Researching intercultural participatory design

What impact does culture have on tools and techniques that are used to\ud facilitate cooperation amongst stakeholders in Information Communication\ud Technology (ICT) design projects? This is a question facing the ICT development\ud activities at the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden. At the university\ud around 300 staff and students from 90 different countries come together every\ud year. Continuously finding ways to improve how they can actively participate in\ud design activities of useful and usable ICT support to benefit their everyday work\ud is a prioritized area. This short paper presents a case that illustrates the\ud intertwined and negotiated characteristics of culture when working with tools and\ud techniques for cooperation in a student ICT design project. Using the case, an\ud ethnographically based research cycle is explored to make sense of and ultimately\ud further improve the interactions between the actors in an intercultural application\ud domain

Contest and Concordance: HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US and Challenges to Resistant Discourses in Performance Art

In my response to this year’s special call (of overcoming divisive discourses), I examine the case of LaBeouf, Rönkkö, and Turner’s HEWILLNOTDIVIDE.US art installation, and the discourses that have emerged in response to this piece in the months since its opening. After identifying five discourses that seem to compete over the meanings and intent of the installation, I examine the ways in which these discourses might become more openly engaged in dialogic and transgressive encounters through an application of applied Bataillean abjection

Televisiomainonta Suomessa

Tämän opinnäytetyön aiheena on suomalainen mainoselokuva ja sen kehittyminen nykypäivään. Työn alussa tarkastellaan myös markkinoinnin psykologiaa, sillä on oleellista ymmärtää, miten markkinointi vaikuttaa ihmiseen ja sen perusteella voidaan todeta, millainen mainos vetoaa kohderyhmään ja millainen ei. Opinnäytetyössä tarkastellaan yleisellä tasolla ostamisen psykologiaa ja hieman tarkemmin markkinoinnin keinoja mainostajan näkökulmasta. Aiheena ovat markkinoinnin tavoitteet, työtavat ja ongelmat. Psykologisen osuuden jälkeen työ keskittyy suomalaisen televisiomainonnan historiaan ja sen kehittymiseen. Tarkoituksena on tuoda esille mainosten kehityskaari erityisesti sisällön ja maailmankuvan kehittymisen näkökulmasta. Opinnäytetyön aineistona on käytetty kirjallisuutta niin psykologian kuin markkinoinnin aloilta sekä suomalaisen mainonnan historiaan keskittyviä teoksia

Tuntematon taistelumaalari ja Pohjois-Afrikan kuvaaja

Tom Backmansson, Marie-Sofie Lundström, Tutta Palin & Marju Rönkkö: Hugo Backmansson – konstnär, officer och äventyrare. SLS 2010. (Suomeksi: Hugo Backmansson – taiteilija, upseeri ja seikkailija. Otava 2010.

Software Firm Business Models with Virtual Communities

The introduction of internet technology has fundamentally changed the software industry. Instead of using the traditional licensing business model, software firms now compete with a wide variety of models, such as Software-as-a-Service, open source software models and virtual communities. However, there is yet very limited research on these new approaches. This exploratory paper contributes to the discussion on software business models and virtual communities by developing a taxonomy of how virtual communities are used as part of a business model. Using survey data collected from the Finnish software industry, a cluster analysis of the data reveals four different ways that firms utilize virtual communities in their business. The resulting high-level taxonomy contributes towards an understanding of the role of virtual communities in contemporary software firm business models

USE OF PARTIAL LEAST SQUARES AS A THEORY TESTING TOOL – AN ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS PAPERS

Motivated by recent critique toward partial least squares path modeling (PLS), we present a research question if the PLS method, as used currently, is at all an appropriate tool for theory testing. We briefly summarize some of the recent critique of the use of PLS in IS as a theory testing tool. Then we analyze the results of 12 PLS analyzes published in leading IS journals testing if these models would have been rejected in the case that the data used for model testing had very little correspondence with the theorized models. Our Monte Carlo simulation shows that PLS will often provide results that support the tested hypotheses even if the model was not appropriate for the data. We conclude that the current practices of PLS studies have likely resulted in publishing research where the results are likely false and suggest that more attention should be paid on the assumptions of the PLS model or that alternative approached like summed scales and regression or structural equation modeling with estimators that have known statistical properties should be used instead

Northern Ireland sectarianism and the Garvaghy Road parade disputes

Abstract. The purpose of this study is to examine the wider issue of Northern Ireland sectarianism by discussing the disputed Orange Order parades in Drumcree, Portadown, especially the conflict centred around the Order’s marching route in celebrating the ‘Twelfth’ of July, commemorating King William III’s victory in the Battle of the Boyne. In particular, this study focuses on the dispute concerning the Orange parade’s proposed return route from Drumcree Parish Church, through the predominantly Catholic neighbourhood of Garvaghy Road, especially at the height of the resultant ‘Drumcree crises’ in the mid-1990s. The conflict will be related to trends in the wider sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, with the concurrent Troubles playing an important role in the shaping of the Drumcree crises. In turn, it will be discussed how the crises themselves became one of the most prominent flashpoints of sectarian tension and violence near the end of the Troubles. This master’s thesis will attempt to provide a balanced view of the subject by utilising a wide variety of written sources, but special attention has been paid to the roles and ideology of Northern Ireland unionism and its various internal divisions, especially loyalism, via authors like Norman Porter (1996) and the various contributions of Dominic Bryan (1995, 1996, 2000), among others. Writers like Michel Savaric (1998) provide opportunities to compare and contrast key aspects of this theoretical base with nationalism and republicanism, while accounts by the Garvaghy Road residents (1999) found in Garvaghy: A Community Under Siege will serve to outline some part of the arguments and sentiment opposing the Twelfth parade’s proposed route. The focus on unionism, the Orange Order, and loyalism, however, will necessarily serve as a criticism of the same, while also identifying many points of said criticism as inherent to Northern Ireland sectarianism itself. Another essential task will be to more definitively separate the strands of unionism from another, in order to avoid the pitfall of treating either side of the sectarian conflict as a monolithic, all-encompassing entity, rather than as a collection of communities with their own separate interests and values. In other words, the sources utilised in this study lead one to treat the ‘two traditions’ of the sectarian divide as inherently connected or convergent and, to a degree, co-dependent, while still respecting the essential fact of their separate identities, as well as the complexity of their internal ideological and political structures. As a result, the importance and difficulty of dialogue emerges as an integral question in determining the trajectory of the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, or proposing a meaningful ‘solution’ to the problem of sectarianism.Pohjois-Irlannin sektarianismi ja Garvaghy Roadin paraatikiistat . Tiivistelmä. Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tarkoituksena on käsitellä Pohjois-Irlannin sektarianismia tutkimalla erityisesti Oranialaisveljeskunnan paraateja ympäröiviä konflikteja Portadownin kaupungissa, tarkemmin Drumcreen alueella. Tutkielma keskittyy varsinkin heinäkuun kahdennentoista, eli Boynen taistelun muistopäivän paraatien aiheuttamiin kiistoihin, joissa Oranialaisveljeskunta on pyrkinyt marssimaan takaisin Drumcreen kirkolta katolilaisvaltaisen Garvaghy Roadin läpi, asukkaiden vastustuksesta huolimatta. Huomion arvoisia ovat erityisesti 1990-luvun keskivaiheiden kiistat ja kriisit näihin paraateihin liittyen, sillä ne ajoittuvat Pohjois-Irlannin levottomuuksien viimeisiin ratkaisuhetkiin, puhumattakaan niiden suorista vaikutuksista kyseiseen laajempaan konfliktiin. Tämä tutkielma hyödyntää suhteelliseen laajaa valikoimaa erilaisia kirjallisia lähteitä, akateemisista julkaisuista internet-uutisiin, tarkoituksena ollen muodostaa ensin tasapainoinen kuva joukosta sekä paraateihin että laajempaan konfliktiin liittyviä tärkeimpiä tekijöitä. Tämä teoreettinen pohja painottuu Pohjois-Irlannin unionismin, Oranialaisveljeskunnan, ja lojalismin näkökohtiin ja ongelmiin, ja yksi keskustelun tärkeistä päämääristä on erotella unionismin eri suuntauksia toisistaan, jolloin muodostuu myös hyödyllisempi kuva sektraniamismin konfliktien perustavanlaatuisista tekijöistä. Yksi tällainen tekijä on niin Pohjois-Irlannin tilanteelle ominaisen, niin kutsutun ’kahden tradition’ järjestelmän ja sen osapuolien ideologinen ja kulttuurinen vuorovaikutteisuus ja riippuvuussuhde. Toinen lähteiden analyysin peräänkuuluttama tekijä on Pohjois-Irlannin unionismin ja Irlantilaisen nationalismin sisäisten rakenteiden monisäikeisyys, niin kulttuurisesti kuin poliittisesti. Lyhykäisyydessään tästä monimutkaisesta asetelmasta seuraa tilanne, jossa huolellinen ja hyödyllinen analyysi edellyttää sekä yksittäisten ideologisten säikeiden kuin myös laajempien sektarianismin kokonaisuuksien suhteuttamista toisiinsa tavalla, jossa niiden välillä vallitsevaa konfliktin ongelmaa ja näihin konflikteihin perustavanlaatuisesti pohjautuvaa ’identiteettirakennelmaa’ kyetään lähestymään rakentavasti

The role of social effects and perceived risk in driving profitable online customer interactions

The emergence of online channels has been of special relevance, as it has promoted a more active participation of consumers in the value creation process. In this study, we draw from the Stimulus-Organism-Response model to provide a theoretical understanding of the role played by two critical factors that drive online customer initiated interactions (OnCICs): social effects and perceived risk. In addition, we also investigate their consequences by establishing a direct link between these interactions and customer profitability. Merging longitudinal objective data with subjective data for a sample of 1,990 customers in the financial services and applying Partial Least Squares (PLS), the results reveal that social effects influence perceived risk. Perceived risk consequently promotes the development of OnCICs, while social effects reduce the need for such interactions. In addition, OnCICs help promote high-quality relationships and leads to higher performance

Between-Group Equivalence in Comparisons Using PLS: Results from Three Simulation Studies

The examination of between-group differences in theoretical relationships of interest is central to the conduct of research in the organizational and behavioral sciences, including Information Systems research. One such approach for examining these differences relies on the conduct of multi-group PLS analyses, where each group of interest is modeled separately, and the structural results from each analysis are then compared. Though this approach has been employed in the empirical literature, the ability of separate analyses to obtain models that are equivalent from a measurement perspective – which is a pre-requisite to making any comparisons between them – has not been carefully studied. In this research we perform three simulation studies under varying invariant conditions that highlight the performance of PLS in this regard. Our results indicate that sampling variability plays a major role in whether equivalent results can be obtained, and showcase the conditions in which the technique performs best