Differential Market Reactions to Revenue and Expense Surprises

This study investigates investors' reactions to revenue and expense surprises around preliminary earnings announcements. Results show that investors value more highly a dollar of revenue surprise than a dollar of expense surprise. Results further show that these differential market reactions to revenue and expense surprises vary systematically for growth versus value firms and depend on (a) the proportion of variable to total costs, (b) the relative persistence of sales and expenses, and (c) the proportion of operating to total expenses. Results highlight the importance of interpreting the earnings surprise in the context of its sources—e.g. surprise in revenues or in total expenses.     

Mobile banking and consumer behaviour: New insights into the diffusion pattern

Technological advancement has challenged the providers of financial services; the very nature of selling and buying financial services has changed. Mobile devices are among the newest channels to conduct banking electronically. This paper focuses on studying diffusion and adopters of mobile banking services. Previous research has identified the typical characteristics of a potential adopter in the electronic services era; this paper explores some contradictory empirical findings drawn from a mobile banking survey. The results provide an indication of the characteristics of potential subsequent adopters of mobile banking, and of differences between user segments. Consequently, the authors are able to comment on the influence of certain demographic characteristics and the preferred communication mode of customers on the adoption and future usage of mobile banking services. The quantitative survey that sheds more light on this researched issue employed a traditional method of postal questionnaire. The data were collected in Finland during May–July 2002 and include 1,253 survey responses.     

Understanding co‐consumption between consumers and their pets

Pets live with people; they participate in people's everyday life activities and are often seen as human‐like family members. Consumers in the industrialized countries are investing more money in their pets and spending more time with them than ever before. The pet and the owner can even be considered to form a unit that consumes together. In this article, we develop a conceptual understanding of co‐consumption by examining how pets act as co‐consumers in everyday consumption. The pet owner and pet have joint consumption experiences in which they interact with other actors such as service providers. The consumer (pet owner) consumes because of the pet, meaning that he or she constantly needs to take the pet into account in choices and activities beyond pet‐related consumption, such as what kind of car to buy, where to work, whom to marry and how to live. The co‐consumer (pet) also acts as an active agent who experiences, feels, suffers and likes the goods and services that the consumer buys for the pet. Reciprocally, the pet provides the consumer (pet owner) with companionship, support and a boost to wellbeing. As such, our research suggests that co‐consumption provides an understanding not only of consumption with pets but also of other contexts, especially those in which the aim is shared well‐being such as consumption together with children, the disabled or the elderly.     

Innovation capability in achieving higher performance: perspectives of management and employees

The study clarifies the issue of whether innovation capability has a positive effect on firm performance. The effects are analysed in the perspectives of management and employees. The study has been executed by conducting a web-based survey in Finnish Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A total of 311 responses were received from a sample of 2400 randomly selected SMEs. The results show that three aspects of innovation capability, namely ideation and organising structures, participatory leadership culture, and know-how development, are related to firm performance. The results also reveal that managers and employees have different perceptions on what aspects of innovation capability affect performance.     

Towards a strategic understanding of global teams and their HR implications: an expert dialogue

Abstract

Drawing on initial insights emerging from a panel at the EIBA 2016 Conference in Vienna, here discussants and expert panelists engage in a follow-on conversation on the HRM implications of global teams for international organizations. First we set out how HRM can enable global teams and their constituent members to overcome the new and considerable challenges of global teams. These challenges span levels of analysis, time and space. Next we debate global teams as a strategic response to the dual pressures of global integration and local adaptation. We consider what HRM is needed for global teams to successfully resolve this dilemma, challenging practitioners to move beyond the ‘best practices’ and ‘alignment’ dichotomy. Lastly we look to the future to consider implications for research. We propose a rich research agenda focused on the complexities of the global team context.     

Context and mobile services' value-in-use

Context is an inherent part of service use experiences that helps to understand when mobile services generate superior value-in-use for customers and are preferred to other services, but little research exists on the subject. In order to fill this void, a theoretical value framework incorporating context is proposed. The findings of 85 mobile service use situations indicate strong evidence for two types of value: context value and value-in-use. Furthermore, the paper identifies new context value categories such as uncertain conditions, refines the meanings of other context and value-in-use categories, and concludes that conditional value enhances the value of mobile services.     

基于利润最大化的旅游品供应商定价策略研究

以供应商、零售商利润最大化为目标,首先分析了旅游产品优化定价过程,然后建立了优化定价模型,列出供应商和零售商的利润函数,接着对旅游产品供应商优化定价模型进行了模拟试验,明确了对利润产生显著影响的三个因素,最后以中国金桥旅游总公司为例,结合模型分析其利润模式,制定其定价策略,并为公司以后的定价提供参考。     

Electronic banking in Finland: Consumer beliefs and reactions to a new delivery channel

The increasing turbulence in the financial service industry sector since the mid-1990s has created a whole new delivery channel for banking: Internet banking. The purpose of this paper is to describe the current state of Internet banking in Finland and to study consumer perceptions, beliefs and reactions to electronic banking in general and Internet banking in particular. The results of this study indicate that bank managers can, by knowing the basic beliefs consumers hold about Internet banking, create more effective customer communication, improve software and target prospects better concerning Internet banking. There is wide agreement that Internet banking will on the one hand have a great impact on the whole bank market, and on the other hand will be considered the most important retail banking delivery channel in the near future. A total of 3,000 questionnaires was prepared and sent to MeritaNordbanken customers in Finland. Using a mailed questionnaire with a response rate of 38.9 per cent, it was found that 40 per cent of the Finnish consumers who responded to this survey were already using Internet banking services. The results of this study provide interesting additions to knowledge of electronic banking and consumer behaviour.     

The use of small instant loans among young adults – a gateway to a consumer insolvency?

The aim of this paper is to study 18‐ to 29‐year‐old Finnish consumers' use of instant small loans (i.e. SMS loan) and other consumer credit services that have increased notably in the past few years. We examine what kind of expenditures instant credit is used for and focus also on young consumers' financial situation and their perceptions of themselves as money handlers. The research method is quantitative, and data are derived from an open online survey (n = 1610). Our results reveal that consumer credit is used by young people in all income brackets and employment positions. However, there is a clear connection between certain life‐course stages (young, single parent), financial positions (low income), employment situations (marginal) and the propensity to take instant loans and consumer credit. The young people who take an instant loan once are likely to do it again. Typical purposes of use included buying alcohol, cigarettes and partying. For some consumers, the use of small loans is part of controlled and economical use of money. However, particularly in the low‐income brackets, it is also common to buy food and to repay credit or interest. Young people, who use instant loans recognize flaws in their money management and see themselves as ‘wasteful’ consumers more often than those who do not use instant loans. On the basis of this empirical study, it is unquestioned that young people's consumer education needs to be strengthened. In Finland, this need has already been recognized in both consumer policy and teacher education.     

Finnish young people's narrative construction of consumer identity

This article examines how young Finns represent their consumer identity through narratives. Young consumers are easily seen as careless spenders and selfish hedonists in the contemporary consumer society. However, an empirical approach is required in order to find out whether this generation of young Finnish consumers is one of ‘raving hedonists’ or ‘ultimate materialists’, as their peers are often presented in public discussion in many western societies. The empirical data was collected in five upper secondary schools between the end of November 2001 and the beginning of January 2002. These schools are located in five different districts in Finland, varying from metropolitan to rural areas. The study focused on students aged 16–19 years and used essay writing as the method for collecting qualitative data. The data thus consists of 159 life stories as a consumer written by young Finnish people. Qualitative research methods, such as narrative analysis, were used in this study. It is argued that Finnish young people are representing their identities as consumers through a combination of various levels of consumer discourses besides hedonism and squandering: rationality and economizing are an essential part of their consumer identities. Some youngsters also present themselves as responsible consumers including ecological and ethical choices as part of their narrative. The way these youngsters combine discourses gives evidence of the various features of the present‐day young consumer. It is also suggested that their consumer identity develops and changes with age. Young people describe their identity changing through a hedonist/squanderer discourse to a rational and economical one or vice versa. They also combine hedonist, rational, economical and responsible discourses simultaneously.