By

The current issue of the Nordic Journal of Business features two peer-reviewed articles. In the first article, Juha P. Kinnunen, Anu Puusa and Heli Hallikainen focus on the concept of individual resilience in organizations by conducting a conceptual analysis of articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The second article by Pirkko Jaatinen and Salme Näsi addresses the diffusion of information technology innovations in financial accounting by examining the main arguments and rhetorical strategies used to promote these innovations in professional accounting journals.

I hope you enjoy reading the interesting articles included in this issue of the Nordic Journal of Business.

Sami Vähämaa

Editor

Nordic Journal of Business

Juha P. Kinnunen, Anu Puusa and Heli Hallikainen – Individual Resilience in Organizations in the Business Context: A Conceptual and a Bibliometric Analysis

Pirkko Jaatinen and Salme Näsi – On the Use of Arguments and Perspectives in Diffusing IT-Related Innovations in Financial Accounting: An Analysis of Articles in Professional Accounting Journals

Click here to access the entire issue as a pdf.

This issue of the Nordic Journal of Business includes two peer-reviewed articles. The first article by Reeta Jutila, Asif Ruman and Petri Sahlström focuses on sustainable investing practices among Finnish asset managers. In the second article, Kari Tuovinen reconstructs the purchasing history of Professor Pentti Kouri’s contemporary art collection and investigates the use of these artworks as loan collateral.

I hope you enjoy reading the interesting contributions featured in this issue of the Nordic Journal of Business.

Sami Vähämaa

Editor

Nordic Journal of Business

Reeta Jutila, Asif Ruman and Petri Sahlström – The State of Sustainable Investing Among Asset Managers in Finland: A Survey-Based Study

Kari Tuovinen – Professor Kouri’s Art Collection: Purchasing Process, Collecting Mode, and Use of Artworks as Loan Collateral

Click here to access the entire issue as a pdf.

The current issue of the Nordic Journal of Business features two peer-reviewed articles. In the first article, Anu Puusa, Pasi Tuominen, Timo Tammi and Terhi Tuominen focus on the effect of trust and satisfaction on customers’ commitment towards their co-operative membership in the Finnish retail sector. The second article by Hanna Silvola, Jan Mouritsen and Jari Huikku investigates how financial analysts use goodwill information in firm valuation.

I hope you enjoy reading the interesting articles included in this issue of the Nordic Journal of Business.

Sami Vähämaa

Editor

Nordic Journal of Business

Anu Puusa, Pasi Tuominen, Timo Tammi and Terhi Tuominen – The Effect of Trust and Satisfaction on Customers’ Commitment towards Their Co-operative Membership in the Finnish Retail Sector

Hanna Silvola, Jan Mouritsen and Jari Huikku – The Usefulness of Goodwill Information to Financial Analysts: A Qualitative Approach

The entire issue as PDF can be found here.

Guest Editors’ Letter

Building for the Future: Advancing Nordic Business Education

Finnish universities are committed to research-based education, and business education is no exception. Traditionally, this has been interpreted that the content of what we teach—be it for example finance, accounting, management, human resources, or marketing—should be derived from current research in the respective fields. In other words, the substance of education is expected to reflect the advancements and discoveries made through scholarly inquiry.

While incorporating research findings into the curriculum is essential, it is also critical to examine whether the pedagogy used in teaching is also based on research. The reasoning behind this is that good teaching is about more than just transmitting knowledge. It is about enabling the students to understand, apply, and create through trial and error processes. It is about constructing a positive and safe space that fosters deep learning and transformation. Research in higher business education plays a vital role in addressing this. By grounding teaching practices in research, business educators can ensure that the learning environment is supportive in fostering critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and a deep understanding of the content matter.

We had the privilege of facilitating a track titled “The Future of Nordic Business Education” at the 2022 Nordic Academy of Management Conference in Örebro, Sweden. The track featured a diverse group of business educators and researchers presenting their research on business education. We are pleased to showcase three of these studies in this special issue of the Nordic Journal of Business. Each paper presents a unique viewpoint and contributes to the evolving discourse on fostering business education.

In the first article, Helena Kantanen, Leena Penttinen, Päivi Rosenius, and Katri Ruth examine the “first-year experience” of business students during the COVID-19 pandemic. While prior research has demonstrated the pivotal role of the first year in integrating students into the academic community, the context of the pandemic offers a unique lens to understand this engagement or the lack thereof. The authors recommend that business educators place greater emphasis on the first-year experience. This can be achieved by fostering a genuine sense of community and belonging, nurturing trusting relationships with teachers and staff, bolstering students’ self-direction and academic study skills, providing flexible study modes, and leveraging students’ advanced digital skills.

The pandemic also inspired the second article, in which Mona Enell-Nilsson, Minna-Maarit Jaskari, and Päivi Borisov examine competence development from a student’s perspective. Using a user innovation course as their context, they compare how the transition from a predominantly face-to-face and blended learning mode to a fully online mode influenced students’ perceptions of their competence development. The longitudinal data spans five years, encompassing both quantitative and qualitative student data – three years prior to the pandemic and two years during it. The authors discuss how three underlying factors – roots and premises, freedom and independence, and social connectedness and support – appear to shape perceptions of competence development more than the teaching mode itself.

The third article shifts its focus from early business studies to the later phase of career-readiness. Sari-Johanna Karhapää and Mirjami Ikonen delve into the mentoring process, specifically examining trust in the mentoring relationship from the mentor’s perspective. While trust has been recognized as a pivotal element in a successful mentoring process, its evolution is not thoroughly understood. In their study, the authors employ qualitative interviews and a narrative approach to comprehend how trust evolves throughout the different phases of the mentoring process. Their findings highlight that a mentor’s competence of listening and hearing, combined with socioemotional communication skills with benevolence, and actions that demonstrate integrity, are vital in fostering trust. The authors underscore the significance of mentoring programs in enhancing business students’ career-readiness.

Although all three articles differ from one another, they all emphasize the significance of communication, social interaction, and guidance in student learning, well-being, and career-readiness. These articles undoubtedly provide food for thought, especially in the current context of business education development. In this environment, there is a push to shorten the duration of studies, increase the annual number of study achievements, transition courses online, and scale them for larger student populations.

We hope you find these articles both engaging and thought-provoking.

 

Minna-Maarit Jaskari and Jenni Kantola

Guest Editors

Nordic Journal of Business

 

Research Papers

Helena Kantanen, Leena Penttinen, Päivi Rosenius and Katri Ruth – Where is My Community? First-Year Experience of Business Students during the Pandemic

Mona Enell-Nilsson, Minna-Maarit Jaskari and Päivi Borisov – Students’ Perception of the Development of Generic Competencies in a User Innovation Course Context – A Longitudinal Study Comparing Different Teaching Modes in Higher Education

Sari-Johanna Karhapää and Mirjami Ikonen – Trust during the Mentoring Process from the Mentor’s Perspective

The entire issue as a PDF can be found here.

This issue of the Nordic Journal of Business includes two peer-reviewed articles. In the first article, Henri Teittinen and Valtteri Bovellan investigate analytical capabilities in the adoption of business intelligence and analytics. The second article by Mika Vaihekoski and Habeeb Yahya examines whether firms’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance is associated with financial performance in the Nordic countries.

I hope you enjoy reading the interesting contributions featured in this issue of the Nordic Journal of Business.

Sami Vähämaa
Editor
Nordic Journal of Business

Henri Teittinen and Valtteri Bovellan – Challenges in the Adoption of Business Intelligence and Analytics: A Case Study from the Perspective of Analytical Capabilities

Mika Vaihekoski and Habeeb Yahya – ESG and Firm Performance: Evidence from the Nordic Countries

The entire issue as PDF can be found here.

In this issue, Jaakko Aspara and Kari Hoppu from the Aalto University School of Business discuss the evaluation of predatory pricing practices from the view point of the company’s market and economic realities. The issue also contains four short discussions and a review of Uolevi Lehtinen’s book about the recent financial crisis which is a compilation of research articles and discussion papers published in the Finnish Journal of Business Economics between 2009 and 2013.

Elina Berghäll VATT:sta selvittää Suomen talouden rakennemuutosta sekä mahdollista siirtymää kohti innovaatiotaloutta. Toisessa artikkelissa Sanna-Mari Renfors Satakunnan ammattikorkeakoulusta tarkastelee myyjän toimintaan pohjautuvaa suoritusarviointia ostajan näkökulmasta. Kolmannessa artikkelissa Lauri Lepistö Tampereen yliopistosta tutkii toiminnanohjausjärjestelmien käyttöönottoa ja hyödyllisyyttä keskisuurissa yrityksissä.

• Sami Vähämaa
  Editorial – Päätoimittajalta
  Paper (PDF)   [23 KB]

• Elina Berghäll
  Has Finland advanced from an investment to an innovation-driven stage?
  Summary (PDF)   [33 KB] , Paper (PDF)   [1020 KB]
• Sanna-Mari Renfors
  Myyjän toimintaan pohjautuvat suoritusarviointikriteerit kuluttajaostajan määrittäminä
  Summary (PDF)   [30 KB] , Paper (PDF)   [184 KB]
• Lauri Lepistö
  Label in Context: On the Enterprise Resource Planning System in a Medium-sized Enterprise
  Summary (PDF)   [29 KB] , Paper (PDF)   [286 KB]

• Tero Vuorinen
  Strategiatyö ja strategian työkalut
  Paper (PDF)   [631 KB]
• Kalle Pajunen
  Strategisen johtamisen muuttuvat kontekstit
  Paper (PDF)   [548 KB]

Tuomas Möttönen tarkastelee yritysten omistajuuden ja johtajuuden eriytymistä ja ammattijohtajuuteen siirtymistä suomalaisissa suuryrityksissä. Toisessa artikkelissa Kalle A. Piirainen ja Rafael A. Gonzalez vertailevat tietojärjestelmätieteiden design science -lähestymistapaa ja liiketaloustieteiden konstruktiivista tutkimusotetta. Keskusteluosiossa mm. Uolevi Lehtisen kirjoitus “Taantumasta kasvuun”, joka samalla päättää Liiketaloudellisessa Aikakauskirjassa käydyn keskustelun taantuman syistä ja seurauksista.

• Sami Vähämaa
  Editorial – Päätoimittajalta
  Paper (PDF)   [22 KB]

• Tuomas Möttönen
  Yritysjohtajakapitalismiin siirtyminen Suomessa; ammattijohtajuuden kasvu suomalaisissa suuryrityksissä
  Summary (PDF)   [29 KB] , Paper (PDF)   [168 KB]
• Kalle A. Piirainen & Rafael A. Gonzalez
  Constructive Synergy in Design Science Research: A Comparative Analysis of Design Science Research and the Constructive Research Approach
  Summary (PDF)   [28 KB] , Paper (PDF)   [736 KB]

• Pasi Heikkurinen
  Awareness and sustainability in business organisations: Leaving economic instrumentalism and stakeholder thinking behind
  Paper (PDF)   [73 KB]
• Stefan Sundgren
  Is fair value accounting really fair? A discussion of pros and cons with fair value measurement
  Paper (PDF)   [117 KB]
• Uolevi Lehtinen
  Taantumasta kasvuun
  Paper (PDF)   [175 KB]