Projekt
Aktuella forskningsprojekt i Helsingfors
The Role of Customer Information in Service Innovation
Service innovation is important and even vital for the company's prosperity and future existence. Since the early 1970s research has consistently found that one of the top key factors to a successful new service is information about customer needs and wants, i.e. customer information. As a result, research and practice has focused on numerous methods that "best" capture this valuable customer information. However, the actual use of the acquired information in the development process has not been investigated to the same extent. In fact, the actual use is a black box and a missing link between the acquisition of customer information and the performance of the new service. Many companies do acquire customer information, but do not use it in their innovation work, and many companies do not even do a proper job of involving the customer in the first place.
This research project will open up the black box of use and aims at identifying obstacles and facilitators that influence use of customer information in service innovation. The focus on the factors that influence use will also generate insights on the potential difficulties of acquiring actionable customer information from business customers and end consumers. To increase the awareness of these factors is an essential first step in order to manage them and to steer the innovation work in a customer oriented direction. Hence, the goal is to create knowledge that can give guidance in practice and that can develop theory on the role of customer information in service innovation.
The CInSIn project is part of the SERVE program on Service innovation and is funded by TEKES and four international companies.
Additional information: Catharina von Koskull
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StratMark program
StratMark is a joint research program between Hanken School of Economics and Helsinki School of Economics that aims at enhancing the role and understanding of marketing within the Finnish business community. The project is initiated by Amer and funded by
Tekes,
Amer Sports,
Componenta,
Finnvera,
Konecranes,
Sinebrychoff,
Suunto and
MARK.
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Future Industrial Services
Fimecc (Finnish Metals and Engineering Competence Cluster) has launched a five-year (2010-2015) national research - and development program under the name FutIS (Future Industrial Services). The purpose of the program is to ensure the competitiveness, and therefore long-term prospects, of the metals and engineering industry in Finland.
FutIS is globally one of the largest - if not the largest - research- and development initiatives to secure the competitiveness of an entire industry through service business logic. The program's ambitious goal is to help the metals and engineering industry to switch focus from goods- and production-centric business models to service-centric business models. This transformation will ensure a competitive advantage over low-cost manufacturers in countries such as China and India.
The national project, with EUR 39.3 million in research- and development funds, has been launched at Hanken on February the 1st, 2011. The program will be presented by Seppo Tikkanen, director of technology at Fimecc, Professor Miia Martinsuo from Tampere University of Technology and the program leader Pekka Helle from Hanken School of Economics. The event will gather a hundred or so people from the participating universities, research institutions, Tekes and businesses involved. Among many others, partners from the business community include Wärtsilä, Kone, Konecranes, Cargotec, Metso and SKF.
"We are proud and delighted to be able to arrange this event. The program is unique on an international scale and Hanken's extensive experience of service marketing has a great reputation, which makes its fitting to launch the program here," says Pekka Helle from Hanken, the program leader for FutIS. Alongside his program leader position, Helle´s research focuses on service logic and value creation at Hanken's Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management, CERS.
Additional information:
Pekka Helle, FutIS programme leader
Avslutade forskningsprojekt i Helsingfors
Service Logic and
Value-in-use are in the international discussion currently being proposed as a new marketing and management perspective - not just for service companies, but for any company. This new perspective has brought with it a strong focus on customer activities and experiences. Consequently, there is now a need for new
models,
maps and
measures to translate the perspective into business practice. The purpose of the ESCAPE project is to do this.
The value-in-use approach means moving away from the traditional views of value as something that is produced exclusively by the provider. Instead of looking at how the customer can be involved in the activities of the provider, the project focuses on understanding how services fit into customers' own activities and contexts, and how value is created there.
The project is funded by Tekes and carried out in cooperation with the CTF Service Research Center at Karlstad University and the CIC center at Stockholm School of Economics. The project began in the fall of 2008 and has been completed in 2010.
Researchers at Hanken: Professor Tore Strandvik, project coordinator Kristina Heinonen (PhD), researchers Jan Sten (PhD) and Jacob Mickelsson (MsC)
BeSeL II - From Traditional Manufacturing to a Knowledge Based Service Business
The project aimed at developing a service-centric business model for manufacturing firms by creating a business process and earnings logic that is geared towards mutual value creation on business markets.
The overall objective of this project was to develop conceptual models of how manufacturing firms may be able to regain a competitive advantage by expanding their knowledge base to include cooperative customer relationships, service-based value-creation and -capture, as well as cooperative behaviors required to exploit the potential inherent in the relationship.
Members in the research consortium: Marketing/CERS/Hanken, VTT, BIT Research and LTT Research as research associate organization. Several industry fore-runner companies participate as corporate research members. The project was funded by Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) within the Serve - Innovative Services Technology Programme 2006-2010.
Aapo - Asiakasarvopohjainen liiketoiminta
The Aapo project was a conjoint Tekes-project between the Univeristy of Tampere, Hanken and four companies 2008-2010.
The change in the business environment has caused a need for service businesses to renew themselves. The challenges relate to consumer communities changing preferences faster than companies are able to react to. Electronic distribution channels causing pressure on traditional service providers. Also the creation of trustworthy purchase environments in the internet surrounding is a considerable challenge.
In order to be able to tackle these challenges following themes were studied:
- The multitude of customer roles and its effects on the service industry business
- The cooperation between customer and service provider in regard to value creation and development of service innovations.
- Conceptualizing the logic of value creation in a customer-centric service-industry.
Researchers at Hanken: Professor Tore Strandvik, project coordinator Kristina Heinonen (PhD)
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BIG Research Programme 2007-2009
BIG was an international research programme at Hanken in co-operation with Emory University, Atlanta. The project was funded by
Tekes.
Its aim was generating growth and competitiveness through improved value generation of new business models.
For more information, contact Research Director, PhD Kirsti Lindberg-Repo.
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VALU: Tools for Identifying User Needs and Values in Designing Successful Technology Products
The aims of the VALU project were 1) to gain a thorough picture of user values and needs and 2) to develop a tools and practices to utilize that knowledge in designing successful technology products within consumer product and service development industry. The project was carried out as a collaboration between the Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management (CERS) at Hanken and the Unit of Human-Centered Technology at Tampere University of Technology, as well as six industrial partners. The project started in the beginning of 2007 and finished in the beginning of 2009.
Project leader: Minna Pihlström
Researchers at Hanken: Anu Helkkula and Maria Berglund
More information: http://webhotel.tut.fi/projects/uservalues/
Aktuella forskningsprojekt i Vasa
The Impact of the Hidden Cultural Differences in Knowledge Transfer and Diffusion of Innovations in EU Cross Border regions
Dr Adi Weidenfeld, Prof Peter Björk, Hanken School of Economics, Finland and
Prof Allan Williams, University of Surrey, UK
Cross-Border Regions (CBRs) often show great dissimilarities in various aspects such as economic histories, technological trajectories, different social dynamics, and political visions, mix of cultures, ethnicities, languages, and regional identities. Such differences can be both a key source of innovation and knowledge transfer but also major obstacles. The study focuses on the more hidden and subtle cultural and cognitive differences, which influence learning and knowledge transfer between cross border residents from both sides of the border and between them and visitors (who are non-cross border residents). More specifically, the study focuses on cross border knowledge transfer and diffusion of innovations in the service industry in general and on the influence of the hidden and subtle differences between managers and customers (shoppers) from both sides of the border in the twin cities of Tornio and Haparanda in particular. The city of Tornio in Finland is in the municipality of Lapland, covering an area of 1,348.55 square kilometres (520.68 sq mi) with a total population of 22,546 (31 January 2011) and the adjacent town of Haparanda in Norrbotten County, Sweden has a population of approximately 4,800 (and an area 3.94 km²) of out of a municipal total of 10,200 inhabitants (Haparanda as a local municipality).
The two cities have seen various forms of official cross border collaboration, including transport (cross border bridges, joint public services e.g. tourism, education, leisure facilities, sport clubs, health care, refuse disposal) since the 1960s with the twin cities project of Tornio and Haparanda, the Eurocity of TornioHaparanda, as the cross border flagship project. The private sector has also contributed to cross border linkages shaping its landscape, particularly with the opening of an Ikea store in Haparanda in 2006, close to the border, which created new images of cross-border collaboration. Several other new stores have been opened in Haparanda besides Ikea increasing the cross border image as a cross border tourism shopping destination even further and further cross border shopping centres are being built on the border area these days. The aim of the study is to provide some policy implications for EU policies in cross border innovation systems, which will complement those addressing cross border collaboration.
Research Methods:
The first stage included administering 783 valid questionnaires (out of 822 a total number of questionnaires) of customers in the two cross border tourism regions (411 customers from Finalnd and 372 from Sweden). Data have been analyzed for the purpose of academic articles and communication with the public, which are currently being prepared for dissemination for the public in general and the local media in particular. The next stage includes semi-structured interviews with managers of Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) from both sides of the border and a survey, which examines the influence of cross cultural and cognitive differences (e.g. mentality, work patterns) between them and between them and their customers from both sides of the border. These data will be analyzed and compared against the data collected in the first stage. This stage expected to last until the end of 2011.
Preliminary results
The first stage of data collection (as described above) provided a comparison between the culturally different populations in the EU cross border tourism region of the Tornio valley between Finland and Sweden in terms of the impact of subtle and cultural differences on learning new ideas, knowledge transfer and diffusion of innovations between customers and managers of service SMEs. It also identified the differences between cross border residents and non-residents (tourists) which influence learning and diffusion of ideas from customers. The main identified influential aspects are differences between customers and managers from the two sides of the border (mainly between people from Swedish culture to those affiliating themselves to Finnish culture) in the following:
- conservatism towards new ideas
- ways of problem solving,
- mentality
- values
- Language
- specificity in the provision of new ideas
- Technological differences (to a minor extent)
The nature of the influence of these differences is currently being examined.
The study is a 2 year Marie Curie Intra European postdoctoral Fellowship (October 2010-october 2012), funded by the EU 7th Framework (Grant Agreement PIEF-GA-2009-254516-KTIECBR).
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For Further details or enquiries, please contact
Adi Weidenfeld
Marie Curie Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Marketing
adi.weidenfeld@hanken.fi
Tel: +358 (0)40 3521 776
Internal 33776
Hanken School of Economics
Kauppapuistikko 2
P.O. Box 287, 65101 VAASA, FINLAND
Avslutade forskningsprojekt i Vasa
Storytelling and Destination Development
Projektets målsättning är att studera hur Storytelling kan användas som strategi och metod för att utveckla och marknadsföra turistdestinationer. Projektet finansieras av Nordisk InnovationCenter och är ett samarbete mellan Svenska handelshögskolan, Handelshögskolan BI, Högskolan Vest, Aalborg University och Iclandic Tourism Research Centre. I projektet har en destination från varje nordiskt land studerats. 2010-2011
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Innovation and re-branding Nordic wellbeing tourism
Det av Nordisk InnovationCenter finansierade forskningsprojektet Innovation and re-branding Nordic wellbeing tourism har som målsättning att kartlägga och beskriva hur Nordic wellbeing tourism uppfattas idag med intetion att kunna presentera en platform för hur Nordic wellbeing tourism kunde brandas och marknadsföras. Svenska handelshögskolan samarbetar i projektet med Itä Suomen Yliopisto, Uppsala Universitet/Etour, Handelshögskolan BI, University of Southern Denmark/Advance1 och Iclandic Tourism Research Centre. 2010-2011.
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DESIRE - Creating innovations through market-oriented service design
The project was concerned with innovations and knowledge creation in the service industry, and the applicability of a market-oriented design process to this sector. The purpose was to unfold, depict and enhance innovation processes in selected case companies. Design and service innovation models were combined to identify potential new service innovation models.
The project "DESIRE - Creating innovations through market-oriented service design" started in September 2007 and lasted until the end of 2009.