How can a young e-journal develop its reputation? : Case: The Finnish Business Review

Printed and electronic resources have both been contributing to the academic world because they are important sources. The usage of e-journals is rising. Many institutions have decided to launch their own publication channels to contribute to the open access (OA) knowledge sharing and to promote research among their students. The object of this study was JAMK’s e-journal, the Finnish Business Review. The aim of this research was to find ways of how a young e-journal could increase its number of readers and received manuscripts for online (OA) publication. In this study, the qualitative research technique was used, and the design research strategy was composed. After semi-structured interviews with academic professionals in Finland, action research was also implemented. In order to obtain more extensive information, secondary data were also collected and studied. In the analysis of all the collected information, the SOSTAC® model was used as guidance for the thematical phases. The semi-structured interviews established the directions of the study and accentuated Van Noorden’s study (2014) about scientists using social network sites. Furthermore, they helped to understand the motivation factors in academic journals. Afterwards, the action research was able to provide specific ways to increase the number of readers. This research provided a wide overview on community building, brand awareness and marketing campaigns for a young e-journal. The social media ecosystem model (Schultz 2007) was applied to FBR’s case. This study found that researchers sought a closer connection to the managerial world. The major limitations were the lack of data on ‘e-journal marketing’ and the unavailability of numeric data in the Statistics Finland database