Preface

When I was working at the Arts Council of Northern Ostrobothnia as a Regional Artist (Producer) and at the same time bringing to an end my vocational cabinet maker training, I unexpectedly got an invitation from the Department of Information Processing Science at the University of Oulu to join a research project that was not only focusing on a new mobile software technology, but also to study how the software business could develop and prosper better in the future. For this confidence in my competence to do research work I must thank warmly Professor Jouni Similä as well as Professor Samuli Saukkonen, not to forget Professor Kari Kuutti, with whom I had the very first contact about my thesis interest. With respect to my background in the computer business, I was offered a possibility of doing research and, at the same time, preparing my doctoral thesis under the auspices of MONICA-project. The subject interested me, as I had in the past been working with the contracts and contracting and also had experienced the diversity of these issues as well as the problems that software company managers encounter during the negotiations with their customers, suppliers and employees. In this project I also could put my past academic studies in computer science and economics to good use.

The endeavour started gradually by getting acquainted with the focal topic and the research world itself. The process started to take wind under the wings in earnest only after Professor Veikko Seppänen became my supervisor of my thesis work for the research and an invaluable critic of my emergent texts and ideas. He has the clear wisdom about how to proceed in an assertive style. Thus, without his persistent support and time I would still be struggling through the hills, valleys and swampy tracts on the path to the final and stable conclusion of this paper. My warmest thanks to him.

Professor Juha Pöyhönen and Professor Markku Sääksjärvi, to review the draft thesis, have provided an insightful critique to and encouragement for my research effort. Discussions with them improved and ascertained solid ground for this final version of the thesis.

I must also thank warmly my research fellows Pekka Abrahamsson and Timo Jokela, as with them these last years I have been wading alone the same young researcher’s route. Pekka taught me to begin with the vocabulary of research. The first words from him were to reflect (You must reflect! That is, lean comfortably back in your armchair and let the mind be filled with thoughts and ideas until you…), thus my tabula rasa of language of research started gradually to fill up under his guidance. Also the discussions with them, concerning the deepest essence about what is and what is not relevant in our research settings, were inspiring.

I wish to express my gratitude to all the interviewees at the different companies in Finland and in the USA for participating in this research project and sharing their experiences and ideas with other companies and their management. Without them this effort could not have been done. Minna Lappi successfully organized and carried out the interviews in the USA and we had inspiring discussions both during the early stages concerning the data analysis and as she subsequently prepared her own master’s thesis.

I thank all my research colleagues in MONICA-project, the representatives of TEKES and several Finnish companies who funded the project. Project Manager Pasi Kuvaja has been supportive in establishing a fine research environment where it was easy and interesting to work. I thank Ari Vaulo for establishing and maintaining a well functioning IT-infrastructure for me and for his constant support. I express my best regards to Juha Juntunen and Pekka Salonpää for their help to find many relevant legal sources. I am also deeply indebted to the librarians at the main library of our university and especially to the interlibrary loan services’ librarians for their help to find the books and articles needed, even with the wrong search words they were able to put me on the right track. Our university library provides excellent hands-on guidance and on-line tools for searching and finding articles of interest.

Last but not least, most significant for the success of this research project was the unabating and wholehearted support that my family gave me during this process. An undisturbed and harmonious home life is an invaluable resource to any researcher.

With Buddy Guy’s lyrics, I dedicate this work to all the blues men and women who helped me during the lonely and sometimes agonising moments of pondering and writing this thesis:

Work is done and again another fjeld is climbed, but as every backpacker knows after each hilltop there exists always a new one to be conquered further on. The mind is once again well ahead of the body planning next endeavours …

Oulu, December 2001

Juhani Warsta