Search results

Increased demand for organized home help for elderly and disabled people and parallel budget cuts of social care require new efficient solutions to save home‐helpers’ time and ensure the current quality of provided services. A number of trials for renewing grocery purchasing process as a part of home help for the elderly and disabled have lately been initiated in Finland. In all but one of these trials electronic commerce (EC) services are included in the purchase process. In this article we compare these trials using the time efficiency of home‐helpers as a primary criterion. Using electronic order delivery gives even additional benefits, releasing the home‐helper from the need to visit the grocery store. The Full EC Model would be the best solution. However, it might not be feasible for most customers, who do not necessarily have the technology or ability to use it. Therefore, the intermediary based EC seems to be most suitable for this customer group.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how different strategic goals of (micro-, small- and medium-sized firms=SMEs) relate to the business model innovation (BMI) paths that SMEs take when improving their business.

The authors conducted 11 in-depth case studies involving SMEs innovating their business models (BMs).

The authors found evidence that strategic goals of SMEs (start new business, growth and profitability) lead them to alternative innovation path in terms of BM components affected. Growth seekers start from the right-hand side of a BM Canvas, while profitability seekers start from the back end, the left side of a Canvas; and new businesses adopt a cyclical approach considering BM components in turn, while at the same time redesigning and testing the BM. The findings of this study also indicate that all three paths gradually lead to improvement in several BM components.

Findings indicate that a strategic management view in which strategic goals define BMI also applies to SMEs. The distinctive BMI paths that the authors identified provide evidence to suggest that, although the SMEs may not have an explicitly formulated strategy, their strategic goals determine the type of improvements they make to their BM. All three SME groups started their improvements from different BM components and changed several elements in their BMs in a specific order, forming distinctive BMI paths. Finally, to understand the BMI in SMEs better, more research is needed into BMI processes and into the way BMI is managed in SMEs.

The findings of this study help SMEs to anticipate the next steps in their path towards an improved BM. By mirroring their approach to the BMI paths, they can better manage their BM makeover process and focus on their innovation activities. For providers of BMI tools and methods, the study indicates which SME innovation tasks could be supported by tools and how the tools should be aligned with the BMI paths.

BMI is attracting growing attention in both research and practice. However, knowledge concerning BMI in SMEs is limited. The authors contributed to BMI research by focussing on the BMI paths of SMEs, i.e. the often sequential, non-linear and iterative steps taken to improve the business by making changes to specific BM components.

The purpose of this study is to explore e-HRM in MNC setting from various stakeholder´s perspectives. The chapter aims to understand the motives behind the implementation of e-HRM in an MNC. Second, the chapter studies the impacts e-HRM has on various stakeholders and finally aims to deliver understanding of the concept of strategic e-HRM in an MNC.

The study follows a qualitative case study method and the interviewees represented three groups: top management, HR professionals, and line managers.

Main findings suggest that the implementation was motivated by issues related to standardization and overall introduction of a strategic way of working. As an impact of e-HRM implementation, the control of subsidiaries became easier; external and internal transparency and HR image improved; HR operations gained efficiency; and the possibility for “fact based decision making” enabled strategic e-HRM realization for some stakeholders, with the exception of line managers who were considerably more skeptical about issues related to strategic e-HRM.

The issues of change management and system training should be transparent. The strategic benefits could be realized for the line managers and operational HR by discussing how e-HRM impacts their work and roles and how they contribute to achieving the business targets.

The chapter highlights the need for communication in all levels of MNC, and the needs to update e-HRM regularly and taking equally into account various stakeholder’s perspectives.

We pioneer a multilevel perspective of e-HRM implementation and impact in an MNC setting and improve the understanding of taking account various stakeholder’s views when aiming for strategic e-HRM partnerships.

There has long been a prevailing view concerning North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), that the world’s most reclusive socialist state, in accordance with its “juche” (self-reliance) ideology,¹ shuns capitalism, and discourages entrepreneurship and innovation, and feigns reform to further its nuclear ambitions including the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Under its previous leaders, Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, the DPRK saw little need for and discouraged innovation in the financial sector, particularly that of Western origin. However, since coming to power in December 2011, its current leader, Kim Jong-Un, has placed a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation, in numerous sectors, including its financial system. Based on research and interviews conducted with international business and entrepreneurship experts that have trained North Koreans, and personal experience as an adjunct business faculty member in the DPRK, this research shows the recent developments including the role played by entrepreneurs in helping the DPRK achieve its goal of economic and technological transformation. The primary focus is on changes in the DPRK’s financial sector.

The purpose of this paper is to model the effect of alternative products in motivating consumers’ e-service switching behavior in the context of the social network game (SNG) industry. In particular, the effects of both alternative attractiveness and change experience on switching behavior are quantified.

With the aid of a leading e-service provider in China, 220,000 questionnaires were distributed to the players of a SNG. Valid responses from potential switching users are included in the data analysis. Structural equation modeling technique is utilized to test the research framework.

The study found that alternative attractiveness negatively affects both the perceived service quality and individual users’ satisfaction with their current SNG. Additionally, alternative attractiveness has a strong and positive impact on both switching intention and behavior. The results show that users’ satisfaction and perceptions on service quality deteriorate significantly when faced with the presence of attractive SNG alternatives. The effect is stronger for the customers used to switching.

The study is among the first to introduce cognitive dissonance theory to explain e-service switching behavior. A number of new hypotheses are proposed, tested and supported. The results of the study illustrate the use of cognitive dissonance as an alternative perspective of understanding users’ switching behavior in a real-world free-choice situation.

This chapter introduces the issue of language into the already complex nature of e-HRM system implementation in multinational corporations (MNCs). In the light of scant empirical research on language in international business in general and e-HRM in particular, this chapter reviews the research on language issues in the MNC context. The chapter then illustrates the challenges presented by language by reporting findings from a qualitative study into the effects of language standardization on e-HRM system acceptance and use in the foreign subsidiaries of a Finnish MNC.

In this paper, we contribute to the understanding of how entrepreneurs can deploy their values to enable joint action of heterogeneous stakeholders. Such an understanding forms a critical endeavor to tackle grand challenges adequately. Building on sensegiving research, we conducted a single-case study of an entrepreneurial initiative that tackles gender inequality in Lebanon which has been successful in mobilizing heterogeneous stakeholders who ordinarily would not collaborate with each other. We find that the values of the founders were pivotal for the initiative’s success as those values activated latent values of stakeholders through processes of contextualization and enactment. We subsume these processes under the label value-driven sensegiving. As a result of value-driven sensegiving, heterogeneous stakeholders could make sense of the founders’ aspirational vision and the role they could play in it, which paved ways for tackling grand challenges collaboratively. Our study provides insights into the centrality of values for mobilizing heterogeneous stakeholders across boundaries. Therefore, it contributes to the body of work on sensegiving, societal grand challenges, and new forms of organizing.