Malla Mattila | Tampere University (original) (raw)

Conference papers by Malla Mattila

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of an individual in exploratory technological in... more The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of an individual in exploratory technological innovation and to propose that to understand the evolvement and outcome of explorative innovation, attention needs to be paid not only to the challenges of infant technology but to individuals driving the technology development. An empirical study of a technological innovation over a period of 16 years was conducted. The study shows that the continuum to the innovation process over the years has relied on the cognitive and affective commitment of an R&D director. Despite of the repeated failures in manifesting the commercial outcome, the entrepreneurial spirit of the R&D director has ensured the continuous development of the initial innovation still holds significant business potential.

This study aims at describing co-creation process in terms of internal knowledge sharing. By inte... more This study aims at describing co-creation process in terms of internal knowledge sharing. By internal knowledge sharing, we understand the sharing of material and immaterial outputs of service provider-customer interactions inside the company and within the service delivery process. The starting point of the paper is the alleged need of professional service firms to effectively leverage not only their employees' knowledge but also to actively participate in the customers' value creation processes in order to develop opportunities to create value with and for their customers. Hence, this paper introduces professional services and value cocreation framework as perspectives to study value creation processes professional service companies face today. Based on the intensive case study on one medium-sized advertising agency called Advert, we demonstrate how value is co-created in practice and how customerrelated knowledge is shared inside the professional service company.

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This study aims at identifying and analysing the key challenges in managing a network business. T... more This study aims at identifying and analysing the key challenges in managing a network business. The starting point of the paper is the alleged need for new kinds of theoretical frameworks which take into account value creation situations businesses face today. Hence, this paper introduces the value co-production framework as an alternative perspective to the existing approaches built in the industrial era (i.e., value chain thinking). This framework elevates knowledge and relationships in the locus of business and argues for reconfiguration of roles, actions, and interactions among the networked actors.

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This study aims at identifying and analyzing the features of collaboration in a networked busines... more This study aims at identifying and analyzing the features of collaboration in a networked business through a qualitative case study. The starting point of the paper is the alleged need of companies to find suitable means to capture and combine the efforts of internal and external actors and ways to form such networks which will support the growth and profitability of the business. The theoretical background of this study is based on the organizational research on networks and value co-production which suggests that collaboration not only enables the organising and utilising of competences, but also provides one aspect in understanding how mutual activities are managed in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to study collaboration within virtual organization's social networks... more The purpose of this paper is to study collaboration within virtual organization's social networks. The starting point of the paper is the alleged need of modern organizations to harness their know-how and capabilities across organizational boundaries with those of their partners in order to create continuous streams of innovations. The most important capabilitymeta-capability -in this process is proposed to be collaboration. Business policy literature proposes that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have enabled the separation of location, time, and the distribution of fragmented processes. Thus, today people are not anymore bound by accomplishing tasks individually during their working day and within the walls of an organization but by continuously collaborating with each other off space and time through electronic medias. However, the strength of ICTs to offer potential playgrounds for creating, maintaining and developing co-operative processes, and for committing members of virtual organization in the collaboration type of activities is still a question. Consequently, the efforts for integrating collaboration, virtual organization, and social networks into a coherent landscape remain yet a matter of empirical investigation.

This conceptual paper aims at studying co-operation from two theoretical network perspectives: bu... more This conceptual paper aims at studying co-operation from two theoretical network perspectives: business and social networks. The starting point of the paper is the alleged need of modern firms to harness their know-how and capabilities across organizational walls with those of their partners. The most important capability in this process is proposed to be cooperation. Business networks literature proposes that firms are partly forced to co-operate with each other in order to survive in fast-changing business environments and that the cooperative processes are driven by economic premises and beforehand designed objectives. Social network literature in turn proposes that co-operation between the actors can emerge without being intentionally planned; instead the objectives of co-operation are negotiated and produced together through actors' social interaction and exchange processes and during the co-operative processes. Consequently, the efforts for integrating co-operation and proposed network approaches into a coherent landscape are challenging and remain yet a matter of empirical investigation.

Conference Presentations by Malla Mattila

Papers by Malla Mattila

This study examines Finnish self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in Poland. The theoretical framewor... more This study examines Finnish self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) in Poland. The theoretical framework is based on a boundaryless career perspective whereby one’s career has evolved beyond organisational boundaries and being individually managed. The issue of crossing objective boundaries (i.e., physical mobility) is at the forefront of this perspective, while the issues of psychological mobility and the negative aspects of a boundaryless career model remain in the background. The study contributes to expatriation literature by adopting a narrative approach and describing and analysing the physical and psychological boundaries experienced by Finnish SIEs from the boundaryless career perspective. Generated data were used to construct three narratives that differ with regard to the degree of the boundaryless career ‘mindset’ demonstrated within them. The study shows that the economic downturn in Finland has ‘pushed’ Finnish SIEs to search for jobs overseas. These SIEs see working in Polan...

ABSTRACT This study aims at describing and analyzing the network formation of technological innov... more ABSTRACT This study aims at describing and analyzing the network formation of technological innovation. Studying this research phenomenon as processes generally and as sociomaterial processes specifically calls for a holistic and process driven research approach. This approach is captured by adopting material constructionist research philosophy and consequently materially relativist style of thinking as well as the basic ideology of case study research. These research philosophical stances give an opportunity for me to become sensitized to materiality, process, conflicts, and interests when scrutinizing the network formation of technological innovation. The study is situated in the context of construction; I draw analytical insights from many sources and use these in describing and analyzing the network formation of technological innovation. These sources include the network studies in business context – business networks, social networks and entrepreneurial networks – as well as actor-network theory and the empirical case called the intelligent paper in the study period of approximately 13 years, thus from 1997 to 2009. The intelligent paper is a technological innovation and a network as I regard it in this study. It concerns cost-effective, high-volume and roll-to-roll production of printable optics and electronics which enables novel, intelligent functionalities onto printed matter. It is part of the emerging printed intelligence markets, which is located at the crossroads of several industries, namely paper and printing, optics, and electronics. I identify two ways to describe and analyze the network formation of technological innovation, namely the concepts of network trajectory and translation. The first is the concept of network trajectory. It enables capturing simultaneously a network, that is, actors and their relationships and a path of movement of this network across space and time. From the previous network studies in business context, I identify three network trajectories: the goal-based, opportunity-based and integrated network trajectories. The contemplation of these trajectories leads to three shortcomings of this view: (1) heavy emphasis has been put on humans and their relationships as principal carriers of technological innovation activities, (2) non-humans and their relationships have only been treated as instruments in these activities, and (3) the human parties have rather deterministically and linearly been seen to influence and be influenced by the networks within which they are embedded while engaging in technological innovation activities. These shortcomings are transcended in this study by introducing actor-network theory and adopting the concept of translation. The concept of translation shifts the focus onto sociomateriality involved in the network formation of technological innovation. It allows detecting the network formation of technological innovation as continually unfolding sociomaterial processes during which some actors – by becoming involved in network formation/technological innovation and chained together in a logical succession – succeed in pursuing a character while others remain objects of other actors’ actions. At the same time, the underlying power relationships between them become revealed. In the empirical part of the study, I discuss the case of the intelligent paper using heuristically Callon’s (1986a) four-phase translation model. Additionally, I complement the model with introducing certain relational and somewhat metaphorical words (i.e., pack and filtering). As a result, I narrate the network formation of technological innovation. This narration provides a multifaceted and empirically grounded understanding of the network formation of technological innovation, which is full of noise and disturbances. It displays several competing heterogeneous networks and consequently several competing packs including multiple human and nonhuman actors, their actions, and their interconnected relationships to each other while forming the network and consequently the technological innovation. It also reveals multiple phases during which these heterogeneous networks get continually reconfigured, transformed, and finally revitalised into one more coherent heterogeneous network as well as different strategies through which actors continually try to stabilise these configurations. Interpreting the case of the intelligent paper through the concepts of network trajectory and translation, I build a revised understanding of the network formation of technological innovation. I broaden the networks as processes view generally and the strong process view to networks specifically by arguing that the network of technological innovation concerns continually unfolding sociomaterial processes and consequently continually unfolding heterogeneous networks (packs), which are equipped with entanglements of humans (individuals, firms and organizations), nonhumans (e.g., machines, methods and…

Business Models and Firm Internationalisation

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Abstract This study aims to offer novel means for rethinking contemporary business-to-business (B... more Abstract This study aims to offer novel means for rethinking contemporary business-to-business (B2B) sales operations and the assumptions that underlie them in the digital era. This rethinking relates especially to sales managers’ efforts to facilitate cognitive unlearning in B2B sales management during the ongoing digital transformation taking place in enterprises. Unlearning—the process of purposely reflecting on and discarding old ways of knowing and doing—is crucial to prevent outdated organizational knowledge and routines from becoming a barrier to change. Before adopting new sales practices, sales organizations must first discard old ways of knowing and doing. Drawing insights from unlearning and B2B sales management literature and conducting empirical qualitative research on 31 executives and senior managers operating in various industries, the study outlines a four-phase process for unlearning as well as several key themes within each phase. The findings emphasize how top management facilitates cognitive unlearning regarding digital business transformation in the B2B sales context. The study contributes to sales management literature by introducing cognitive unlearning as a new theoretical angle on the issue of digital transformation. It also offers insights for sales managers on how to elevate and leverage the unlearning of salespeople.

Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

Food waste is a global sustainability issue that demands that multiple stakeholders participate i... more Food waste is a global sustainability issue that demands that multiple stakeholders participate in solving it. This article examines how different food system stakeholders are held responsible in the policy debate related to food waste reduction. The study adopts a framing approach, paying attention to the construction and negotiation of what is going on in the food waste–related public policy debate. The data consist of documents generated as a result of food policy development processes in Finland. The authors identify four framings—eco-efficiency, solidarity, safety, and appreciation—within which the issue of food waste is presented differently and different stakeholders responsibilized. The framings reveal the nature of food waste as a boundary object, a flexible and open-ended object that has different context-dependent meanings. The study extends marketing literature on responsibilization by investigating several stakeholders beyond consumers. Additionally, considering food wa...

Alue ja Ympäristö

Artikkelissa hahmotellaan materiaalitajun käsitettä kuluttajien ja materiaalien välisenä, tilante... more Artikkelissa hahmotellaan materiaalitajun käsitettä kuluttajien ja materiaalien välisenä, tilanteisena, aktiivisena ja vastavuoroisena suhteena. Tavoitteena on luoda uutta ymmärrystä kuluttajien materiaalisuhteista osana kestävää kulutusta. Käsitteellisesti materiaalitaju rakentuu suhteessa lukutaidoista käytävään keskusteluun ja sen kritiikkiin. Ammentamalla teoreettisia vaikutteita uusmaterialismista ja pragmatismista, materiaalitajun käsite korostaa materiaalisuhteiden tilanteista, vuorovaikutteista, kehkeytyvää ja jännitteistä luonnetta. Lisäksi materiaalitaju rakentaa ymmärrystä siitä, miten kuluttajat luovasti oppivat ja muuttavat tapojaan olla vuorovaikutuksessa materiaalien kanssa. Materiaalitaju tuo kestävän kulutuksen tutkimuksen keskusteluun aiempaa vahvemmin ajatuksen materiaalien aktiivisista toimijuuksista sekä materiaalisuhteiden monenlaisista yhteenliitännöistä kuluttajien arjessa. Artikkelissa määrittelemme materiaalitajun käsitteen neljän ulottuvuuden (tilanteisuus...

Industrial Marketing Management

ebrc.fi

Business Models and Firm Internationalisation

Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

Alue ja Ympäristö

Industrial Marketing Management

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, 2020

Food waste is a growing sustainability challenge for companies operating in the food services sec... more Food waste is a growing sustainability challenge for companies operating in the food services sector in developed countries. In this study, we examine how platform-based business models for food waste reduction can contribute to sustainability. We draw from the literature on business sustainability, sustainable business models (SBMs), and digital platforms, scrutinising two real-life business cases that provide digital services that help food service companies to reduce their food waste. Our findings identify the value network (user, producer, and support networks) and sustainable value proposition (economic, environmental, and social dimensions) as key elements for addressing sustainability in platform-based businesses. The study contributes to the SBM literature by developing an empirical and systemic understanding of platform-based SBMs. The cases illustrate that these SBMs have the potential to contribute to sustainability through scalability and attractiveness. From a managerial standpoint, the study offers companies insights into how to develop sustainability in their business operations.

Journal of Consumer Culture

This article explores the transition towards a circular economy in the context of household food ... more This article explores the transition towards a circular economy in the context of household food waste practices. The research concerning the circular economy has mainly focused on engineering or the processes of production, manufacturing, business and industry. However, the transition towards a circular economy requires, in addition to new technologies, infrastructures and innovations, a societal change and a change in everyday practices. In this article, we address this by examining the everyday practices of food waste reduction in households as ethical work. We claim that the intertwined practices, institutions and policies of the circular economy create moral categories and responsibilities in everyday food consumption. Thus, the transition towards circular economy requires everyday ethical work carried out by consumers. However, our analysis also brings out some possible challenges related to this transition that has not yet been accomplished. Our research materials consist of ...

Sustainability

This study focuses on food waste and its reduction by describing and analyzing the food waste-rel... more This study focuses on food waste and its reduction by describing and analyzing the food waste-related everyday life of Japanese consumers through a practice theoretical lens. The research enables paying attention to the role of culture in sustainable consumer behavior, which is a largely unexplored area in previous food waste research. The methodological approach is qualitative and the empirical data of the study were generated through mobile ethnography. It combines elements from diary methods, multi-sited ethnography, and digital ethnography, producing visual and textual data of the practices that the participants of the study considered meaningful. The analysis identifies materials, meanings, and competences of the practices related to food waste reduction. These practices were interlinked with five broader food-related practices: planning, grocery shopping, cooking, eating, and handling surplus food. The findings reveal specific elements related to Japanese culture such as motta...

Food Waste Management

The Wicked Problem of Food Waste There is an increasing political and scientific consensus about ... more The Wicked Problem of Food Waste There is an increasing political and scientific consensus about the need to reduce global food waste. In 2015, the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 set the target of "By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including postharvest losses" (United Nations 2015). This target stems from a broad understanding of the negative consequences of food losses and waste,

Alue ja Ympäristö

This article explores the ways through which care manifests in everyday food waste reduction prac... more This article explores the ways through which care manifests in everyday food waste reduction practices. The article is positioned within a more-than-human approach, which emphasises blurred ontological and epistemological boundaries among and across (assemblages of) humans, nonhumans, things and issues (re)forming sociomaterial worlds. Drawing empirical insights from (n)ethnographic materials that have been generated in an ongoing research project focusing on consumers as active reducers of food waste, the article discusses three overlapping ways (labour/work, affect/affection and ethics/politics) through which we care for and live with food waste in both research and everyday life. Labour/work entails hands-on relations with food (waste), wherein food is understood as an active participant in the reduction practices. In affective practices, food waste reduction is closely attached to our bodies (and other bodies) as well as the senses of sight, touch and smell. Through ethico-polit...

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

The purpose of this study is to adopt a business model lens to identify and analyse key drivers o... more The purpose of this study is to adopt a business model lens to identify and analyse key drivers of and barriers to the networked commercialisation of technology (NCT). The study contributes to commercialisation literature by illustrating the usefulness of the business model lens for analysing networked commercialisation. The results of the empirical case study of a company developing disruptive nanotechnological solutions for mass production identify key drivers of and barriers to business model decisions in the NCT. The results show that the tasks and activities involved in the NCT and business model development are connected to others operating in the business network.

Journal of Cleaner Production

A majority of food waste in developed countries is caused by households. Previous studies have fo... more A majority of food waste in developed countries is caused by households. Previous studies have focussed on explicating reasons and contexts for food waste, whereas consumer-oriented solutions still need further study. This study investigated how sociocultural meanings of household food waste reduction were negotiated in social media campaigns. It adopted an interpretive approach through a qualitative case study and utilised interviews and online materials as data. The study identified three sociocultural themes, creativity, aesthetics and ethics of food waste, interlinked through connections with food, waste and social media. The analysis elaborated how these three broader positive sociocultural meanings were used in the studied social media campaigns to (re)negotiate the food waste phenomenon. The paper proposes that highlighting positive meanings of food waste which resonate with consumers and facilitating consumer-to-consumer communications are potential ways to address sustainability issues.

IMP Journal, 2017

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to move forward the understanding of sociomaterial and proce... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to move forward the understanding of sociomaterial and processual aspects of innovation by describing and analysing actors’ disalignment processes regarding what resources to provide and strategies for resolution of disalignments during technology commercialisation. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a longitudinal qualitative empirical case study depicting the commercialisation journey of a radical invention, intelligent paper, between the years of 1997 and 2009. The invention concerns cost-effective, high-volume and roll-to-roll production of printable optics and electronics enabling novel, intelligent functionalities on printed matter. Findings The study identifies three technology commercialisation phases which involve both destructive and constructive situations of disalignment, namely, actors’ multiplexity, punctualised actor roles and “not-programmatic” behaviours. Several strategies are utilised to resolve these, including ...

South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, 2016

This article examines technology commercialization as networked processes. It presents a longitud... more This article examines technology commercialization as networked processes. It presents a longitudinal analysis of a technological invention called intelligent paper over a period of 13 years in 1997–2009. In the analysis, six technology commercialization phases are identified and the roles of various actors in each phase are depicted. The study shows how the processes of technology development and commercialization intertwine and shape each other. The study contributes to literature on commercialization of innovation by presenting an empirical case study where the processes of technology development and commercialization are complex and continuously evolving processes.

International Journal of Research Studies in Management, 2016

Expatriation has become an insightful context for studying employees' adjustment to different hos... more Expatriation has become an insightful context for studying employees' adjustment to different host organisations and countries, because it contains a vast array of contradictions and tensions. This context has attracted several studies, which have studied different characteristics of the adjustment as well as processual aspects involved in it. The adjustment of self-initiated expatriates working in distant locations which are substantially different from their own-in particular the move from the developed to the developing country with very different cultural characteristics-has, however, gained less interest. To develop the current understanding about western expatriates' adjustment in this setting further, the study adapts an individual-level perspective to expatriation and uses hermeneutical approach to describe and analyse the adjustment of Finnish expatriates to Pakistan. A qualitative study was carried out; seven Finnish expatriates having expatriation experience from Pakistan were contacted and interviewed, and the qualitative content analysis method was used to analyse and interpret the generated research data. The study shows how young Finnish expatriate proactively seek overseas experiences. They are also largely motivated by altruism. Their personal ambitions to do social good for both the local community and to the host country drive for expatriation. In addition, the studied expatriates actively try to overcome the experienced cultural differences. However, the experienced organisational hierarchies, the expatriates' freedom of choice, and the gender roles influence their adjustment, both regarding to the host organisation and the country.

Time & Society

This study describes and analyses how practices organise temporality to reduce food waste. The st... more This study describes and analyses how practices organise temporality to reduce food waste. The study builds upon the material turn in practice theories and an ontological approach that together highlight emerging relations between humans and nonhumans in practices. Three theoretical propositions are constructed that inform the empirical analysis. The study utilises empirical qualitative data from a Finnish blog campaign 'From Waste to Delicacy'. The study identifies four bundles of practices organising temporality: scheduling, pausing, stretching and synchronising. Within these bundles of practices, potential food waste is enacted differently: as not realised food waste, revitalised food, refuted food waste and harmonised food (waste). The study produces novel understanding about temporal interrelations between humans and nonhumans-the dance of agency-in household food waste reduction.

In Närvänen, E., Mesiranta, N., Mattila, M. & Heikkinen, A. (Eds). Food Waste Management: Solving the Wicked Problem. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 1–24, 2020

Närvänen, Mesiranta, Mattila and Heikkinen present a much-needed framework for managing food wast... more Närvänen, Mesiranta, Mattila and Heikkinen present a much-needed framework for managing food waste, including food surplus, food loss and food waste. The framework discusses the characteristics of food waste as unstructured, cross-cutting and relentless, that is, as a wicked problem. The chapter provides a concise review of recent food waste studies, particularly from the perspective of finding solutions. Närvänen et al. introduce four perspectives into this solution orientation—changing the behaviour of actors, connecting actors and activities within systems, constituting sociocultural meanings and innovating solutions to food waste reduction. These four perspectives also form the structure for the rest of the book, which provides research-based multidisciplinary insights and solutions in the quest to battle against the wicked problem of food waste.