Auli Ojala

I am a doctor from the University of Technology Department of Industrial Management and Engineering(2007) My doctoral thesis was Expertise of Small Business Entrepreneurs in the competition arena.  My research object comprises 29 small business entrepreneurs whose companies were located in Pirkanmaa The branches included represent extremes: extremes: enterprises utilizing high technology and enterprises in the traditional metal industry.  Fourteen technology firms and 15 metal firms were included in the study. The theoretical frame of reference is based on the process model of organizational knowledge recreation developed by Nonaka and Takeuchi.  Conclusions: High technology entrepreneurs have a holistic understanding and ability to make abstractions on the future development of their field as an intuition. Thus the high technology entrepreneurs' information concept is closer to knowing why than knowing how. The knowledge concept of entrepreneurs in the metal industry was closer to knowing how. The main contribution of the study lies in the were the distinction made between the knowledge of the small business entrepreneurs wich were the subject of research.