Average Scores Integration in Official Star Rating Scheme

Purpose: Evidence suggests that electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) plays a highly influential role in decision-making when booking hotel rooms. The number of online sources where consumers can obtain information on hotel ratings provided has grown exponentially. Hence, a number of companies have developed average scores to summarize this information and to make it more easily available to consumers. Furthermore, official star rating schemes are starting to provide these commercially developed average scores to complement the information their schemes offer. The purpose of this paper is to examine the robustness of these systems. Design/methodology/approach: Average scores from different systems, and the scores provided by one rating site were collected for 200 hotels and compared. Findings: Findings suggested important differences in the ratings and assigned descriptive word across websites. Research limitations/implications: The results imply that the application of average scores by official organizations is not legitimate and identifies a research gap in the area of consumer and star rating standardization. Originality/value: The paper is of value to the industry and academia related to the examination of rating scales adopted by major online review tourism providers. Evidence of malpractice has been identified and the adoption of this type of scales by official star rating schemes is questioned.Peer reviewe

Internationalisation of a Service Company : Case The Turquoise Holiday Company

Aim of this thesis is to find out about internationalising service companies and possible new market entry modes. This is a case study for UK based Turquoise Holiday Company, which is a luxury tour operator. Research problem is to find out if the case company has prerequisites for internationalising to Finnish, Swedish, and /or Norwegian markets. Internal, external and strategic factors are taken into consideration. Introduction defines service and clarifies the difference from manufactured product. Theory chapter presents different foreign market entry modes and internationalising strategies for service companies. Also internal, external and strategic factors affecting internationalisation are presented, and they are base for theoretical framework. This study is a qualitative case study. Evaluation is based on publicly available information both externally from the market and internally from the case company. Thesis shows that many things are to be taken into consideration when a service company is thinking about international expansion. Travel industry in general is growing constantly but also going through changes that might change the business significantly. At the moment financial resources and language skills of the personnel of the case company are the internal factors that are limiting internationalising. Scandinavian countries are relatively wealthy though, which is encouraging external factor. Although Finland, Sweden and Norway are doing quite well in economic circumstances in Europe the markets are small in size compared to the UK. The most interesting internationalisation target could be Norway due to its high level of economy. Population of the country is not very big but also competition seems to be low. As this study does not include any practical market research it is suggested to conduct one if the company is willing to deepen its knowledge of consumer attitudes and market potential of the countries. Also the Turquoise Holiday Company should find out its possibilities of financial resources and educating personnel for foreign markets.Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää palveluyritysten kansainvälistämistä sekä mahdollisia uusille markkinoille menon keinoja. Tämä on case-tutkimus isobritannialaiselle Turquoise Holiday Companylle, joka on luksus matkanjärjestäjä. Tutkimusongelmana on selvittää, onko tutkimuksen yrityksellä edellytyksiä kansainvälistyä Suomen, Ruotsin, ja /tai Norjan markkinoille yrityksen sisäiset, ulkoiset ja strategiset tekijät huomioonottaen. Johdannossa määritellään palvelu, ja selvitetään sen ero tavaraan nähden. Teoriaosa esittää erilaisia vieraille markkinoille menon keinoja sekä palveluyritysten kansainvälistämisstrategioita. Kappaleessa käsitellään myös kansainvälistymiseen vaikuttavia yrityksen sisäisiä, ulkoisia sekä strategisia tekijöitä, jotka ovat pohja teoreettiselle viitekehykselle. Tämä tutkimus on laadullinen case-tutkimus. Arvioinnit perustuvat julkisesti saatavilla olevaan informaatioon, jota saadaan ulkoisesti markkinoilta sekä tutkittavalta yrityksestä sisäisesti. Tutkimus osoittaa, että palveluyrityksen on huomioitava monta seikkaa harkitessaan kansainvälistä laajentumista. Matkailuala yleisesti kasvaa jatkuvasti, mutta kokee myös muutoksia, jotka saattavat muuttaa liiketoimintaa merkittävästi. Tällä hetkellä rahoitukselliset resurssit sekä henkilökunnan kielitaito rajoittavat tutkimuksen yrityksen kansainvälistymistä sisäisesti. Skandinavian maat ovat verrattain varakkaita, mikä tosin on kannustava ulkoinen tekijä. Vaikka Suomi, Ruotsi ja Norja pärjäävät melko hyvin huomioon ottaen Euroopan taloustilanteen, niiden markkinat ovat pienet verrattuna Iso-Britanniaan. Kiinnostavin kansainvälistymiskohde saattaa olla Norja sen hyvän taloustilanteen vuoksi. Maan väkiluku on pienehkö, mutta myös kilpailu matalahkoa. Koska tämä tutkimus ei sisällä käytännön markkinatutkimusta, suositellaan, että sellainen tehdään, mikäli yritys haluaa syventää tietämystään kuluttaja-asenteista sekä maiden markkinapotentiaaleista. Turquoise Holiday Companyn tulisi myös selvittää sen rahoitusmahdollisuuksia sekä henkilökunnan kouluttamista ulkomaan markkinoille

Telecommunications Market Evolution in Finland and New Zealand: Unbundling the Differences

Finland and New Zealand are two countries with many geographic social demographic and historic similarities. Their telecommunications markets also demonstrate many superficial similarities. However beneath the superficial performance parallels lie two markets that have developed under fundamentally different cultural institutional commercial and political assumptions. By tracing the development of each market this paper explores the effect that these differences have had upon shaping the markets and explaining both the observed similarities in market performance and the differences. The comparative analysis suggests that Finland's industry characterised by decentralised and privately-owned local firms has adjusted to the more liberalised commercially-focused and competitive markets in the 21st century in a more measured and evolutionary manner than has been observed in New Zealand where centralised government ownership and control prevailed until the revolutionary joint privatisation and liberalisation occurred. The different cultures norms values and attitudes observed in the two countries have both evolved as a consequence of the different market development paths taken and in part explain many of the commercial differences. Nonetheless the most significant differences in observed market performance appear to arise from regulatory artefacts - in New Zealand's case to the distorting influence of universal service and free local calling obligations and in Finland's case to the prevention of mobile handset bundling with subscriptions

Artificial Intelligence in the Formation of Contracts : an analysis of the adequacy of the Finnish contract law regime with regard to artificial intelligence

Lisääntynyt tekoälyn hyödyntäminen on herättänyt viime aikoina paljon keskustelua oikeustieteen saralla. Muun muassa itseohjautuviin autoihin liittyvät sopimuksen ulkopuoliset vastuukysymykset ja algoritmien hyödyntäminen oikeudellisessa päätöksenteossa ovat saaneet tässä keskustelussa paljon huomiota. Tekoälyä hyödynnetään hyvin monipuolisesti muillakin aloilla. Vähemmälle tarkastelulle ovat jääneet tekoälyn hyödyntämisen vaikutukset sopimusoikeuden näkökulmasta. Sähköisen kaupankäynnin lisääntyessä vuosituhannen vaihteessa katsottiin tarpeelliseksi päivittää sitä koskevaa sääntelyä tietyiltä osin. Tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää, tuoko tekoälyn hyödyntäminen sellaisia uusia elementtejä digitaalisesti tehtyihin sopimuksiin, joiden vuoksi sopimusoikeutta koskevaa lainsäädäntöä olisi jälleen aihetta päivittää. Yksi keskeinen tätä hypoteesia puoltava havainto on tekoälyn valmius toimia hyvinkin autonomisesti. Tämä piirre vaikuttaa erottavan tekoälyyn perustuvat sopimukset muista digitaalisista sopimuksista. Ennen sopimusoikeudellisten vaikutusten arviointia tutkielmassa tarkastellaan, kuinka tekoälyä parhaillaan hyödynnetään sopimuksia tehtäessä. Havaitaan, että tekoälyä hyödynnetään jo nyt varsin monipuolisesti muun muassa sopimusehtojen tarkastamisessa, hinnoittelussa sekä ultranopeassa kaupankäynnissä rahoitusmarkkinoilla. Tutkielman pääasiallisena tavoitteena on arvioida sitä, ovatko olemassa olevat sopimusoikeuden säännöt riittäviä sääntelemään tekoälyn avulla solmittua sopimusta. Arviointi tehdään yllä mainittujen tekoälyn käyttökohteiden pohjalta. Arviointi on rajattu koskemaan Suomen oikeutta ja siinä tarkastellaan neljää sopimusoikeudellista kysymystä, jotka voivat olla ongelmallisia tekoälyn erityispiirteiden vuoksi: - Toteutuuko tahdonilmaisu riittävällä tavalla, kun sopimusta tehtäessä hyödynnetään tekoälyä? - Voidaanko erehdystä koskevia sääntöjä soveltaa, jos tekoäly toimii ennalta arvaamattomalla tavalla? - Miten vilpittömän mielen käsitettä tulisi soveltaa tekoälyn avulla tehtyjen sopimuksien yhteydessä? - Vaikuttaako tekoälyn hyödyntäminen sopimuksen tulkintaan? Tutkielmassa havaitaan, että tekoälyn rooli sopimuksen teossa vaihtelee paljon. Yksinkertaisimmillaan tekoälyä hyödynnetään apuvälineenä tietyn toiminnon automatisoinnissa. Tekoäly voi myös toimia vaativimmissa sovelluksissa autonomisessa roolissa siten, että älykäs tekoälyyn perustuva sovellus neuvottelee ja toimeenpanee sopimuksen itsenäisesti. Tekoälyn toimiessa autonomisessa roolissa sen erityispiirteiden havaittiin vaikuttavan eniten tässä tutkielmassa tarkasteltuihin sopimusoikeudellisiin kysymyksiin

The First 25 Years of the Bled eConference: Themes and Impacts

The Bled eConference is the longest-running themed conference associated with the Information Systems discipline. The focus throughout its first quarter-century has been the application of electronic tools, migrating progressively from Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) via Inter-Organisational Systems (IOS) and eCommerce to encompass all aspects of the use of networking facilities in industry and government, and more recently by individuals, groups and society as a whole. This paper reports on an examination of the conference titles and of the titles and abstracts of the 773 refereed papers published in the Proceedings since 1995. This identified a long and strong focus on categories of electronic business and corporate perspectives, which has broadened in recent years to encompass the democratic, the social and the personal. The conference\u27s extend well beyond the papers and their thousands of citations and tens of thousands of downloads. Other impacts have included innovative forms of support for the development of large numbers of graduate students, and the many international research collaborations that have been conceived and developed in a beautiful lake-side setting in Slovenia

The Role of Information Technology in Mediating External Information to the Rural Micro Enterprises : Regional Literature Reviews of Northern Ostrobothnia and Central Finland : Rural Business Information Exchange System (RuBIES) Project

Regional literature reviews present an overview of the use of ICT in rural small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nothern Ostrobothnia and Central Finland. These two regions provide excellent examples of regions consisting mainly of rural areas, but having also well-developed urban areas. The region of Central Finland is situated according to it’s name in central part of Finland. The main city of the Central Finland region is Jyväskylä, which is influencing strongly also to the surrounding municipalities (Jyväskylä region). The population of Central Finland is very strongly concentrated to the Jyväskylä region. In 2003 over a half of the inhabitants of the Central Finland lived in this sub-region. Even though the population has been increasing in Jyväskylä region, it has decreased in every other sub-region. Northern Ostrobothnia, on the other hand, is the second northernmost province in Finland, extending across the country from the Gulf of Bothnia coast to the border with Russia. It can be regarded mostly as core or peripheral countryside. However, the principal city, Oulu, is the second most important population centre in the country after Helsinki area. The population is strongly concentrated to the Oulu region. In 2004 approx. 54 % of the total population of Northern Ostrobothnia was living in Oulu region. Both of the most important cities of these two regions have created some of their growth by concentrating on information technology and high technology relating to that. Even though there can be estimated to be some kind of lack of small business tradition in both of the regions due to their historical development, especially in rural areas the most of the companies in both regions can be defined as small or even micro enterprises. Also in both regions the there were a lot of regional variations in occupational as well as entrepreneurial structure. When reviewing the regions of Northern Ostrobothnia and Central Finland more in details concerning the utilisation of ICT in rural enterprises, they seemed to follow quite well the national trends. In Northern Ostrobothnia approx 85–90 % of the enterprices used Internet in their businesses and the figure can be estimated to be at least the same in Central Finland (national percentages being over 90). The most used Internet services seem to be e-mail (communication), online banking and information search services. The most significant benefits for SMEs of the use of Internet are: saving time (possibility to manage operations easier and faster, flexibility, on-line possibilities, accessibility to updated information), saving money (related to saving the time, savings in labour and logistic operations etc.) and relating to benefits mentioned above, indifference to business location. Improving utilisation of ICT in rural areas and SMEs is in big a role in the regional development plans in both regions. Also in both regions the expertise on ICT development is at high level. In Northern Ostrobothnia, it was estimated that already by the year 2005 almost 100 % of the inhabitants are going to have a possibility to broadband connections. In Central Finland, this process is a bit slower. As well, when studying the penetration of Internet connections or amount of computers, Northern Ostrobothnia seemed to be a bit above the national average, when in Central Finland as a region the figures were a bit below the national average. However, the variations within the regions were also significant. Despite the fact, that in both regions there are a lot of business and sector specific advisory services available for SMEs provided by national actors as well as regional development organisations, according to regional surveys, it seems that entrepreneurs do not really know of them and some of them never use these services. This effects also to the use of e-services. The majority of regional expert/advisory services are not yet, however, in e-form. According to the surveys, in both regions there seems to be a need for improving ICT skills especially among small rural SMEs. Though in both regions there are various short term courses and trainings available, somehow the supply does not seem to meet the demand and e.g. the courses have been cancelled due to the lack of participants. As anticipated the entrepreneurs in remote rural areas seem to be a bit slower integrate ICT to their business actions in general. However, the preconditions to extend the utilisation of ICT in the future also in rural areas are good. The Internet connections are getting gradually better as well as there are constantly a lot of on-going development activities in improving services and education, even though there has been some critic towards them in both regions. However, it can be stated that at the moment in both regions (as in other parts of Finland), the rural SMEs have not yet realised all the potential benefits offered by Internet services and the use of Internet is not yet seen as a part of business culture. At the moment SMEs use mainly more or less obligatory public external expert services (e.g. tax authorities). However, utilising widely external expert services might benefit especially the small rural SMEs, since they do not have possibilities to hire new skilled full-time staff for different business operations. Offering expert services in e-form may promote the use of external experts in remote rural SMEs (easy access to the external information), though the SMEs see that the accessibility of the services is not sufficient at the moment, products are not customer orientated enough and a support system is needed. However, before e-expert services can be fully utilised, there are more than just technical problems to be solved. The main problems seem to be in utilisation of the external knowledge in business actions and knowledge management. This necessitates new way of thinking also from the entrepreneurs and highlights the importance of entrepreneurs capability to apply the information to his/hers own business actions. The development of new ICT tools has been very rapid and sometimes the business culture has not been able to keep track of technological development

Sistemas de gestão de destinos turísticos: contribuições para a sua adoção e implementação

The growing competition between tourist destinations, the progressively demanding tourist source markets, as well the complexity of the strategies to attract them, has led Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) to expand their attributions to assume themselves as central actors in the coordination of the stakeholders of respective destinations. Thus, some DMOs have implemented collaborative online networks, referred to as Destination Management Systems (DMSs), which connect all relevant tourist agents in a destination, facilitating communication and cooperation between them. These systems also provide online tourist portals for tourist destinations that offer more personalised travel planning experiences, including the possibility to purchase tourist products. However, only a residual number of tourist destinations has ever tried to adopt a DMS and a considerable portion of the them were unsuccessful. The challenges to the success of a DMS require a careful analysis of the factors that influence the willingness of the tourist agents of a destination to adopt them, as well as of the factors that determine the importance that these agents attribute to the functionalities of those same DMSs. However, research in this area is still limited. The main objectives of this thesis are to obtain an in-depth knowledge about the factors mentioned above, as well as on the characteristics and role of DMSs, in order to promote the implementation of these systems in tourist destinations. To achieve these objectives, a mixed methodology was adopted, starting with an extensive review of the literature on DMSs, exploratory interviews with the main companies providing DMS solutions and with DMOs that have successfully implemented these systems. At content analysis of those same DMSs was undertaken. This qualitative approach provided an in-depth knowledge regarding the characteristics of DMSs, the current business and management models of these systems, as well as their recent developments and future perspectives. Then, a quantitative approach was used to identify the factors that explain the willingness of destination-based stakeholders to adopt a DMS, as well as those influencing the importance attributed by these agents to the specific functionalities of DMSs. Thus, a questionnaire survey was applied to different types of tourist agents from a regional destination lacking a DMS: The Portuguese Centre region. The results of the quantitative investigation indicate that the predisposition to adopt a DMS is positively influenced by factors such as: (i) cooperation within the destination; (ii) pressure from the external environment (e.g. from competing destinations); (iii) perceived benefits and usefulness of the DMS; (iv) DMO's leadership and strategic vision; (v) resources and strategic vision of the tourist actors in the destination. On the other hand, two factors which are still absent from research on this topic were found to negatively influence the predisposition to adopt a DMS, namely: (i) alternative online platforms and (ii) the lack of a DMS in neighbouring regions or at the national level. The results also demonstrate that the importance attributed to the specific functionalities of a DMS by destination-based stakeholders is positively influenced (i) by its resources and strategic vision, (ii) by its knowledge on the DMO’s initiatives in the field of the Information and Communication and Technologies, (iii) the condition of affiliated member of a DMO; and (iv) by the tourist agent sub-sector, since it was found that tourism accommodation providers value collaborative functionalities of a DMS less than others. The thesis ends with conclusions and implications for the tourism sector, mainly for agents responsible for the development of tourist destinations.A crescente competição entre destinos turísticos, bem como a progressiva exigência da procura turística e da complexidade das estratégias para a atrair, levou as Organizações de Gestão de Destinos (OGD) a ampliarem as suas atribuições para se assumirem como atores centrais na coordenação dos stakeholders dos respetivos destinos. Assim, algumas OGDs implementaram redes colaborativas online, designadas de Sistemas de Gestão de Destinos (SGDs), que interligam todos os agentes turísticos relevantes de um destino, facilitando a comunicação e a cooperação entre eles. Estes sistemas também proporcionam à procura turística portais online de destinos turísticos que oferecem experiências de planeamento de viagens mais personalizadas, incluindo a possibilidade de comprar produtos turísticos. Porém, apenas um número residual de destinos turísticos tentou adotar um SGD e uma parcela considerável dos SGDs não tiveram sucesso. Os desafios para garantir o sucesso dos SGD exigem uma análise cuidada dos fatores que influenciam a predisposição dos agentes turísticos de um destino para os adotar, bem como dos fatores que determinam a importância que estes agentes atribuem às funcionalidades dos SGD. No entanto, a investigação neste âmbito é ainda limitada. A presente tese tem como principais objetivos obter um conhecimento aprofundado sobre os fatores anteriormente referidos, bem como sobre as características e papel dos SGD, no sentido de promover a implementação destes sistemas nos destinos. Para alcançar os objetivos estabelecidos, adotou-se uma metodologia mista, começando com uma extensiva revisão da literatura sobre SGD, entrevistas exploratórias às principais empresas fornecedoras de soluções de SGD e a OGD que implementaram estes sistemas com sucesso, bem como análises de conteúdo de SGD. Esta abordagem qualitativa permitiu um conhecimento mais aprofundado relativamente às características dos SGD, aos atuais modelos de negócios e de gestão destes sistemas, bem como aos seus recentes desenvolvimentos e perspetivas futuras. Seguidamente uma abordagem quantitativa foi utlizada para identificar os fatores que explicam a predisposição dos agentes turísticos de um destino para adotar um SGD, bem como os fatores que influenciam a importância atribuída por estes agentes às funcionalidades específicas dos SGD. Assim, um inquérito por questionário foi aplicado a diferentes tipos de agentes turísticos de um destino regional que não dispõe de um SGD: a região Centro de Portugal. Os resultados da investigação quantitativa indicam que a predisposição para adotar um SGD é influenciada positivamente por fatores como: (i) cooperação no destino; (ii) pressão do ambiente externo (ex. de destinos concorrentes); (iii) benefícios percebidos e utilidade do SGD; (iv) liderança e visão estratégica da OGD; (v) recursos e visão estratégica dos atores turísticos do destino. Por outro lado, dois fatores até agora ausentes da investigação influenciam negativamente a predisposição para adotar um SGD, nomeadamente: (i) as plataformas alternativas online e (ii) a falta de um SGD em regiões vizinhas ou a nível nacional. Os resultados demonstram ainda que a importância atribuída às funcionalidades específicas de um SGD pelos agentes turísticos de um destino é influenciada positivamente (i) pelos seus recursos e visão estratégica, (ii) pelo seu conhecimento sobre as iniciativas da OGD no âmbito das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação, (iii) por ser membro afiliado da OGD; e (iv) pelo subsetor do agente turístico, observando-se que os fornecedores de alojamento turístico valorizam menos as funcionalidades de cariz colaborativo do que outro tipo de agentes. A tese termina com conclusões e implicações para o setor do turismo, principalmente para agentes responsáveis pelo desenvolvimento turístico.Programa Doutoral em Turism

WWW visibility in marketing

Abstract. Social media is a vital channel for marketers nowadays. Customers are more empowered today than ever before and the Internet is accelerating the trend toward greater customer empowerment. In few years Web 2.0 has become a highly important media and it has changed the Web into platform where individuals can communicate, assemble and organize data. Web 2.0 also offers a variety of different “tools” for companies to be used in marketing. Because companies and products are visible and discussed in social media, it is recommendable that companies try to seek positive publicity in these media. Thesis aims to describe the opportunities social media provides in organizational use, as well as, to provide an overview of the current situation in social media utilization in Finland. Further, it seeks to investigate the challenges organizations have in social media or in a whole field of E-marketing, and what kind of plans organizations have for the future in a field of E-marketing. The study consists of theoretical and empirical parts. Literature part scrutinizes the literature that covers different sides of online marketing. Empirical part of the study was conducted as a survey research. Results are based on a questionnaire and interviews that were conducted among Finnish companies during time period of spring and autumn 2012. The data was gathered among companies operating in different fields of business. Interviews were transcribed and conclusions were made from those. Because of the limited number of participants that took part to the questionnaire, the results derived from it are merely suggestive. Nevertheless, interviews did strengthen the understanding that was inherited from the questionnaire. The findings reveal that e-marketing has a very important role in the companies’ marketing strategy. Majority of the firms see social media marketing as a positive thing. Yet, the companies were unsure whether they possess the needed skills to do marketing in social media effectively. The results imply that the reason for this is related to the skills and experience the companies have in social media marketing. Those are such issues though, that company will learn and will develop its own way to use social media. This was also showed in the results.Tiivistelmä. Sosiaalinen media on tärkeä markkinointikanava nykypäivänä. Kuluttajilla on nykyään enemmän mahdollisuuksia vaikuttaa kuin koskaan ennen, minkä lisäksi Internet tarjoaa yhä kasvavassa määrin vaikuttamiskeinoja. Muutamassa vuodessa Web 2.0:sta on tullut erittäin tärkeä media, joka on muuttanut Internetin alustaksi, jossa ihmiset voivat kommunikoida sekä koota ja järjestää tietoa. Web 2. tarjoaa useita ”työkaluja” myös yrityksille käytettäväksi markkinoinnissa. Koska yritykset ja tuotteet ovat näkyvissä ja keskustelun kohteena sosiaalisissa medioissa, on suositeltavaa, että yritykset yrittävät hakea positiivista julkisuutta näissä medioissa. Tämä pro gradu -tutkielma pyrkii kuvailemaan mahdollisuuksia, joita sosiaalinen media tarjoaa organisaatioille, minkä lisäksi se tarjoaa yleiskuvan sosiaalisen median hyödyntämisestä Suomessa. Lisäksi tavoitteena on selvittää haasteita, joita organisaatioilla on sosiaalisessa mediassa tai laajemmin sähköisessä kaupankäynnissä, sekä selvittää yritysten tulevaisuuden visioita sähköiselle kaupankäynnille. Tämä työ koostuu kirjallisuuteen perustuvasta teoriaosuudesta sekä empiirisestä osuudesta. Kirjallisuusosuus tarjoaa laajan katsauksen tieteelliseen kirjallisuuteen verkkomarkkinoinnin eri puolilta. Työn empiiristä osuutta varten järjestettiin survey-tutkimus. Tulokset perustuvat kyselytutkimukseen ja haastatteluihin, jotka suoritettiin suomalaisten yritysten piirissä kevään ja syksyn 2012 välisenä aikana. Data kerättiin yrityksiltä, jotka edustivat eri toimialoja. Haastattelut litteroitiin ja päätelmät tehtiin niistä. Koska kyselyyn osallistuneiden yritysten määrää jäi rajalliseksi, kyselystä saadut tulokset ovat lähinnä suuntaa antavia. Siitä huolimatta, suoritetut haastattelut vain vahvistivat kuvaa, joka saatiin kyselystä. Tuloksista ilmenee, että sähköinen markkinointi on tärkeä osa yritysten markkinointistrategiaa. Suurin osa yrityksistä näkee sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuvan markkinoinnin positiivisena asiana. Kuitenkin yritykset olivat epävarmoja siltä, osaavatko he tehdä tehokasta markkinointia sosiaalisessa mediassa. Tulokset näyttävät, että epävarmuuden syy löytyy yritysten rajallisesta osaamisesta ja kokemuksesta sosiaalisen median markkinoinnin alueella. Nämä ovat tietenkin asioita, jotka yritys oppii ajan kuluessa ja joissa se kokemuksen karttuessa löytää oman, itselleen sopivan tavan toimia. Tämä tuli näytetyksi myös tuloksissa