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Mervi Rajahonka's doctoral dissertation, ‘Towards service modularity – service and business model development’, has been chosen as one of ten best entrants in the annual doctoral thesis competition of the European Doctoral Programmes Association in Management and Business Administration (EDAMBA). Dr Rajahonka was awarded her doctorate by Aalto University's School of Business in 2013.

The standard of the entrants for the EDAMBA doctoral thesis competition is high. The mission of the EDAMBA organisation is to promote inter-university cooperation between European graduate schools. Around sixty universities and graduate schools from all over Europe belong to the organisation. Finland is represented in EDAMBA by two members: Aalto University School of Business and Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki.

Research into the modularity of service and business models

Dr Rajahonka's doctoral research focused on the concept of modularity and its application in the context of service provision.  

‘The challenge for many businesses is to balance efficient service provision with meeting a diverse range of customer needs,’ she explains.
 
The concept of modularity has been used for decades as a means of addressing this challenge in relation to products and manufacturing.  

‘My research centred on the relationship between service modularity and the associated concepts in an attempt to analyse modularity in services, service processes, and organisation; in other words, the modularity of service business models,’ Rajahonka continues.

Link to doctoral dissertation: http://epub.lib.aalto.fi/fi/diss/?cmd=show&dissid=478
For further information on the competition: http://www.edamba.eu/r/default.asp?iId=GHMKJE

Mervi Rajahonka currently works as a project expert in School of Business’ Small Business Center and as a post-doctoral researcher in School of Business’ Department of Information and Service Economy on the discipline of logistics.

Mervi Rajahonka's doctoral dissertation has previously received the 2013 award for best research in the field of logistics from LOGY ry, the Finnish Association of Purchasing and Logistics.

For more information on the research:
Mervi Rajahonka D.Sc. (Econ.), tel. +358 40 7551 299
mervi.rajahonka(a)aalto.fi