSR. However often the unwelcome issues in companies like closing operations are covered just briefly, and without adequate explanation. To make social responsibility equally important in the CSR it would demand more emphasis from all the case-companies. A lot of emphasis should be put especially on the detail and extensiveness of the social reponsibility content in the CSR.

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on tutkia asiakkaiden havaintoja palvelun laatuun ja yrityksen imagoon liittyen. Laatuun ja imagoon liittyvät näkökohdat liittyvät tutkimuksessa Metso konsernin OneMetso konseptiin. Tutkimuksen kohteena olevat asiakasyritykset edustavat sellu- ja paperiteollisuutta sekä voimantuotantoa. Käsitteistöltään tutkimus perustuu laatua ja yrityksen imagoa käsittelevään kirjallisuuteen. Kirjallisuuskatsaus esittelee laatuun ja erityisesti palveluiden laatuun liittyviä erityispiirteitä. Olemassa oleva palveluiden laatua koskeva kirjallisuus perustuu pitkälti yritysten ja yksityishenkilöiden väliseen suhteeseen ja teoreettiselta pohjaltaan SERVQUAL tai Nordic model malleihin. Edellä mainittujen mallien ulottuvuuksia on hyödynnetty myös tässä tutkimuksessa, mutta painotus on yritysten välisessä (B2B) asiayhteydessä. Tämän alan tutkimuksia on tehty viime vuosikymmenenä. Tutkimuksen tulokset perustuvat kyselytutkimukseen joka on tehty Metson sellu- ja paperi sekä voimantuotannon asiakkaille. Kyselyn on tehnyt puhelinhaastatteluihin erikoistunut yritys. Kyselytutkimuksen vastaukset on tässä tutkimuksessa tilastollisesti analysoitu käyttäen ei-parametrista testausmenetelmää. Perustuen vastausten jakaumaan käytetty testausmenetelmä kaikille kysymyksille oli riippumattomien näytteiden Mann-Whitneyn U testi. Tilastollisen testauksen tuloksien perusteella nollahypoteesi hylätään kahdessa asiakkaille esitetyssä kysymyksessä kaikkiaan neljästätoista. Automation ja Power segmenttien asiakkaiden havainnot ovat yhteneviä useimmissa laatuun liittyvistä kysymyksistä. Saadut tulokset tukevat Metson One Metso konseptia. Jatkotutkimuksen aiheena toimisi keskittyminen yrityksen nykyisiin muuttuneisiin segmentteihin syventäen samallamkyselyn laatunäkökohtia.

The conundrum between market entry and business development activities within innovation companies is generally regarded as a challenge. The energy industry as a whole is in a flux and the sustainable future requires drastic actions to be taken to reduce the effects of the global warming and in adaptation of a circular economy model. Using the industrial innovation company St1 Biofuels Oy as a case, this thesis will identify the decision-making components of an opportunity based target market analysis in a company, which operates in an industry with notable resource scarcity, policy regulations and variable business models. In response to this hypothesis, this study suggests an opportunity based target market analysis model that illustrates a new framework to study target markets in a systematic and analytical manner. For the purpose of the case with St1 Biofuels Oy, a market intelligence tool was created to store and process the market data and illustrate the most essential components of the theoretical model. The case study demonstrates the utilization of the opportunity model presenting the internationalization criteria and justification to a potential new R&D concept investment decision. The implications of this thesis contribute to the decision-making of the case and aid in demonstrating analytical justification for internationalization on a strategic decision-making level. This thesis introduces relevant literature to the topic and reflects the existing theories to the new model concept design. Structure and empiric base in this study were drawn together from two-stage data collection, including extensive market research and investment calculations along with semi-structured interviews with the specialists of the case company. The results of this thesis present a theoretical model and the functioning of the model is then piloted with the case study variables of St1 Biofuels Oy. Based on the discussion in this thesis, further research is suggested reflecting the model as a theoretical framework in strategic marketing planning and value-based selling studies.

Accounting firms need to stay along in the development of financial management digitali-zation. An important part of that is to implement new systems and develop a high-level expertise in them, creating a major competitive advantage. That way the growing demands of modern customers can be fulfilled. One part of the development is ERP expertise and implementations as new service products. The purpose of this research is to find out how those service products could be built to be as functioning as possible for different types of customers of an accounting firm and what are the main challenges to be considered. The research was conducted as a case study in a Finnish accounting office. The case was their own implementation project. Challenges occurred in the project were used to build up a suggestion on how to avoid the same ones in future projects. Based on the results of the research it can be said that the main challenges in an ERP im-plementation, for a company operating in Finland, relate to automation and especially monetary transactions and usage of reference numbers and their automatic allocations, foreign consultant’s understanding of the Finnish business environment, understanding the importance of testing and resourcing, process and system reengineering, change manage-ment, motivation and commitment of the employees and management as well as staying in budget and schedule.

Snowmelt timing has been proven critical to the phenology in subarctic and alpine ecosystems. Nevertheless, its impacts on the phenology of dwarf-shrub-dominated vegetation on high-latitudinal Fennoscandian fells are not yet sufficiently studied. This project focusses on the divergences in phenological timings and reproductive success caused by naturally different snowmelt timings in this area. The study site was on fell Saana in northwest Finland. The data was collected from a site covering three snowmelt timings located in two aspects (fully factorial, 4 replicates) from 20th of May to 4th of September, 2015, totalling 108 days. The phenological events (e.g. leaf unfolding, anthesis, and leaf colouring) of 12 species of three growth forms (dwarf shrub, forb, and graminoid) were recorded. The statistical analyses show that different snowmelt timings result in significant differences in the time points (expressed in day of year, DOY) of peak flowering and shoot elongation, as well as the green-leaved durations (days); however, flowering duration is rather constant across snowmelt timings. Significant differences are also found in the reproductive success of several species. The results suggest that in subarctic-alpine vegetation, an earlier snowmelt timing 1) elongates the duration of vegetative growth, 2) advances the timing of peak flowering while the flowering duration remains unchanged, and 3) potentially impedes reproductive success in some species, but generally the pattern is heterogeneous. Thus, snowmelt timing is causing divergences among the phenological traits and potentially within the reproductive success of dwarf shrub species in this area. In the long term, these phenomena may impact the local biodiversity and biochemical cycles, which may be a long-term effect of the shifting snowmelt timing due to global change.