HETEROSCEDASTICITY OR PRODUCTION RISK? A SYNTHETIC VIEW

Two veins of literature, namely, production risk literature and stochastic frontier analysis, are examined. Both fields are concerned of output variation; the former due to exogenous shocks, the latter due inefficiency. By covering the literature from both the fields, this review suggests that the concept of heteroscedasticity can be utilized to build a synthesis between these mainly separate branches of literature. However, the synthetic approach brings a challenge how to differentiate between different sources of output variation. This challenge is identified as the main obstacle to meaningfully combine the two approaches.     

Existential–Experiential View of Self‐Sourced (In)Authentic Healthcare Identity

In the healthcare context, both nurses and doctors derive their professional identities from diverse backgrounds, thus resulting in two distinct professions. Becoming a leader and forming a leader identity that is separate from a strong professional identity is a difficult task. However, assuming a leader identity is considered an important aspect of actually being a leader, not just a professional with a leader position. The current article explores authenticity in generic healthcare leader identity formation by utilizing the concept of professional identity. Instead of committing to the humanistic ontological roots of the authentic leadership construct, the research analyzes the concepts of self and authenticity from an existential–experiential perspective. A conceptual framework of self‐sourced healthcare identity formation, including leader identity and professional identity, is presented. The framework shows how leader identity originates in the leader's experiencing self‐in‐situation, which is understood as the source of authenticity. The experiencing self, or the self as a subject, is differentiated from the experienced self, or the self as an object, by which professional identities are formed. The conceptualization provides a way of understanding and developing leadership in fields consisting of strong professional identities. The applications of the framework are also discussed.     

A Repeatable E-Collaboration Process Based on ThinkLets for Multi-Organization Strategy Development

In recent years, multi-organizational collaboration has become more and more important in both business and research. We conducted an action research (AR) intervention with a consortium of Finnish universities that needed to revise its joint strategy. We designed and facilitated a repeatable collaboration process for this multi-organizational strategy development. The process was built using the Collaboration Engineering (CE) approach with thinkLets, which provides expert-level advice for novice facilitators, and it was powered by Group Support Systems (GSS). Our overall impression of CE’s ability to provide valuable design and facilitation support for complex processes is very affirmative. The consortium was satisfied with the intervention, as it saved huge amounts of time compared with conventional strategic work. The process was also seen as more democratic, because the GSS tools enabled equal participation during the session. Our study also provides a ready-to-apply CE process recipe to organizations for revising their strategy. Through this recipe, supplemented with knowledge on thinkLets, the strategy development process may easily be repeated by other facilitators or even practitioners.     

Targeting Rural Tourists in the Internet: Comparing Travel Motivation and Activity-Based Segments

This study aims to compare activity-based segmentation and travel motivation segmentation from the perspective of information search behavior and online use behavior by comparing segment heterogeneity. The data were collected from users of three Finnish rural tourism websites with 1754 completed and usable questionnaires to create segmentation solutions based on travel activities and motivations using hierarchical cluster analysis and then comparing the results. The results indicate that travel activities are more useful than travel motivations in finding heterogeneous segmentation solutions, making the travel activity segments more heterogeneous than travel motivation segments as regards their information search behavior and Internet use. The results suggest that in this era of Internet marketing, travel activities are a better segmentation base than travel motivations in order to target different market segments as activities form more heterogeneous segmentation solutions.     

Diffusion of mobile handset features: Analysis of turning points and stages

Mobile handsets have evolved into advanced devices with a rich variety of hardware and software features enabling the use of variety of applications, networks, and services. Consequently, mobile handset features constitute an important part of the global communications infrastructure. Modelling the diffusion of mobile handsets as a product category is becoming less relevant as the market is approaching saturation especially in the developed countries. Simultaneously, the diffusion of mobile handset features is increasingly important and of interest to many stakeholders. This article analyzes and compares the diffusion patterns of mobile handset features, using a longitudinal annual dataset of the penetrations of 15 different features in Finland between 2005 and 2010. Two major turning points – the takeoff and the inflection point – as well as the durations of the diffusion stages between these points are determined. The results show large variations between different features, highlighting the significance of the introduction stage in the diffusion process. The results are useful for regulators and companies in understanding the pace of change taking place in the communications infrastructure.     

Internationalisation of SMEs from the perspective of social learning theory

Internationalisation is seen as an important issue for the globalised economy. Therefore, it has been widely investigated among multinational enterprises and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Even though earlier work acknowledges that internationalisation consists of entrepreneurial actions (e.g. discovery and exploitation of an international business opportunity) and learning from the market, detailed understanding of the process of social learning in internationalisation is still lacking. In this study, we use the cycle of expansive learning as a conceptual framework. It shows that entrepreneurial actions between SMEs construct international business opportunities. More specifically, entrepreneurial actions are about learning that constructs and co-creates knowledge. The cycle of expansive learning assumes that such knowledge is social in nature making the very nature of knowledge the basis of claims to explicate what the process of social learning entails. In the context of international entrepreneurship, there is also a by-product of that type of co-created and object-oriented action: the internationalisation of SMEs. The purpose of this study is to explore the internationalisation of SMEs through the cycle of expansive learning to better understand how such a by-product can be created. In examining a story of collaboration between two entrepreneurs, we found the start of the cycle to be more significant than the later stages. From the perspective of social learning, this suggests that entrepreneurs create meanings rather than exploit international opportunities in the business-sense alone. That said, internationalisation happens as a by-product of social acting.     

More hedonic versus less hedonic consumption behaviour in advanced internet bank services

Finnish internet banking can be considered as one of the most advanced in the world. This paper presents an exploratory analysis of the consumer characteristics in this sector. In the context of internet bank services the paper compares and contrasts two sets of consumers: those who prefer a more experiential view of consumption (more hedonic consumers) with those who believe in a less experiential view of consumption (less hedonic consumers). It was found that important differences exist between these two groups of consumers. Specifically, more hedonically orientated consumers place greater value on almost every proposed service dimension than the less hedonic consumers. These more hedonic consumers tend to be younger people, however, with lower education and income level and thus they do not appear to be an appealing target market for banks. In contrast, less hedonic consumers are found to be a more lucrative target market, even though they prefer basic services that concentrate on the core function of internet banking. The results have profound implications for internet bank services. Banks should focus on an improved functional operation of the services on the internet and cater more to the customers who find it effective and efficient.     

Stability of the demand for M1 and harmonized M3 in Finland

We derive a theoretical model for the demand for money using the adjustment cost augmented money-in-the-utility-function approach. The steady-state-utility function-parameters of the model of narrow money (M1) estimated with cointegration techniques are stable over the foreign exchange rate regime shift; whereas in the model of harmonized M3 (M3H) they arenot stable. The theoretical model fits the M1 data. The adjustment cost parameters of the M1 model describing the dynamics of the demand for money might indicate technological improvements in banking and payments during the sample period. These results suggest that from the Finnish point of view M1 would be a more appropriate intermediate target for monetary policy than harmonized M3.The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the Bank of Finland. I thank Juha Tarkka, Jouko Vilmunen, Pekka Ilmakunnas, Erkki Koskela, Paolo Paruolo, Anders Rahbek, Pentti Saikkonen, Juha Seppälä, Matti Virén and the participants of ESEM96 meeting and Money Demand in Europe conference (October 1997, Berlin) for useful comments and discussions and two anonymous referees and the editors for profound and constructive comments. The usual disclaimer applies. The data may be obtained from the internet, http://wotan.wiwi.hu-berlin.de/oekonometrie/engl/data.html     

Market pricing of executive stock options and implied risk preferences

When managers get to trade in options received as compensation, their trading prices reveal several aspects of subjective option pricing and risk preferences. Two subjective pricing models are fitted to show that executive stock option prices incorporate a subjective discount. It depends positively on implied volatility and negatively on option moneyness. Further, risk preferences are estimated using the semiparametric model of Aït-Sahalia and Lo (2000). The results suggest that relative risk aversion is just above 1 for a certain stock price range. This level of risk aversion is low but reasonable, and it may be explained by the typical manager being wealthy and having low marginal utility. Related to risk aversion, it is found that marginal rate of substitution increases considerably in states with low stock prices.