Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Influences on Entry and Exit of Firms

We examine the entry and exit process in the Finnish manufacturing industry using a six year panel of three-digit industries. The results show that scale economies form a significant entry barrier, but the evidence on their role as an exit barrier is weaker. Industry growth has a positive influence on entry and a negative influence on exit, but also variables describing the general economic climate have an influence on the entry-exit process. The variables describing the monetary transmission mechanism have an expected influence on entry. However, the role of macroeconomic influences on exit is inconclusive. Both entry and exit have almost unit elasticity with respect to industry size, measured by the number of firms in the previous period. Entry and exit rates are therefore practically independent of industry size.     

Harm-advocating online content and subjective well-being: a cross-national study of new risks faced by youth

Harm-advocating online content includes pro-eating disorder, pro-self-harm, pro-suicide, and the positive portrayal of the deaths of real people (snuff or death sites). This material is often user-generated and easily accessible for an average online user, therefore offering a potential source of risk for many Internet users. This cross-sectional study examined the association between exposure to harm-advocating online content and users’ subjective well-being (SWB) among American (n = 1032) and Finnish (n = 555) young people aged 15–30. Exposure to different types of online harm-advocating content was prevalent in both countries. Lower SWB was associated with exposure to this material even when controlling for social networking site (SNS) activity and online and offline victimization. In the US sample, seeing death sites was not associated with SWB, but seeing other harm-advocating sites was. In both countries, those with high SNS activity were more likely to be exposed to online harm-advocating material. These results from two advanced information societies underline the importance of recognizing the existence of harmful online communities. These communities are grounded on social interaction that might involve risks for the well-being of adolescents and young adults.     

So,What Am I Supposed to Do? A Multilevel Examination of Role Clarity

Although prior research generally holds that role clarity is affected by both individual characteristics and organizational contexts, current conceptual or empirical models do not reflect the multilevel nature of these antecedents. A more complete understanding of how role clarity emanates from different organizational levels is necessary to help prevent poor job performance and other harmful consequences of ambiguous role expectations. To address this, I begin this research by investigating the effects of internal work locus of control, general self‐efficacy, and leader–member exchange on role clarity. With respect to the cross‐level effects, I focus on the roles of a manager's control style and the organization's strategy‐making pattern. Analyses of a multi‐industry, multilevel dataset collected from 724 employees and 124 managers in 25 organizations in Finland suggest that all of the individual‐level independent variables and a deliberate strategy‐making pattern improve role clarity. However, a deliberate strategy‐making pattern negatively moderates the relationship between general self‐efficacy and role clarity. Finally, even though an outcome‐based control system causes role ambiguity among employees in most functional areas, it may be an effective driver of role clarity among employees in sales jobs.     

Risk management challenges of shared public services: a comparative analysis of Scotland and Finland

This paper analyses the risk management challenges of shared service provision in Scotland and Finland. Policy context and institutional frameworks largely determine the local choice of organizational arrangements and so the risks that arise and the way they are shared. Finnish municipalities have developed joint municipal arrangements for sharing services, whereas Scotland's shared service challenges are related to the historical separation of health and social care services and the search for cost savings while improving service effectiveness.     

Worker inflow,outflow, and churning

Linked employer–employee data from Finnish business sector is used in analysing worker turnover. The data set is an unbalanced panel with over 219?000 observations in 1991–97. The churning (excess worker turnover), worker inflow, and worker outflow rates are explained by plant and employee characteristics. The probabilities of observing non-zero churning, inflow, and outflow rates increase with plant size. The magnitudes of the non-zero churning and inflow rates depend positively on size, but the magnitude of outflow rate depends negatively on size. High-wage plants have low turnover; plants with large within-plant variation in wages have high turnover. Average tenure of employees has a negative impact on turnover. High plant employment growth increases churning and separation but reduces hiring in the next year. Also controlled are average age and education of employees, shares of women and homeowners among employees, foreign ownership, ownership changes, and regional unemployment.     

Reduced form modeling of limit order markets

This paper proposes a parametric approach for stochastic modeling of limit order markets. The models are obtained by augmenting classical perfectly liquid market models with a few additional risk factors that describe liquidity properties of the order book. The resulting models are easy to calibrate and to analyse using standard techniques for multivariate stochastic processes. Despite their simplicity, the models are able to capture several properties that have been found in microstructural analysis of limit order markets. Calibration of a continuous-time three-factor model to Copenhagen Stock Exchange data exhibits, for example, mean reversion in liquidity as well as the so-called crowding out effect, which influences subsequent mid-price moves. Our dynamic models are also well suited for analysing market resilience after liquidity shocks.     

Innovative Behavior as a Moderator of Growth Intentions

Although several studies suggest that both growth intentions and innovative behavior have positive effects on firm growth, little is known about how innovative behavior interacts with the intentions and the growth. This study examines its role in this relationship. Longitudinal data composed of 232 observations show that the innovative behavior itself has a positive effect on firm growth. However, innovative behavior negatively moderates the effect of growth intentions on growth. Of the analyzed dimensions of such behavior, the launching of new products and services, in particular, impedes the chances of realizing the growth intentions. In conclusion, the identified moderating effect of innovative behavior gives a new insight into existing knowledge on the effect of growth intentions on firm growth.     

Elasticities of derived demand under different objectives of the firm

Conclusions We have reconciled and generalized earlier comparisons of input demand elasticities under different objective functions of the firm. In general little can be said of the relative magnitudes of the elasticities under different objectives, since different goals usually imply different levels of production and input demand. With some simplifying assumptions about the technology we can conclude that a profit-constrained, utility-maximizing firm tends to have higher input demand elasticities than a profit-maximizing firm facing the same cost and demand functions. This tendency is reinforced by a high profit requirement, decreasing returns to scale and slowly falling demand elasticity for the output. The results may help to explain differences in the stability of employment between industries,. Scherer [1980, pp. 365–67] reports that some studies have found an inverse relation between market concentration and stability of employment, which is contrary to the expected result. One may argue that in concentrated industries the firms are likely to have organizational slack or to face an inelastic product demand curve. Hence demand for factors of production should be less elastic than in more competitive industries. We have shown, however, that deviations from profit maximization may lead to higher input demand elasticities. Since non-profit-maximizing goals are likely to be more common in concentrated industries, the observed instability of employment may be partly due to the high elasticity of derived demand. Although the type of alternative goals studied in this paper may not be realistic in practice, the analysis shows nevertheless that goals of the firm may be one factor in explaining differences in the stability of employment.     

The ecological transparency of the information society

A de-linking of pollution from economic growth and de-materialisation can probably be seen as the most important single characteristic of sustainable development. With regard to this, ecological transparency means understanding all human activities, processes and patterns that have an impact on the potential for sustainable development. Closely linked with this is the idea that the ecological footprint of the information society should be concerned with the environmental implications of its generations, applications and the disposability of information and communication technologies (ICTs). This paper aims at developing scenarios, and a set of criteria, plus indicators as tools for identifying various environmental impacts inherent in the information society. Furthermore, it aims for the successful unification of the positive factors of the information society with ecologically sustainable development. It is concluded that policy plans for the information society would benefit from the enhanced level of ecological transparency the information society can provide, as presented via the indicators mentioned later in the text. Further, it is suggested that prerequisites should be created for evaluating the implications of the information society and for the application of related information society technologies. Such an approach could be labelled an Information Society Assessment.