On the Use of Value Efficiency Analysis and Some Further Developments

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of Value Efficiency Analysis (VEA) in efficiency evaluation when preference information is taken into account. Value efficiency analysis is an approach, which applies the ideas developed for Multiple Objective Linear Programming (MOLP) to Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Preference information is given through the desirable structure of input- and output-values. The same values can be used for all units under evaluation or the values can be specific for each unit. A decision-maker can specify the input- and output-values subjectively without any support or (s)he can use a multiple criteria support system to assist him/her to find those values on the efficient frontier. The underlying assumption is that the most preferred values maximize the decision-maker's implicitly known value function in a production possibility set or a subset. The purpose of value efficiency analysis is to estimate a need to increase outputs and/or decrease inputs for reaching the indifference contour of the value function at the optimum. In this paper, we briefly review the main ideas in value efficiency analysis and discuss practical aspects related to the use of value efficiency analysis. We also consider some extensions.     

Phoenix rising: Legal reforms and changes in valuations in Finland during the economic crisis

Finland experienced an extremely severe economic depression in the early 1990s. As a part of the government's crisis management policies, significant new legislation was passed that increased supervisory powers of financial market regulators and reformed bankruptcy procedures significantly decreasing the protection of creditors. We show that the introduction of these new laws resulted in positive abnormal stock returns. The new laws also lead to increases in firms’ Tobin's q, especially for more levered firms. In contrast to previous studies, our results also suggest that public supervision of financial markets fosters rather than hampers financial market development.     

Experimentation in Markets

We present a model of entry and exit with Bayesian learning and price competition. A new product of initially unknown quality is introduced in the market, and purchases of the product yield information on its true quality. We assume that the performance of the new product is publicly observable. As agents learn from the experiments of others, informational externalities arise.
We determine the Markov Perfect Equilibrium prices and allocations. In a single market, the combination of the informational externalities among the buyers and the strategic pricing by the sellers results in excessive experimentation. If the new product is launched in many distinct markets, the path of sales converges to the efficient path in the limit as the number of markets grows.     

Time and Internationalisation Theoretical Challenges Set by Rapid Internationalisation

The internationalisation process of firms has accelerated during the last few decades. Firms start their export operations earlier than before, and they reach a higher level of internationalisation more quickly than ever. All this constitutes a challenge to the theoretical basis that underlies studies of the internationalisation process.The time concept has a crucial role in today's appraisal of internationalisation research. The overall developments in internationalisation, the critiques and various time theories are moving research into the process away from the western idea of time (linear time in a positive direction) towards a more primitive notion (cyclical time with no fixed direction). This also challenges the applicability of traditional stages models. This paper focuses on export-adoption models.     

Blanket guarantee,deposit insurance and restructuring decisions for multinational banks

This paper examines blanket guarantee, deposit insurance and restructuring decisions with respect to a multinational bank (MNB) using Nash bargaining when the threat of a bank panic motivates countries to make decisions quickly. Failure of the bank would unevenly distribute externalities across countries, influencing the restructuring incentives. In equilibrium, the bank is either liquidated or one of the countries – or both – recapitalizes it. A partition of the recapitalization costs is sensitive to the country-specific benefits and costs from recapitalization, panic and liquidation. The home regulator benefits from the advantage that it is the only entity that can legally liquidate the MNB. Rational expectations regarding the bargaining result affect the incentives to declare a blanket guarantee.     

Construction of owner–manager identity in corporate social responsibility discourse

This article examines the different discursive resources on which small business owner–managers draw when understanding their sense of self in relation to corporate social responsibility. In the small business context, identity provides a justifiable framework to study corporate social responsibility, as decisions regarding socially responsible activities are mainly taken by managers and stem from their sense of who they are in the world. On the basis of 25 thematic interviews with owner–managers, two broad discursive resources were found that describe how they actively seek to create and legitimise their sense of self within the discussion on corporate social responsibility. These discursive resources are called being altruistic and being instrumental. The findings emphasise that the essential and also the most challenging feature in small business owner–managers' identity work is the process of reconciling economic values with the social and ethical aspects of business life.     

Professional vs financial capital in the field of health care—struggles for the redistribution of power and control

The field of health care, like all fields of social life, is a site of continuous games for power and control. This paper applies the conceptual tools of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu—in particular the notions of field and capital—to analyse the diverse roles, and partially divergent objectives of the various institutions and individuals involved in the functions of financing, production, and consumption of health services. Participants in these struggles are seen to have different chances of winning or losing, depending on their relative power, which is determined by the distribution of differently valued capitals in this specific field. The expectations associated with the transition to market based control mechanisms in the field of Finnish health care, and the experiences of those directly involved in this transition are analysed. The nature and implications of the process of transition from a planning allocation system to a competition based resource allocation system are studied on the basis of extensive interviews and observations conducted in one university hospital and two central hospitals in Finland.     

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.