Market Orientation and Performance Measurement System Adoption Impact on Performance in SMEs

Previous research has shown a connection between market orientation (MO) and firm performance, as well as between performance measurement systems (PMS) adoption, but their mutual interactions are as yet little understood in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Using empirical data collected by a survey from 123 Finnish SMEs, we analyze the relationship between MO, PMS adoption, and performance. According to the results, MO has positive relationships with PMS adoption and nonfinancial performance. However, the impact of MO on financial performance is mediated by PMS adoption. PMS adoption is thus an important factor in explaining variance in firm performance. Finally, empirical analysis shows that the larger SME firms adopt PMS more extensively.     

Entrepreneurship as a twenty-first century skill: entrepreneurial alertness and intention in the transition to adulthood

Given the importance of entrepreneurial thinking and acting as a meta-skill in the future world of work, we focus on the emerging entrepreneurial mind-set in the transition to adulthood. We study the role of personality characteristics and age-appropriate entrepreneurial competencies (leadership, self-esteem, creativity, and proactivity motivation) in the prediction of entrepreneurial alertness and career intention. Using two-wave longitudinal data from high schools in Helsinki, Finland (N = 523), we tested a mediation model with competencies as mediators between personality and entrepreneurial alertness and intention. The findings suggest that entrepreneurial alertness and career intention (a) are rather independent career development constructs of the emerging entrepreneurial mind-set, (b) are both an expression of an entrepreneurial personality structure, and (c) are predicted by different underlying competencies: leadership and self-esteem mediated the personality—entrepreneurial intention link, and leadership, creativity, and proactivity motivation the personality—entrepreneurial alertness link. Consistent with the balanced skill approach to entrepreneurship, the intraindividual variety of these competencies was also a valid mediator; it did not show incremental predictive power though. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Customer acceptance of RFID technology: Evidence from the German electronic retail sector

Radio frequency identification (RFID) represents a novel technology that promises to deliver various benefits for customers in retail settings. However, up until now RFID technology has seldom been tested and drivers of customer acceptance remain unclear. Against this background, the present multi-method study seeks to explore customer acceptance of RFID technology at a German electronic retail corporation with regard to the technology acceptance model (TAM). Our results add to the literature as follows. First, RFID technology has predominantly been analyzed in business-to-business settings, whereas we analyzed an electronic retailing company and explored the customers’ point of view. Second, the TAM could be confirmed on the basis of a stratified random sample of 206 costumers for the present retail setting. In particular, we show that ease of use and security concerns are relevant. Third, despite the overall appropriateness of the TAM, refinements to the model seem to be needed. Therefore, we identify the overall attitude of customers toward novel technologies and data security to be of particular importance. Implications are discussed and future research options are sketched out.     

Conceptualising communications strategy from a relational perspective

Service firms are recognising the strategic importance of and the benefits associated with integrated relationship communications with customers. Based on the results of a 5-year research study, this article presents a trimodal conceptualisation of relationship communication that highlights the process of value generation in a relational context. This conceptualisation represents a strategic approach to managing communications to maximise value creation as the relationship between buyer and seller is enhanced. In this conceptualisation, communication is seen as a linking process that connects the customer and the firm in the generation of value via three modes of communication: planned communication, contact, and connectedness. The managerial relevance of the new conceptualisation is introduced through a case study of Finnair, the Finnish national airline, in which the phases of buyer-seller interaction are examined.     

Defensive Responses to Strategic Sustainability Paradoxes: Have Your Coke and Drink It Too!

We study companies that do not produce a sustainability report in contexts where institutionalisation is assumed. Based on a careful analysis of interaction patterns between non-reporting companies, sustainability interest groups, and peer organisations, we find patterns of discursive and material isomorphism that suggest sustainability reporting is confined to an issues-based field, rather than spreading as an institutionalised practice across the business community. We argue that the issues-based field exerts only weak pressure for sustainability reporting, and that encouraging more firms to report rests on understanding what influences companies to interact more widely to become part of this field.     

Young adults' online shopping addiction: The role of self-regulation and smartphone use

Online shopping addiction can be defined as an Internet-based behavioural addiction which may lead to economic problems. Even though shopping is increasingly common through mobile devices, the effects of smartphone use on online shopping addiction are underexamined. Following a survey of 1000 18 to 29-year-olds in Finland, we examined young adults' online shopping addiction and economic problems from the perspective of self-regulation and problems in regulating smartphone use. The results indicated that low self-regulation in an online environment facilitates online shopping addiction, which further leads to dissatisfaction toward personal money management through indebtedness. Moreover, we illustrated how distractive stimuli of digital environments can act as primers for addiction by showing how problems in regulating smartphone use facilitates online shopping addiction for young adults with generally low self-regulation. We conclude our article by offering guidance on how the teaching of self-regulatory strategies as well as financial and information communications technology skills may decrease the tendency for online shopping addiction.