News: kategoria "Research"

Professor Alladi Venkatesh’s talk drew a large and enthusiastic audience at Aalto BIZ

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 08:04:34 +0000

Professor Alladi Venkatesh visited the Department of Communication and gave a talk at a seminar organized by the Media Management Group (MeMaG) of the department. In his talk, Professor Venkatesh discussed social media as a new digital space for organizing social and cultural interactions and economic activities.

The aim of the seminar, Strategic Media Management - trans-disciplinary perspectives, was to bring together academic scholars and media practitioners to discuss recent developments in the field of media management from a trans-disciplinary perspective. The seminar was the closing dissemination seminar of the research project Strategic Challenges of the Media Industry in Converging Media Markets, funded by Helsingin Sanomien Säätiö.

The seminar drew a large audience and generated enthusiastic discussion on the implications of social media to management theory and practice.

Alladi Venkatesh is Professor of Management and Computer Science, and Associate Director, CRITO (Center for Research on Information Technology) University of California, Irvine, USA. His publications have appeared in major journals, Management Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Communications of the ACM, Marketing Theory, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management and others.

"Best theoretical paper” and ”Highly commended theoretical paper” to Aalto BIZ Department of Communication at CCI

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:02:48 +0000

The Department succeeded in winning three awards at this year’s Corporate Communication International (CCI) conference at Baruch College (CUNY) in New York in early June.

The award for the best theoretical paper was given to Säde Rytkönen (MSc graduate in 2012) & Leena Louhiala-Salminen on “Sell the Sizzle” - Communicating environmental, social, and governance issues to institutional investors.

First year PhD Candidate Mark Badham received an award for ‘highly commended theoretical paper’ based on his paper titled Communicating through the ‘Love Lens’: Using communication to progress stakeholders through relationship-based phases.

In addition, Kirsti Iivonen (PhD Candidate) received one of the Acorn ™ Speaker Commendations for engaging, leading and inspiring presentations with her presentation on Rhetorical Construction of Narcissist CSR Orientation: How the American Beverage Industry Makes Sense of the Consumer Health Issue.

Corporate Communication Seminar: Is ‘culture’ a dirty word?

Thu, 02 May 2013 18:58:30 +0000

Our annual Corporate Communication Seminar on 25 April ,”Multilingual and intercultural issues in Corporate Communication” got an effective start, when Professor Ulla Connor claimed that ‘culture’ has become a dirty word that people dare not use any more. Her talk presented the approach of intercultural rhetoric to intercultural communication, and she challenged the audience to question the top-down view of culture - but to keep the concept , and look at it from bottom up: “how people do things” makes culture. In other words, culture as a static concept (Finnish culture, Japanese culture) could be rejected, but in all interaction dynamic, (multi)cultural elements are present.

Professor Connor, IUPUI University, and Director of the Center for Intercultural Communication, Indianapolis, visited Aalto University School of Business this week.

Her presentation was followed by a communications practitioner perspective offered by Pia Friberg, Senior Manager, Wärtsilä Corporation, Communications & Branding. Pia Friberg is a communications graduate from AaltoBIZ (Helsinki School of Economics). She vividly described her daily multilingual and intercultural life among 114 nationalities and dozens of languages, giving interesting examples of ‘bottom up’ cultural situations.

As in the earlier Seminars in 2008-2012, the academic and practitioner perspectives converged , complementing each other. At the end, we concluded that culture is not a dirty word, but an important concept that we had been discussing as “culture”?! – with all the punctuation marks of our own Aalto identity giving meaning to the word.

More information: Leena Louhiala-Salminen, leena.louhiala-salminen(at)aalto.fi

From the left: Pia Friberg, Senior Manager, Wärtsilä Corporation, Prof. Leena Louhiala-Salminen, Aalto BIZ, and Prof. Ulla Connor, IUPUI University.

Attentive audience focusing on ”Multilingual and intercultural issues in Corporate Communication”.

Nando Malmelin Joins the Media Managment Group of the Department of Communication

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:02:01 +0000

Dr. Nando Malmelin, former Development Director of A-lehdet Oy, joins the Media Management Group of the Department of Communication. Malmelin will work as the principal investigator in a two-year project on "Creative Leadership in Media Management" funded by the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation.

The project focuses on creative leadership in media industry networks and organizations.The aim is to explore organizational creativity as an important strategic resource for contemporary media firms. Creative leadership is investigated especially from the perspectives of communication and collaboration.

Contact person: nando.malmelin(at) aalto.fi

More (in Finnish)

http://www.marmai.fi/uutiset/nando+malmelin+lahtee+alehdista/a2162700

Dr. Rita Järventie-Thesleff Appointed Professor of Practice

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:57:50 +0000

The dean of Aalto University School of Business has appointed Rita Järventie-Thesleff, D.Sc. (Econ.) as Professor of Practice for the period of 1.1.2013-31.12.2015. The professorship is at the Department of Communications.

Prior to joining the Department of Communication, Dr. Järventie-Thesleff has had a long and impressive career as a business practitioner with significant experience of senior positions in retail and international trade.

In her research, Järventie-Thesleff has focused on strategic change, strategic communication, branding, and organizational sense-making in the context of large multi-national corporations.

In the Department of Communication, Järventie-Thesleff's teaching and research will mainly focus on organizational and management communication, in the context of media management and corporate branding in particular. As a newly appointed professor, she will also join the management team of the department.

New publication: Visual Chitchat

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 23:18:08 +0000

Mikko Villi, who works as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Communication has published an article on visual interpersonal communication in the journal Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture (2012, volume 3, number 1).

In his article ”Visual Chitchat: The Use of Camera Phones in Visual Interpersonal Communication”, Mikko examines how the practices of mobile phone communication influence the sharing of camera phone photographs. When using camera phones in interpersonal communication, photographs can now function as communicative objects through which people engage with each other synchronously, performing ‘visual chitchat’ or ‘visual small-talk’.

Please contact Mikko.Villi(at)aalto.fi for more information.

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Moving Consumption

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 20:59:33 +0000

Consumption Markets & Culture

This special issue aims to assume the task by CMC to contextualize consumption, bringing it out of the close circle of the consumer and his/her brain, mind or culture, and in touch with larger structures, as well as with disciplines previously not often used in studies of consumption (for other examples, see Aspara, 2009, on perspectives from Art and Design: Burton, 2011, on whiteness theory 2011: and Borgerson, 2009, on materiality following anthropologist Daniel Miller). In order to move consumer research forward, we propose to study moving consumption.

Historically consumer research moved itself dramatically, notably when it decided to broaden its focus from buyer to consumer behavior, from the shop to the home, from acquisition to disposal, use and discarding, along the idea that consumption activities are not restricted to shopping places and marketing issues, but encompass all aspects of human life. As a consequence, consumption should be studied in all its aspects, be they commercial or not (Holbrook 1984; Holbrook, 1985; Holbrook, 1987). Interestingly, Consumer research accomplished this move in moving itself, in the physical sense of the expression, when in 1986 a team of its leaders decided to travel the routes of American consumption and gather new facts about all aspects of consumption behavior through the well- known adventure of the Consumer Behavior Odyssey (Belk, 1991; Belk and al., 1989). But paradoxically, if consumer research moved both conceptually and physically, we know little about the relationship between consumption and motion.

In order to open up the field of consumption this is precisely this relationship that we propose to explore. We invite contributions along the lines of consumer’s physical but also mental moves: how they move, what they move, and also what moves them. Consumers move from shopping to consuming places, but we should get a better knowledge about what happens during their journeys, “around” and “between” buying and consuming; how physical moves, sensorial moves, market devices and other settings shape consumption.

Our theme “Moving consumption” also implies moving consumer research forward by challenging consumption as a complex field of actors, processes, practices and modes of thought, and arguing that consumption needs to be studied by innovative trans-disciplinary perspectives—perspectives that overcome many of the traditional discursive, theoretical, and methodological dichotomies. This means not only acknowledging the recent interest in consumption studies following the paths opened by Actor-network theory (Brembeck et al, 2007, Cochoy, 2004, 2011), theories of practice (Shove et al, 2007; 2012), and sensory ethnography (Pink, 2010, Valtonen, Markuksela & Moisander, 2010). It also opens up for engaging with mobility studies. The ‘new mobilities’ paradigm encompasses both the large-scale movements of people, objects, capital and information across the world, as well as the more local processes of daily transportation, movement through public space and the travel of material things within everyday life (Hannam, Sheller & Urry 2006). A related issue is that of the role of the larger frames, such as the managerial, technical or governmental constructs and instruments that shape markets at large (see the June 2012 issue of CMC, Geiger and al., 2012) but that also and more specifically “move” consumers from the outside, to the point of challenging the view of the isolated free decision maker and redefining consumer agencies and identities (Moisander and al., 2010; Cochoy, 2011).

Of course, external moves closely interact with internal ones, and such interactions deserve attention. Here, we join the interest of several scholars in the body (Mol, 2002), senses (Pink, 2010), affects (Massumi, 2002), interacting bodies (Degan & al., 2010, Arnoldi & and Borsch, 2007, Piette, 2010), and new forms of technologies tightly coupled to and surveying our bodies and the way they move. This also paves the way for contributions along the lines of sensory marketing (Hultén, 2009) and neuromarketing (Fugate, 2007; Lee and al., 2007, Senior and Lee, 2008, Schneider & Woolgar, 2012).

To our minds consumers form a fleeting entity; they are living, moving and swarming. Hence, if we want to account for them, we should study them in their real life settings (Du Gay, 2004; McFall, 2004, Pink, 2004), and take the senses (Pink, 2010), practices (Warde, 2005,) and also the devices and settings that shape consumption as part of the explanation. We therefore also welcome contributions focusing on inventive methods such as photo-elicitation (Heisley and Levy, 1991), video shadowing (Czarniawska, 2007) go-alongs (Kusenbach, 2003), visual anthropology (Schroeder, 2004, Pink 2007, Piette, 2010), experimental sociology (Gaver, 1999), quantitative ethnography, archaeology of the present, and so on. These are all appropriate tools to capture the elusive consumer (Ekström & Brembeck, 2004) moving in/of complex fields of actors, processes and practices.

Deadline for proposals is November 1, 2012. Proposals should be 2-3 pages long. After preliminary review by the editors, selected authors will be invited to submit full papers by March 31, 2013.

Proposals can be sent to: Helene.Brembeck@cfk.gu.se

Editors:

Helene Brembeck, Center for Consumer Science, Gothenburg University, Sweden

Franck Cochoy, Department of Sociology, University of Toulouse II, France

Johanna Moisander, Department of Communication, Aalto University, Finland

References

Araujo Luis, John Finch and Hans Kjellberg (eds.). 2010. Reconnecting marketing to markets: practice- based approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Arnoldi, J. & Ch. Borch 2007. Market crowds between imitation and control. Theory, Culture & Society, 24, nos. 7–8: 164–180.

Aspara, J. 2009. Aesthetics of stock investments, Consumption, Markets & Culture 12, nos. 3: 99-131.

Belk, R. W. (ed.) 1991a. Highways and Buyways, Naturalistic Research from the Consumer BehaviorOdyssey. Provo: UT, Association for Consumer Research.

Belk R. W., M. Wallendorf & J. F. Sherry Jr. 1989. The sacred and profane in consumer behavior:Theodicy on the Odyssey. Journal of Consumer Research 16, no 1: 1-38.

Borgerson, J. L. 2009. Materiality and the comfort of things: drinks, dining and discussion with Daniel Miller, Consumption Markets & Culture 12, no. 2: 155-170.

Brembeck, H., K. Ekström and M. Mörck (eds.) 2007. Little Monsters. (De)Coupling Assemblages of Consumption. Berlin, LIT Verlag.

Burton, D. 2009. ’Reading’ whiteness in consumer research. Consumption, Markets & Culture 12, no. 2: 171-201.

Callon, M., Y. Millo & F. Muniesa (eds.). 2007. Market Devices. Sociological Review monographs,Oxford, Blackwell.

Cayla, Julien and Detlev Zwick (eds.). 2011. Inside Marketing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cochoy, F. 2004. Is the Modern Consumer a Buridan’s Donkey? Product Packaging and Consumer Choice. In Elusive Consumption, eds. Ekström, K. & Brembeck, H., 205-227. Oxford: Berg.

Cochoy, F. 2011. ‘Market-things Inside’: insights from Progressive Grocer (United States, 1929-1959). In Inside Marketing, eds. Cayla, Julien and Zwick, Detlev, 58-84. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Czarniawska, B. 2007. Shadowing: and other techniques for doing fieldwork in modern societies. Malmö: Liber.

Degan, M., G. Rose & B. Basdas. 2010. Bodies and everyday practices in designed urban environments. Science Studies 23, no. 2: 60-76.

Du Gay, P. 2004. Self-service: Retail, Shopping and Personhood. Consumption, Markets & Culture 7, no. 2 (June): 149-163.

Ekström, K. & H. Brembeck. 2004 (eds.). Elusive Consumption. Oxford: Berg.

Fugate, D. L. 2007. Neuromarketing: a layman’s look at neuroscience and its potential application to marketing practice. Journal of Consumer Marketing 24, no. 7: 385-394.

Gaver, W.1999. Cultural Probes. Interactions January-February: 21-29.
Geiger, S., H. Kjellberg and R. Spencer. 2012. Shaping exchanges, building markets Consumption, Markets and Culture 15, no. 2 (June): 133-147.

Hannam, K., M. Sheller and J. Urry. 2006. Editorial: Mobilities, Immobilities and Moorings. Mobilities 1, no. 1, 1-22.

Heisley, D.D. and S.J. Levy. 1991. Autodriving: A Photoelicitation Technique, Journal of Consumer Research 18, no. 3: 257-272.

Holbrook, M. B. 1984. Belk, Granzin, Bristor, and the Three Bears. In, Scientific Method in Marketing, 1984 AMA Winter Educators’ Conference, eds. P.F. Anderson & M.J. Ryan, 177-178. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association.

Holbrook, M. B. 1985. Why Business is Bad for Consumer Research. In Advances in Consumer Research 12. eds. E.C. Hirschman & M.B. Holbrook, 145-156. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research.

Holbrook, M. B. 1987. What Is Consumer Research ? Journal of Consumer Research 14, June: 128-132.

Hultén, B., N. Broweus and M. och Van Dijk. 2009. Sensory marketing. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kusenbach, M. 2003. Street Phenomenology. The Go-Along as Ethnographic Research Tool, Ethnography 4 (September), no. 3: 455-485.

Latour, B. 1999. Factures/fractures: from the concept of network to the concept of attachment. RES, 36, Fall.

Lave, Jean, Michael Murtaugh and Olivia de la Rocha 1984. The Dialectic of Arithmetic in Grocery Shopping. In Everyday Cognition. Its Development in Social Context, eds. Rogoff, Barbara & Lave,Jean, 67-94. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Law, John and Annemarie Mol. 2008. The Actor-Enacted: Cumbrian Sheep in 2001. In Material

Agency: Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Approach, eds. Lambros Malafouris and Carl Knappett, 55-77. Springer.

Lee, N., Broderick, A.J. & L. Chamberlain. 2007. What is neuromarketing? A discussion and agenda for future research, International Journal of Psychophysiology 63 (February), no. 2: 199-204.

Lien, Marianne and John Law (forthcoming). ‘Emergent Aliens’: On Salmon, Nature and Their Enactment, Ethnos.

Massumi, B. 2002. Parables for the virtual: Movement, affect, sensation. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.

Moisander, J., A. Markkula and K. Eräranta. 2010. Construction of consumer choice in the market: challenges for environmental policy. International Journal of Consumer Studies, no. 34: 73-79.

McFall, Liz 2004. The language of the walls: Putting promotional saturation in historical context, Consumption, Markets and Culture 7, no. 2 (June): 107-128.

Mol, A. 2002. The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice (Science and Cultural Theory). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Piette, A. 2010. The Visual Traces of an Ethnographic Investigation; or, How Do People Present Themselves in a Concrete Situation? Visual Anthropology, no. 23: 186-199.

Pink, S. 2004. Home Truths. Gender, Domestic Objects and Everyday Life. Oxford: Berg.

Pink, S 2007. Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage.

Pink, S. 2010. Doing Sensory Ethnography. London: Sage.

Senior, C. & N. Lee. 2008. A manifesto for neuromarketing science, Journal of Consumer Behaviour 7, no. 4-5: 263-271.

Schneider, Tanja and Steve Woolgar. 2012. Technologies of ironic revelation: enacting consumers in neuromarkets. Consumption, Markets and Culture 15, no. 2 (June): 1-12.

Shove, E., M. Watson, M. Hand, M. and J. Ingra. 2007. The Design of Everyday Life. Oxford: Berg. Shove, E. M. Pantzar and M. Watson. 2012. The Dynamics of Social Practice: Everyday life and how it changes. London: Sage.

Schroeder, J. 2004. Visual Consumption in the Image Economy. In Elusive Consumption, eds. Ekström, K. & Brembeck, H., Oxford: Berg.

Valtonen, A., V. Markuksela and J. Moisander. 2010. Doing sensory ethnography in consumer research, International Journal of Consumer Studies.

Warde, Alan. 2005. Consumption and Theories of Practice, Journal of Consumer Culture, 5, no. 2: 131-53.

New Publication: Consumer workers in the converging media markets

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 07:51:23 +0000

Johanna Moisander, a faculty member of the Department of Communication, has just published an article on consumer work with Saara Könkkölä and Pikka-Maaria Laine. The article was published in International Journal of Consumer Studies and it deals with the strategic and productive roles that consumers play as immaterial labour or consumer workers in the converging media markets.

Consumer workers as immaterial labour in the converging media markets: three value-creation practices

Johanna Moisander, Saara Könkkölä and Pikka-Maaria Laine

Abstract

This paper takes a practice-based approach to consumer studies and focuses on the strategic and productive roles that consumers play as immaterial labour or consumer workers in the converging media markets. Based on a case study of a print media organization and its customers, the aim is to discuss the collaborative practices through which value is created in the market. By means of a textual analysis of online and interview data, three value- creation practices are abstracted and illustrated: constructing a sense of belonging and collective identity, mutual helping and peer support, and building pride and self-respect. Overall, the paper suggests that in global media environments, consumer-customers are playing increasingly significant strategic roles in the practices and processes through which value is co-created in the market. It is therefore concluded that the idea of consumers, and media audiences in particular, as recipients of communication and targets of marketing activities needs to be problematized and the dynamic strategic roles that consumers cur- rently play in the market need to be acknowledged and actively incorporated into the business praxis of media corporations.

Available online at:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1470-6431/earlyview

Seminar on Women on Corporate Boards

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:08:33 +0000

Aalto ECON Department of Communication hosted a seminar on Women on Corporate Boards at the Aalto University School of Economics on October 6, 2011. The seminar was organized by Rita Järventie-Thesleff in collaboration with the association Board Professionals Finland. The aim of the seminar was to provoke discussion and debate on the small numbers of women on corporate boards. The event was the first in the series of seminars and workshops that will be organized by the "Women on Corporate Boards" research group of the department.

More information: Rita Järventie-Thesleff, Executive in Residence,

Rita.Jarventie-Thesleff(at)aalto.fi

Communications increasingly involved in corporate strategy work

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:57:11 +0000

A survey study conducted in the Department of Communication on the challenges and competencies of corporate communication professionals indicated that communications continue to be largely involved in the strategy work of organizations.

Media relations, business fundamentals and the global operating environment were emphasized as the most essential knowledge competencies of communications professionals. Argumentation skills and mastering the new media were regarded as the most important skills, as also an ability to communicate in both Finnish and English in the hectic, fast-pace environment.

The survey was administered in collaboration with ProCom - the Finnish Association of Communications Professionals - in June 2011 and it was a follow-up study for a survey in 2008 (Competence Survey slides June 2008.pdf). A total of 170 respondents (mainly Communications Managers and Communications Directors) answered questions related to the trends and developments of present-day corporate communications.

See the summary of the results in English (Summary of competence research 2011.pdf) and in Finnish (Yhteenveto viestintäkompetenssitutkimuksen tuloksista 2011.pdf).

More information: Leena Louhiala-Salminen

New Publication: Professional Communication in a Global Business Context: The Notion of Global Communicative Competence

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:49:19 +0000

Leena Louhiala-Salminen and Anne Kankaanranta, who are faculty members at Aalto ECON Department of communication, published an article in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. In their article, they develop a model for Global Communicative Competence. More information: Leena.Louhiala-Salminen(at)aalto.fi

Professional Communication in a Global Business Context: The Notion of Global Communicative Competence

Leena Louhiala-Salminen and Anne Kankaanranta, Aalto University School of Economics, Department of Communication

Abstract

On the basis of an extensive survey study conducted among business professionals engaging in global communication, this paper discusses communicative competence. Rapid changes in work environments, particularly advancing globalization and new technology, have highlighted the need for expanding our knowledge of the elements that constitute communicative competence in global encounters. Competence has been investigated by several researchers; however, the language perspective, particularly the language used for international communication, that is, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), has largely been ignored. Our findings indicate that global communicative competence (GCC) consists of three layers: multicultural competence, competence in English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) and the communicator’s business know-how. Based on our findings, we present a model for GCC, which includes language as a key component. Implications for theory, practice, and education include the need for a multidisciplinary approach and the acknowledgement of ELF/BELF as the language of global interaction. ELF/BELF assumes a shared “core” of the English language, but focuses on interactional skills, rapport building, and the ability to ask for and provide clarifications.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=5985498

Louhiala-Salminen, Leena and Anne Kankaanranta (2011) Professional Communication in a Global Business Context: The Notion of Global Communicative Competence. EEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, 54 (3), 244-262

New Publication: Narratives on Chinese colour culture in business contexts

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:56:07 +0000

Kirsi Kommonen, IBC doctoral candidate, has published an article in Cross Cultural Management. Kommonen's article focuses on the ways in which dynamics in negotiating cultural meanings in the globalizing market place in China become visible in one particular aspect of culture: colour culture. More information: Kirsi.Kommonen(at)aalto.fi

Narratives on Chinese colour culture in business contexts

Kirsi Kommonen, Aalto University School of Economics, Department of Communication

Abstract

Purpose – This research is interested in how dynamics in negotiating cultural meanings in the globalizing market place in China become visible in one particular aspect of culture: colour culture. The purpose of this paper is to explore the provenance of some of the many potential meanings invested in colours in contemporary China, and how and why these influence international business, communication, design and marketing management in particular. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative empirical study with ambition for an emic cultural approach to Chinese colour culture. Narrative analysis of accounts by Chinese colour professionals participating in a focus group interview, and by individually interviewed managers with extensive experience in Sino-Finnish business are reported in narrative format.

Findings – The findings support the proposed existence of a phenomenon which the author has named “Colour culture” – a cultural set of meanings that are invested in colours. Unexpectedly, the empirical study proposes a strong tendency towards these meanings being value based in China. Visual manifestations of cultural values appear to be dynamic and dependent on context. Research limitations/implications – The current study does not offer generalizable prescriptions for contextual colour usages. The explorative, qualitative nature of this study serves as a basis for contextual and quantifiable future research on the phenomenon.

Practical implications – Since, for the Chinese, colours manifest cultural values and are highly emotional, not only linguistic, but also visual translation of communication is needed. For international communication, design and marketing managers, this further implies a need for contextual understanding of local colour culture.

Originality/value – Recognizing the existence of colour culture and its value-based proposition in China opens up new research avenues and practical considerations for cross-cultural studies.

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1944362&show=abstract

Kommonen Kirsti (2011) Narratives on Chinese colour culture in business contexts -The Yin Yang Wu Xing of Chinese values. Cross Cultural Management, 18(3), 366-383

New Publication: Conversational use of genres in managerial meetings

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:12:13 +0000

Dr. Pekka Pälli, who works as a senior lecturer at Aalto ECON Department of communication published an article with Esa Lehtinen in Scandinavian Journal of Management. Based on empirical analysis, they argue in their article that genres are used as resources for joint understanding and for conducting particular conversational actions in meetings.

Conversational use of genres in managerial meetings

Esa Lehtinen, University of Vaasa, Faculty of Philosophy, Modern Finnish and Translation

Pekka Pälli, Aalto University School of Economics, Department of Communication

This article addresses the question of how the concept of genre, defined as a linguistically realized activity type, can be applied to the study of organizational discourse. In particular, the authors show how and for what practical purposes managers invoke genres in meetings. The data of the study consist of video-recorded company-internal meetings and the methodology is based on ethnomethodological conversation analysis. In the empirical analysis the authors show how genres are used as resources for joint understanding and for conducting a particular conversational action in a meeting, namely proposing a solution to a problem. The study highlights the importance of genre knowledge in managerial meetings and the practical nature of this knowledge.

Suggested reference:

Lehtinen, E., & Pälli, P. Conversational use of genres in managerial meetings. Scandinavian Journal of Management (2011), doi:10.1016/j.scaman.2011.06.003

Available onlie at:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2011.06.003

For more information: pekka.palli(at)aalto.fi

New Publication: A practice perspective on corporate branding

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 18:23:12 +0000

Rita Järventie-Thesleff and Johanna Moisander, who are faculty members at Aalto ECON Department of Communication, published an article with with Pikka-Maaria Laine in Scandinavian Journal of Management. Their article develops a practice-based theoretical approach to corporate branding. More information: Rita.Jarventie-Thesleff(at)aalto.fi

Organizational dynamics and complexities of corporate brand building–—A practice perspective

Rita Järventie-Thesleff, Johanna Moisander, Aalto University School of Economics, Department of Communication

Pikka-Maaria Laine, University of Lapland

Abstract

The paper introduces a marketing-as-practice-approach to the domain of corporate brand management and presents findings from an empirical study that illustrates this approach in the context of a large transnational corporation. Conceptualizing corporate branding as some- thing that occurs within and as part of a field of socially instituted practices, the paper focuses on the patterns of routinized activity through which corporate brands are built in organizations. By means of a 5-year ethnographic study, the aim is to identify a set of trans-subjective organizational practices that govern the praxis of brand building as well as to analyze the steering effects that these practices may have on the collaborative production and delivery of the brand promise in the day-to-day of organizational activity.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956522110000588

Järventie-Thesleff, Rita, Johanna Moisander and Pikka-Maaria Laine (2011) Organizational dynamics and complexities of corporate brand building – a practice perspective. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 27, 196—204

IBC joined NORDCOM

Wed, 18 May 2011 12:45:02 +0000

Anne Kankaanranta and Leena Louhiala-Salminen represented IBC and Aalto University School of Economics at the 5th NORDKOMM meeting on 25-27 February 2011 and joined the NORDKOMM network.

Anne Kankaanranta and Leena Louhiala-Salminen represented IBC (Aalto University School of Economics) at the 5^th NORDKOMM meeting on 25-27 February and joined the NORDKOMM network. A total of 20 researchers from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland met over the weekend at Schæffergården in Copenhagen to discuss education and research in strategic/corporate/organizational communication in the Nordic countries.

NORDKOMM, Nordic Research Seminar on Communication, was established by BI Norwegian School of Management and ASB Centre for Corporate Communication, (Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University) to provide communication scholars with an opportunity to present and discuss their research - “from project to result” - in an informal and intensive format.

Kankaanranta and Louhiala-Salminen presented their project titled “Competencies required of communication professionals in the 2010s? Perceptions of corporate communication professionals and top management “.

NORDKOMM will meet again in Oslo in 2012.

Focus on Crisis Communication - New Insights

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:38:46 +0000

The International Business Communication (IBC) unit at the Aalto University School of Economics organized the third IBC Evening Seminar on 10 February. This time the focus was on crisis communication, which was discussed both from the perspective of research and that of practice.

Professors Finn Frandsen and Winni Johansen from the ASB Centre for Corporate Communication at the Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, discussed “New Insights for Crisis Management and Crisis Communication” and Minna Mars, IBC Doctoral Candidate and former Communications Director of KONE Oyj presented crisis communication cases: “Making sense of crisis – a practitioner’s perspective”.

In the picture at the front, from left: Finn Frandsen, Winni Johansen, Minna Mars

The event attracted an audience of over 50 participants, both corporate communication practitioners and Aalto faculty & students. We were happy to see many IBC alumni in the active audience as well (see the pictures). The dialogue between communication research and communication practice continues.

Present and former IBC students

IBC alumni Jenni Laajarinne and Anna Kilpeläinen

For a more detailed report on the Seminar, see the Aalto University website in Finnish here and in English here.

IBC Evening Seminar on Corporate Responsibility: “Commit or Crunch?”

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:50:55 +0000

On 18 November International Business Communication and HSE Corporate Relations organized a joint seminar on Corporate Responsibility. The seminar was attended by over 40 participants, both corporate representatives from HSE partner companies and other organizations, and HSE faculty and students.

Leena Louhiala-Salminen welcomed the participants and gave a brief overview of International Business Communication, after which Maija Tammelin discussed the approach to corporate responsibility in the IBC Master’s program.

Sandra Macleod gave us an insightful and convincing presentation on the rise of the ‘soft issues’ in general, and responsibility/sustainability in particular: “now they are hard issues; hard to ignore, hard to manage and hard for businesses that get it wrong”.

Sandra Macleod’s presentation at HSE on November 18, 2009