[kand] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ

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Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 20 of 2241
  • Responsible AI practices and the impact on customer value
    (2025) Tuominen, Senni
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    Artificial intelligence applications and AI-assisted customer service have be come significantly more common in the service sector. New applications provide substantial opportunities for service providers, as AI improves efficiency and productivity and enables more personalized service and marketing. However, AI has its downside. Transparency, privacy, data protection and security of services concern customers. Biased and discriminatory algorithms raise questions about the reliability of services. For this reason, the responsible implementation of AI and practices for responsible AI are central to the service sector. The aim of the study is to assess, through a literature review, which practices organizations can implement to ensure responsibility of AI in their customer service and to determine whether responsible AI influences the value, satisfaction or trust experienced by the custom ers. The results can guide service organizations towards a more responsible implementation of AI and increase understanding of the importance of responsible AI in service organizations. The study concludes five categories of responsible AI practices for service providers. According to the analysis, lack of responsible AI practices can hinder customer value and, in some cases, implementing the practices customer value can be added. Responsible AI practices are concluded to contribute to technical and functional quality, company image and ultimately to customers’ perceived service quality.
  • Crisis Performance of ESG Funds
    (2025) Rytsä, Urho
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    This thesis examines how European Environmental Social Governance (ESG) funds perform during crisis periods through their comparison to standard investment fund results. The research investigates two recent economic downturns which include the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict to establish whether ESG integration provides protection to investment portfolios during market volatility. The study examined group of mutual funds which divided into two equal groups based on Morningstar Sustainability Ratings from 2019 to 2023 between ESG and non-ESG funds. The evaluation process employed the Sharpe ratio and Sortino ratio and alpha and beta and maximum drawdown metrics to evaluate risk-adjusted performance. The evaluation of statistical significance included t-tests and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests and variance analysis. ESG funds demonstrated superior performance than non-ESG funds throughout the COVID-19 pandemic based on their better Sharpe and Sortino ratios and reduced drawdowns although their performance gap narrowed during the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The research demonstrates ESG integration delivers better protection against market declines and risk management advantages during specific crisis events, yet its performance depends on the nature of the crisis. The research adds evidence to European market sustainable investing discussions through its empirical findings.
  • The Spillover Effects of Economic Sanctions: The Macroeconomic Impact of the Russian Sanctions on the EU
    (2025) Alimy, Muhdisa
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    Most of the existing literature and media coverage focuses on the impact the EU- imposed sanctions have had in Russia’s economy. Much less attention has been paid to the economic costs faced by the EU. This thesis aims to bridge the research gap by focusing on the spillovers to the EU. This is a literature based theoretical analysis, where I draw on existing research to analyse the developments of key macroeconomic indicators in the EU. The findings suggest that sanctions targeting trade flows, notably energy-related sanctions, impacted the overall economy, particularly through energy-intensive upstream sectors. Additionally, the deterioration of the current account and trade balance further suggest that sanctions did have a role in these macroeconomic shifts.
  • The impact of raising school leaving age on labour market outcomes
    (2025) Pelkola, Timo
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    In 2021, the minimum school leaving age (SLA) in Finland was raised from 16 to 18. Although several earlier SLA reforms elsewhere have been extensively studied by economists, the 2021 reform has not yet seen similar treatment due to its recency. In this thesis, I combine a literature review, economic theory, and recent statistics to predict some of the probable labour market outcomes of the 2021 reform. Namely, the potential impact on educational attainment, earnings, and employment is discussed. Despite much of the earlier research showing a positive effect on educational attainment, I do not find evidence of such from recent statistics concerning the 2021 reform. In the absence of increase in educational attainment, it is likely that the impact on the two other outcomes of interest turns out to be limited as well, even if the returns to education are positive, as suggested in the literature. Assuming that the reform in fact would have increased educational attainment, a simple signalling model is devised to discuss the possible reasons behind and implications of this. According to the model, those who attain an upper secondary qualification due to the reform could also have better labour market outcomes overall. However, those who do not attain an upper secondary qualification despite the reform could be even worse off compared to the pre-reform conditions.
  • From Infrastructure to Ecosystem: EU AI Factories, SME Adoption and Technological Sovereignty — Observations from the LUMI AI Factory
    (2025) Hietsilta, Anton
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    Strengthening technological sovereignty constitutes a central policy objective of the European Union. The imperative to reduce dependencies on third countries is grounded in the transformed European security environment and mounting competitiveness challenges. This thesis examines how European Union’s AI Factories contribute to strengthen European technological sovereignty and enable SME-led AI innovation. AI Factories is a policy instrument introduced by the European Commission, and this thesis examines especially how they impact SME innovation in AI. The thesis employs a case study on the LUMI AI Factory in Finland. The thesis is framed by platform-ecosystem theory and mission-oriented innovation policy (MOIP). The thesis asks: What opportunities and challenges do European SMEs face when using AI Factories to pursue AI innovation? Methodologically, the thesis is done as a single-case systematic document analysis (2023–2025) of official EuroHPC and LUMI materials. The results are presented via a traffic-light synthesis. This thesis is a design-inference study based on public documentation (no interviews or confidential usage data are used). Findings show directionality and capacity are in place. SMEs can access dedicated free-of-charge tracks, support services, training, and premade datasets. However, the young ecosystem maturity still lags capacity. Public materials indicate proposal-heavy onboarding, limited visibility of formal feedback or co-governance mechanisms. Furthermore, no SME-disaggregated usage metrics were yet visible on AI Factory/LUMI public pages reviewed (as of Aug 2025). This implies entry frictions for SMEs. Interpreted through the frameworks of the study, LUMI is a strategically aligned public-private project. Still, there is a lot of work to do to translate access into broad SME uptake. The thesis develops a replicable evaluation framework for examining the structure of AI Factories, translating platform governance and MOIP principles into actionable indicators. The resulting policy and operational recommendations include dedicated SME onboarding pathways, cohort-based support clinics, improved interface resources, institutionalised feedback mechanisms, and quarterly reports summarising key performance indicators on usage.
  • Information problems and their solutions in peer-to-peer lending
    (2025) Aho, Amos
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    The aim of this literature review is to study information problems in online markets and investigate to what degree they can be reduced. The online market setting used throughout this thesis is online P2P lending, an online platform for small unsecured P2P loans. I start with a brief overview of P2P lending, its emergence, and the basic function of the platforms. I briefly present the theory of asymmetric information by Akerlof (1970), Rothschild and Stiglitz (1976), and Stiglitz and Weiss (1981). When it comes to mechanisms of reducing them, my focus is on soft information, which contrasts with the traditional sole dependence on hard information. I present empirical works that utilized data from one of the biggest P2P lending sites, Prosper. Their focus is on testing how well soft information, for instance social network information, can reduce the information problems. I find that soft information is valuable, but its applicability produces mixed results. Finally, I discuss the role of big data and machine learning as a new, more applicable avenue for utilizing soft information. They seem to promise good results but need future empirical research.
  • Mitigating Algorithmic Bias in Healthcare AI
    (2025) Mitjonen, Isla
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into healthcare systems has great potential for improving patient outcomes and optimizing services. However, AI algorithms have various risks. A notable one is algorithmic bias, which risks ex-acerbating existing inequities for readily vulnerable populations. This thesis explores the multifaceted challenge of algorithmic bias in healthcare AI systems by analyzing its causes and mitigation strategies. Popula-tions most at risk are studied, with the mitigation strategies focusing on their lived experiences. While having inclusive and representative data is vital, it alone cannot erase algorithmic bias. Therefore, technical approaches, governance structures, and including human decision-makers in the process are necessary for the adoption of equitable AI. Ultimately, this thesis contributes to shaping policies and design principles that prioritize equity and accountability in healthcare AI.
  • Privacy Calculus in Finnish Consumers
    (2025) Penttinen, Robert
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    Mobile applications often require personal data access and embed third-party tracking, raising privacy concerns among users and regulators. This thesis examines whether privacy intrusiveness, measured by counts of invasive app permissions and embedded trackers, correlates with app popularity in the Finnish Android app market. This study compiles a dataset of 855 apps from Google Play’s Finland “Top Free” charts across categories, combining Google Play rankings (a 28-day momentum-based popularity metric) with privacy-related features from Exodus Privacy reports. Statistical analysis (correlations and Welch’s t-tests comparing the top 93 vs bottom 74 apps by rank) found no strong evidence that more invasive apps are less popular. In other words, highly ranked apps tend to request as many or more sensitive permissions and include similar numbers of trackers as lower-ranked apps. These results align with the “privacy paradox”: the gap between users’ stated privacy concerns and their app adoption behaviour. The discussion considers possible explanations, including users’ risk-benefit calculus and information asymmetries, and suggests managerial implications for app developers and policy implications under EU data protection regulations. Limitations are noted (e.g., static analysis scope, cross-sectional design). Overall, Finnish consumers do not appear to penalise apps for greater privacy intrusiveness, highlighting the need for enhanced transparency and regulatory oversight to align app practices with user privacy expectations.
  • Analysing the Impact of Weather on Passenger Train Punctuality: A study of the Helsinki–Tampere rail corridor
    (2025) Vaherio, Riku
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    The overall punctuality of the railway system is vital for passengers who depend on trains as a reliable mode of public transport. Identifying the factors that cause train delays is an essential step toward improving service reliability. Among these factors, weather conditions are widely recognized as a significant contributor to disruptions in railway operations. This thesis examines the impact of various weather variables including temperature, precipitation and snow depth on the punctuality of long-distance trains along one of Finland’s busiest rail corridors between Helsinki and Tampere. Using daily train operation data obtained from Fintraffic, the study covers an eight-year period from 2017 to 2024. Through correlation and regression analyses, the research quantifies how different weather conditions influence delays on this key railway segment. The results show that snow depth has the strongest negative impact on punctuality, followed by precipitation and low temperatures, and that winter months experience the greatest delays. These findings provide practical guidance for railway operators to mitigate weather-related disruptions through targeted maintenance and operational planning.
  • Minimising cannibalisation in multi-tier product portfolios: A pricing and design strategy case study of NVIDIA
    (2025) Teräsvalli, Antti
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    Introducing new products to the market often creates a risk of product cannibalisation. This phenomenon is particularly detrimental when lower-tier products undermine sales of high-profit-margin, premium-tier products. This study presents a literature review on cannibalisation and analyses how NVIDIA Corporation, the market leader in graphics hardware, minimises cannibalisation risk within and across its multi-tier product portfolio. The analysis shows that NVIDIA employs product differentiation, legal restrictions, and sub-branding to mitigate cannibalisation across product categories while sustaining premium pricing for professional and data centre offerings. Within the consumer-oriented GeForce lineup, cannibalisation is reduced through intentional design compromises and staggered product launches. The findings suggest that effective product design, branding, and release strategy can help preserve profitability while maintaining broad market reach.
  • Degrowth as a Critique of Green Growth in Contemporary Sustainability Policy
    (2025) Ikola, Vilma
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    This thesis researches the two paradigms present in sustainability policy discussions nowadays: green growth and degrowth. Green growth, that is a commonly used framework in larger organizations, such as the European Union and the United Nations, and its prevelance in contemporary sustainability policies, is looked through the lense of the critique degrowth scholars present it with. Methods, such as efficiency improvements, technological advancements, and decoupling, are examined by how often they are visible in the policies but also on how effective as methods they actually are. Some scholars present it with increased amount of questionning, whether they are viable solutions for combatting the climate change. In this thesis, theoretical foundations of the two paradigms are studied, together with examining the policies that implement the methods those paradigms vouch for. By analyzing key European Union and United Nations policy frameworks, including the European Green Deal, Fit for 55 package, and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations, and comparing them to recent academic literature on the topic. In this thesis the major critiques presented towards green growth are synthesized. Green growth seems to offer more politically easy solutions to the on-going climate change crisis, by reinforcing technological optimism and at the same time reinforcing unsustainable consumption patterns. Contrastingly, degrowth puts emphasis on structural transformation in the global economy through methods, such as reduced working hours, universal basic services, and economic restructuring. Integrating the two paradigms might offer better outcomes instead of the current green growth focused policies.
  • The impact of monetary policy on equity prices in the United States during COVID-19 and their potential effect on the real economy
    (2025) Tanskanen, Elviira
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    The COVID-19 pandemic caused a steep crash in the equity market as the virus spread to the US at the beginning of 2020. However, this slump in prices was followed by a rapid V-shaped recovery. The phenomenon spiked researchers’ interest and provoked the question of how and to what extent the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy assisted this recovery. In this thesis I make a literature review to assess the different channels through which monetary policies impacted equity prices. The channels I identify, and study consist of the expected future cash flows, the risk-free rate, the risk premium and the credit channel. In addition, I discuss the implications that the fluctuations in equity prices may have had on the broader economy. I find that the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy had a pertinent influence on the recovery of equity markets. While in my research I find that all 4 components contributed to the rebound in equity prices, the risk premium is notable due to its high volatility in the context of an economic shock. The credit channel also highlights how expansionary policy can negatively impact the equity market by inviting speculative behaviour potentially causing overvaluation.
  • Cognitive limitations and biases in M&A related decision-making
    (2025) Jurvanen, Juho
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    This thesis examines how cognitive limitations and biases shape acquisition decision-making by reviewing literature from economics, management and psychology. Classical models assume that managers act as rational optimisers, yet empirical evidence shows that many acquisitions fail to deliver expected value. To explain this gap, the thesis draws on three perspectives: bounded rationality, cognitive bias research, and dual-process theory. Together, these perspectives show how limited information-processing, systematic judgment errors and the interaction of intuitive and analytical reasoning influence managerial behaviour in acquisitions. Using a process-based framework, the M&A lifecycle is divided into five phases: target identification, valuation, due diligence, deal closure and post-merger integration. The analysis demonstrates that biases emerge in predictable stages of this process and often reinforce one another. The results demonstrate that cognitive limitations and biases are central to acquisition decision-making and can be analysed both descriptively and analytically. Bounded rationality identifies the constraints that produce biases, cognitive bias research catalogues their systematic effects and dual-process theory explains how intuitive and analytical reasoning interact. Together, these frameworks provide a more realistic representation of acquisition behaviour than rational models alone. The thesis finds that biases cannot be eliminated completely, but their effects can be reduced with protection strategies specific to each decision stage, such as independent challenge reviews, structured valuation protocols and predefined exit strategies.
  • Leveraging Customer Usage Data for Productization and Strategic Decision- Making in SaaS Product Management
    (2025) Erviö, Minea
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    Many SaaS companies struggle to find the balance between productizing certain features and using customizations to fit the needs of clients. At the same time, widely in use product management frameworks were not designed for the continuous delivery and real-time feedback capabilities that SaaS environments enable. The goal of this research was to answer the research problem: how can customer usage data and feedback be used in product strategy development in SaaS environments? Through a literature review, this research explores the link between customer usage data, productization and product management decision making and proposes an integrated framework that addresses gaps in existing models. Key findings of the study reveal the evolution from traditional productization and product management approaches to more dynamic, data-driven methods in SaaS environments. SaaS allows for continuous feedback loops between customer usage data, product strategy, and customer success functions, but existing frameworks don’t yet fully support this integration. The proposed framework, the Continuous Productization Cycle, addresses this gap by embedding customer usage data, analytics and cross-functional collaboration throughout the whole product management process. The proposed framework consists of five cyclical phases: strategy alignment, product definition, architecture optimization, financial review, and KPI monitoring. The cyclical nature of this framework allows for continuous iteration based on real-time data and customer feedback. However, the framework presented is entirely conceptual and has not been empirically validated and adapted to specific organizational contexts.
  • The effect of central bank independence on inflation after economic shocks: Earthquakes as a source of exogenous economic shocks
    (2025) Kekäläinen, Kalle
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    High inflation is harmful to the prosperity of both households and private companies. The current approach in most countries to managing inflation is to delegate the monetary authority to an independent central bank. This paper provides a literature review on how the level of central bank independence can be measured, how it affects inflation after economic shocks and does this effect differ between developed and developing countries. The study shows that in the short run having an independent central bank lowers the inflation pressures after an economic shock caused by a natural disaster, but this comes at the cost of a larger output gap. Furthermore, the results show that in the long run, a lower inflation rate achieved by an independent monetary authority comes without a cost on the real economy. The effect of central bank independence on inflation is shown to be more effective in developed countries compared to developing countries.
  • Public debt, Inflation and unconventional monetary policy
    (2025) Marila, Eero
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    This thesis examines the relationship between public debt and inflation, as well as the influence of unconventional monetary policy on this link. Evidence from the literature suggests a positive association between public debt and inflation in developing economies and in countries with high debt levels, while the relationship appears generally insignificant in advanced economies. Regarding unconventional monetary policy, findings indicate that monetary base expansion did not automatically lead to higher inflation; increases in broader money aggregates were modest because much of the additional liquidity was held as higher bank reserves, and persistent deflationary pressures were partly driven by weak aggregate demand. Price levels remained relatively stable across the four central bank regions. The study highlights the need for future research on considering additional factors that may shape the debt–inflation relationship in different economic contexts.
  • Ilmastopolitiikan hyväksyttävyys: kansalaisten tuki ja maksuhalukkuus sekä niihin vaikuttavat tekijät
    (2025) Mandell, Amanda
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    Tässä kandidaatintutkielmassa toteutan kirjallisuuskatsauksen, jossa tarkastelen ilmastopolitiikan hyväksyttävyyttä kansalaisten keskuudessa. Keskityn ilmastopolitiikan tukeen, jota on tutkittu maksuhalukkuuden ja ilmaistun tuen avulla sekä kyselytutkimuksin että analysoimalla äänestystuloksia. Lisäksi selvitän, mitkä tekijät vaikuttavat tuen tasoon ja miten tukea ilmastopolitiikalle voidaan vahvistaa. Kyselytutkimusten perusteella maksuhalukkuus ilmastopolitiikasta on yleisesti ottaen positiivista. Tukeen vaikuttaa se, mitä ilmastopolitiikan välinettä tarkkaillaan. Politiikkakohtaiseen tukeen vaikuttaa erityisesti yksilön kokemus välineen tehokkuudesta vähentää päästöjä sekä sen reiluudesta esimerkiksi taloudellisten vaikutusten jakautumisen osalta. Tutkimustulosten mukaan tiedon jakaminen ilmastopolitiikan välineiden toimintamekanismeista ja niiden vaikutuksista lisää tukea niitä kohtaan.
  • ESG and business cycles - Exploring firm resilience during economic shocks
    (2025) Nguyen, Minh
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    This thesis explores the role of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) factors in enhancing firm resilience during economic shocks. The study reframes the debate regarding the growing popularity and criticisms of ESG by testing whether it provides tangible financial benefits in crises, rather than in normal mar-ket conditions. Evidence includes insights from literature on the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, along with an original empirical analysis focusing on Nor-dic firms during COVID-19 pandemic. The findings confirm ESG’s substantive value as a dynamic risk-mitigating tool, conditional on market and industry con-texts. Implications for investors, managers, and policy makers suggest ESG as a strategic investment for long-term growth and stability, not just for ethical appeal
  • Mitigating the negative effects of surveillance capitalism in the age of EU’s Digital Services Act
    (2025) Lappalainen, Janette
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    Surveillance capitalism is a modern business model of digital platforms in which users’ personal data is collected and used for commercial purposes. The model has negative effects on consumers, including loss of privacy, erosion of autonomy and growing information and power asymmetries between consumers and platforms. This thesis identifies the core mechanisms of surveillance capitalism and examines their individual-level harms in the context of European Union’s Digital Services Act. As the DSA targets the mechanisms and harms of surveillance capitalism, this thesis investigates the Act’s potential to mitigate them. The results show that while the DSA does not explicitly prohibit surveillance capitalism, its provisions address its key mechanisms by banning manipulative interface design and improving transparency of online advertising and recommender systems, which prevents and therefore mitigates the negative effects of surveillance capitalism on individuals.
  • Managing Technical Debt in Information Systems to Optimize Performance
    (2025) Pietikäinen, Jasmin
    School of Business | Bachelor's thesis
    Technical debt in information systems represents the long-term consequences of adopting inefficient solutions for short-term gains. This thesis examines its causes, manifestations, and management practices through a literature review and an expert interview. The findings indicate that technical debt commonly arises from design trade-offs, outdated architectures, limited documentation, and short-term delivery pressures. These factors collectively reduce maintainability, restrict scalability, impair system performance, and generate tangible operational inefficiencies. Effective management of technical debt in information systems requires systematic documentation, prioritization of high-debt areas, and continuous developer education, complemented by emerging tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to support debt detection and modernization planning. The scope of this research is limited to information system management.