Heidi Hirsto and Marko Kohtamäki receive funding from the Academy of Finland

Heidi Hirsto heads a research project that examines the role of digital spaces such as social networking and crowdfunding platforms in driving shifts in investment culture. The project focuses first and foremost on the consumer and seeks to find out how consumers define and understand investments, how investing is justified in digital investor communities and what the discourses of investing are like. The topical project highlights, among other things, the rhetorical means crowdfunding platforms have used to attract investors during the Covid-19 pandemic and how social media influencers have been used to reach potential investors.

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Marko Kohtamäki heads a consortium project MIDAS – Mastering the Next Industrial Revolution: From product-service solutions to Autonomous Systems. The research project analyses the digital servitization towards autonomous product-service systems by using the institutional theory and the practice theory as the main theoretical lenses. Such a perspective and the process methodological approach allows us to understand the change process at multiple levels. The selected theoretical lenses also provide a parsimonious yet comprehensive foundation to explore digital servitization. The research project examines the role of social practices in digital servitization, the role of the institutional environment in digital servitization, and the interplay between social practices and institutional structures in digital servitization. The project partner is Risto Rajala and his research team from Aalto University.

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The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Culture and Society has granted nearly 30 million euros in funding for 59 new academy projects. Eight of the funded projects are consortium projects, and the total number of subprojects is 71. The success rate was 13,7 %.

Projects

Shifting investment cultures in digital spaces

Applicant: Heidi Hirsto, University of Vaasa
Funding period: 1.9.2021–31.8.2025
Funding from the Academy of Finland: 472 181 euros

MIDAS – Mastering the Next Industrial Revolution: From product-service solutions to Autonomous Systems

Leader: Marko Kohtamäki, University of Vaasa
Partner: Risto Rajala, Aalto University
Funding period:  1.9.2021–31.8.2024
Funding from the Academy of Finland: 198 425 euros (University of Vaasa) ja 221 575 euros (Aalto University)

Further information

Professor Marko Kohtamäki, marko.kohtamaki (@) uwasa.fi, Research Group Strategic Business Development: https://www.uwasa.fi/en/tutkimus/ryhmat/sbd
Associate professor Heidi Hirsto, heidi.hirsto (@) uwasa.fi, Digital Economy Research Platform: https://www.uwasa.fi/en/research/research-platforms/digital-economy