Projects and Co-operation

Oulu Business School supports the development of its own surrounding area by organising extension studies, by co-operating with companies, by Open University education and by co-operation with the secondary schools. The personnel are also actively involved in different expert consultation roles in the field of economic science.

Staff members in Oulu Business School believe in active collaboration with a multitude of partners. This goal is best achieved through different projects and versatile co-operation. The ongoing research and co-operation projects are introduced in the following.

Current projects

Barents Logistics 2 (2011-2013)

Barents Logistics II is a competence development project that is funded by the European Union´s Kolarctic ENPI CBC Programme. The project is scheduled for three years (2011-2013) and it has a total budget of approx. 1.7 M€. Project partners from three countries – Finland, Sweden and Russia – are involved in various activities of the project.

Objectives

The main goal of the project is to develop logistics competencies and deepen educational co-operation between the universities and educational institutions together with public and business organizations in the Barents Region. The project has been initiated as a response to the growing needs of business and public organizations to advance logistics knowledge, competencies and skills due to increasing economic activity in energy production (oil and gas), mining, basic industries, services, etc.

Project partners

University of Oulu, Oulu Business School, Finland (lead partner)

Luleå University of Technology, Industrial Logistics, Sweden

Association of Suppliers for Oil and Gas Industry “Murmanshelf´, Russia

Non-commercial organization “Arctic Centre for Training of Oil and Gas Specialists´, Russia

Non-commercial partnership “Education, Innovation, and Scientific-Research Union Socium+´, Russia

Port of Oulu, Finland

Port of Kemi, Finland

The Ministry of Economic Development of the Murmansk region, Russia.

Contacts

University of Oulu, Oulu Business School: project manager, Dr Ulla Lehtinen (ulla.lehtinen[at]oulu.fi) and professor of logistics Jari Juga (jari.juga[at]oulu.fi)

Luleå University of Technology: professor of logistics Anders Segerstedt (anders.segerstedt[at]ltu.se)

Arctic Centre for Training of Oil and Gas Specialists, Murmansk: Dr Olga Buch (olga.buch[at]yandex.ru)

 

Cleantech Solutions - Co-creating Environmental Solutions with Lead Customers (1.8.2011 - 31.7.2013)

This project is funded by the Serve -programme within the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. The project strives to find new ways to increase industrial companies' competitiveness by identifying and developing novel processes and tools that facilitate the co-creation, assessment and rapid commercialization of cleantech solutions. Cleantech solutions are integrated combinations of products and services designed to deliver environmental benefits and economic value for customers and society as a whole, such as automation solutions that improve process efficiency, and operating services that reduce costs and energy consumption. The project focuses on three themes: 1) Innovating cleantech solutions with lead customers in developed and emerging markets; 2) New ways to accelerate the commercialization of cleantech solutions; 3) Assessing the environmental performance and customer value added by cleantech solutions. The project is led by Lappeenranta University of Technology in collaboration with the University of Oulu. The company partners are Outotec, Kemira and Metso, and the implementation partners are the Finnish Cleantech Cluster and Cleantech Finland.

For more information please contact Jari Salo jari.salo(at)oulu.fi, Tuula Lehtimäki tuula.lehtimaki(at).oulu.fi, or Ilkka Ojansivu ilkka.ojansivu(at)oulu.fi.

 

Dimar – Digital Marketing in Industrial Markets (1.1.2011- 31.12.2012)

This Tekes (the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation)-funded research project being jointly conducted by the University of Oulu, University of Jyväskylä, Aalto University and Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences aims to develop and improve digital marketing knowledge and capabilities of Finnish industrial companies and businesses in general. The industry partners involved are Elematic, Moventas, Rautaruukki, The Switch, UPM, Vapo, Wärtsilä, Tieto, BrandSon, DiVia, Movya and Radical.

For more information please contact Pauliina Ulkuniemi pauliina.ulkuniemi(at)oulu.fi, Saila Saraniemi saila.saraniemi(at)oulu.fi, Minna Mäläskä minna.malaska(at)oulu.fi , Tel. +358 50 367 2091. www.dimar.fi

 

Emotional view on challenging relationships – EmoCha (1.9.2011 – 31.8.2015)

EmoCha uncovers the state of buyer-seller relationship ending research and expands its interdisciplinary opportunities by applying Critical Realism. The research project will extend the focus of the field from the relationship ending to their recovery, from dyads to triads, from solely rational to emotional understanding, and from continuous relationships to episodic ones. EmoCha is funded by the Academy of Finland.

More information: Scientific Leader, Professor of Marketing Jaana Tähtinen, jaana.tahtinem(at)oulu.fi

 

ModuServ Project (2011-2013)

ModuServ Modularity in Business Services to Co-Create Value within Collaborative Networks is the research project conducted by Department of Marketing, Oulu Business School, University of Oulu and Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT financed by Tekes Serve program 2011-2013. The overall purpose of this research project is to describe, analyze and evaluate how value is co-created in business services through modularity and collaborative business networks.

This research project aims to challenge the traditional research conventions by combining the three theoretical backgrounds on value co-creation, collaborative networks, and service modularity. By doing this, new perspectives on business service innovations can be found and explored. The project combines interdisciplinary knowledge and mixed methods to examine the research phenomena, and works in close collaboration with companies enabling the innovative dissemination and exploitation of the research results.

Into the research team at Department of Marketing, Oulu Business School include Professors Jari Juga and Pauliina Ulkuniemi, Associate Professors Satu Nätti and Saara Pekkarinen, University Lecturer Sakari Nikkilä, and Research Assistant Teea Palo, as well as three Master´s Students Antti Hartikka, Taneli Niemi and Xiaowen Xiong. Close collaboration in ModuServ project will be done with Professor Timo Koivumäki and M.Sc. Arto Wallin from VTT as well as with Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Hanna Komulainen financed by Finnish Academy of Science 2011-2014.

The project will have close interactive collaboration with three companies Kiinteistöhuolto Jurvelin, PCS-Engineering Ltd and Pöyry Finland Ltd offering industrial, professional and knowledge-intensive services for manufacturing as well as trade and real estate companies. Partner companies are involved with common and special targets into ModuServ research goals.

ModuServ project team has close collaboration with international researchers, e.g. Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Sweden; Cardiff University Business School and Lancaster University Management School, the UK and Georgia State University, the U.S.A.

If you are interested in knowing more about us and our research, please, take a contact to Project Director Saara Pekkarinen, email: saara.pekkarinen(at)oulu.fi.

 

Proform–Forerunner concepts of service business and proactive renewal of client-producer relationship (2009-2011)

ProForm project aims at creating a novel multidisciplinary approach on service business and service concept development by combining previous research results from various research domains, such as .organization and leadership, innovation research, networkrelationships and business models, development of ICT enabled services and industrial design. The main research objective is to tackle three following research problems: What are forerunner concepts of knowledge intensive business services? How to identify potential development paths? How can clients and partner networks be bound more tightly to the interactive development of service innovation? The research partners are Department of Marketing and VTT.

More information: Scientific Leaders professor of Marketing Jaana Tähtinen, jaana.tahtinen(at)oulu.fi and Professor Timo Koivumaki, timo.koivumaki(at)oulu.fi

  
 
Past projects

ModSeC - Modularity Enabling the Development of New Service Offerings

ModSeC is a two-year project on modularity at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Oulu, Finland. The project, funded by TEKES Serve Innovative Services, explores how modular design principles can facilitate the development of innovative solutions in business-to-business services. In ModSeC project the focus of research is on
• Understanding and clarifying the customer´s needs and role in b2b logistics and professional services co-creation
• Clarifying the service provider´s role in outsourcing relationships
• Clarifying modular service design and architectures
• Examining the nature and efficiency of the market structures and organizational solutions for modular service implementation
• Describing applicable future business models in modular service business.

The ModSeC project is conducted by researchers from the University of Oulu and the Helsinki School of Economics, with collaboration from a number of international researchers at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, Georgia State University, U.S.A., and the University of Hull, U.K., as well as Lancaster University Management School. The project involves following Finnish industrial collaborators in sectors including logistics, engineering contracting and telecommunications: Pöyry Civil Ltd, Herman Andersson Ltd, Nokia Plc and Itella Corporation. Contact person: Project Leader Saara Pekkarinen (saara.pekkarinen(at)oulu.fi)

Partners: Helsinki School of Economics
Tekes Serve Programme
Pöyry Civil Ltd
Herman Andersson Ltd
Nokia Plc
Itella Corporation
Copenhagen Business School
Georgia State University
The Hull University, Logistics Institute
Lancaster University Management School
University of West Georgia

DECCMAC - Developing Customer Centric Marketing Communications

 DECCMAC is a two-year research project (May 2008 – May 2010) involving University of Jyväskylä, University of Oulu, Helsinki University of Technology and six Finnish industrial firms. The central objective of the project is to develop marketing and sales know-how of Finnish companies, especially by developing marketing communications processes. The research is divided into two main themes, of which the first is gaining information about the roles, responsibilities, functioning and effectiveness of companies´ marketing and sales functions in relation to the other operations of the firm. The second section of the project is based on this information which is put to use in developing current marketing resources and creating novel ways to improve co-operation between marketing, sales and R&D in order to develop customer communications. The research also investigates the possibilities of utilizing existing customer relationships in new customer acquisition and in service quality development, as well as how new technological communication tools can be utilized in customer relationships and new customer acquisition. More information: jari.salo(at)oulu.fi, www.deccmac.fi

MOTTI - Interdisciplinary researcher network

In order to better prepare the students for the complex challenges presented by today's world, higher education has to pay increasing attention to developing students' skills in interdisciplinary work and research already at the undergraduate level. MOTTI project advances and develops interdisciplinary and collaborative practices of teaching and research training across the different disciplines represented in the project. The participants, which include members from both students and faculty, work in multidisciplinary research teams.

For additional information contact to Jaana Tähtinen.

 

UbiValue - Value creation in UBI services

The objectives of this TEKES funded research are twofold; firstly to identify and model the development processes and emergence of the UBI service business networks and secondly, to model consumer behavior and lead user driven innovation in UBI service environments. To reach the first objective, the study focuses on potential and developing UBI services network business models, through a qualitative follow-up study and real life data on processes, the actors, and the business models. To reach the second objective, the study gains knowledge about consumer behavior and user driven innovation in UBI service environments and further develops the theory of lead users by using both quantitative and qualitative methods. UbiValue is part of multidisciplinary UbiLife research project. More information from prof. Timo Koivumäki and prof. Jaana Tähtinen.

ValueNet Oulu

The ValueNet Project is a four-year research project (2006-2009) carried out by a consortium of researchers from the Helsinki School of Economics, Turku School of Economics, University of Oulu, and Åbo Akademi University. The ValueNet consortium focuses on the dynamics and management of value-creating networks. Currently, the consortium incorporates a total of more than 40 individuals, consisting of senior faculty members and post doc researchers, as well as doctoral students that share mutual research interests. The consortium forms a strong research community by both Finnish and international standards. ValueNet Oulu focuses to conceptualisation of the new business networks and its prime research focus is in the ICT-branch and information technology. Project duration: 1.1.2006 - 31.12.2009. For additional information contact to Jaana Tähtinen.

FUMMAS - Future Mobile Marketing Solutions

Future Mobile Marketing Solutions (FUMMAS) is a follow-on to the PEAR (Personalized Mobile Advertising Services) project. The FUMMAS project aims at increasing our knowledge on how mobile channels can be effectively used as part of a firm's marketing mix. The main objective of the project is to examine the suitability of various mobile technologies into marketing communications and to develop new mobile marketing solutions for companies that will improve their business processes especially in customer and supplier interfaces. Barents Logistics II is a competence development project that is funded by the European Union´s Kolarctic ENPI CBC Programme. The project is scheduled for three years (2011-2013) and it has a total budget of approx. 1.7 M€. Project partners from three countries – Finland, Sweden and Russia – are involved in various activities of the project.Barents Logistics II is a competence development project that is funded by the European Union´s Kolarctic ENPI CBC Programme. The project is scheduled for three years (2011-2013) and it has a total budget of approx. 1.7 M€. Project partners from three countries – Finland, Sweden and Russia – are involved in various activities of the project.