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This issue of the Nordic Journal of Business includes two peer-reviewed articles. The first article by Mansoor Afzali and Jukka Kettunen focuses on the social networks of directors in privately-held Finnish and Swedish firms and examines whether well-connected boards influence firm performance. In the second article, Anna-Mari Simunaniemi, Martti Saarela, Matti Muhos, Santeri Halonen, Eeva Leinonen, Heli Kurikkala and Markus Rytinki investigate
short-term crisis management among solo entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

Mansoor Afzali and Jukka Kettunen – Boardroom Centrality and Firm Performance: Evidence from Private Firms

Anna-Mari Simunaniemi, Martti Saarela, Matti Muhos, Santeri Halonen, Eeva Leinonen, Heli Kurikkala and Markus Rytinki – Short-Term Crisis Management of Solo Entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The whole issue as PDF can be found here

This issue of the Nordic Journal of Business features two peer-reviewed articles. In the first article, Eva Liljeblom, Benjamin Maury and Zacharias Qvist from Hanken School of Economics examine how the legal framework and management ownership influence the bond maturities of European firms. The second article written by John Magnus Roos, Lena Hansson and Johan Hagberg from the University of Gothenburg focuses on Swedish consumers’ online shopping behavior before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

Eva Liljeblom, Benjamin Maury and Zacharias Qvist – Legal Framework, Management Ownership, and Bond Maturity

John Magnus Roos, Lena Hansson and Johan Hagberg – Online Retail Shopping before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic across Age Groups: Insights from Sweden

The whole issue as PDF can be found here

The current issue of the Nordic Journal of Business includes three peer-reviewed articles. In the first article, Börje Boers, Thomas Henschel and Maria Stellmacher focus on turnaround strategies in family firms from a socioemotional wealth perspective. The second article by Jonna Koponen, Essi Heikkilä, Sari-Johanna Karhapää, Mirjami Ikonen and Esa Hiltunen examines millennial business students’ perceptions of the competence needed by leaders in the digital age of the future. Finally, the third article by Timo Hyvönen, Lauri Lepistö and Sanni Mäki investigates the current state and usage of data analytics in financial forecasting.

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

Börje Boers, Thomas Henschel and Maria Stellmacher – Turning Around the Family and the Business? Examples of Turnaround Strategies from Germany, Scotland, and Sweden

Jonna Koponen, Essi Heikkilä, Sari-Johanna Karhapää, Mirjami Ikonen and Esa Hiltunen – “It’s Time to Focus on Humanity”: Millennial Business Students’ Perceptions of Competencies Needed by Future Leaders

Timo Hyvönen, Lauri Lepistö and Sanni Mäki – Data Analytics and Financial Forecasting: A Field Study from Finnish Enterprises

The whole issue as PDF can be found here

This issue of the Nordic Journal of Business includes three peer-reviewed articles. The first article by Saara Julkunen (University of Eastern Finland), Jonna Koponen (University of Eastern Finland), and David Nickell (University of West Georgia) examines how value is created from a customer relationship perspective when the seller employs both digital and in-person communications during the solution selling process. In the second article, John Paul Broussard (University of Oklahoma) and Mika Vaihekoski (University of Turku) investigate the price differences between the voting and limited-voting share classes in the Finnish stock market. The third article by Juha Mäki (University of Vaasa) focuses on the role of external investment property appraisers and Big-4 auditors in reducing information asymmetries in the real estate industry.

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

Research articles

Saara Julkunen, Jonna Koponen and David Nickell – Understanding Value Creation through Digital and In-Person Communication in Solution Selling Process

John Paul Broussard and Mika Vaihekoski – Time-Variation of Dual-Class Premia

Juha Mäki – External Appraisal, Auditing, and Information Asymmetries in the Real Estate Industry: European Evidence

You can read the entire issue as PDF here.

This issue of the Nordic Journal of Business includes three peer-reviewed articles and a research note.

In the first article, Antti Talonen (University of Helsinki), W. Jean Kwon (St. John’s University), Jukka Mähönen (University of Oslo) and Päivikki Kuoppakangas (Tampere University) examine how the managers of mutual insurance companies understand and communicate the influence of customer ownership when organizing operative activities. The second article by Olga Iermolenko (Nord University) discusses the role of care as an integral part of management control systems in large-scale construction projects. In the third article, Nikolas Breitkopf (Aalto University), Samuli Knüpfer (BI Norwegian Business School) and Elias Rantapuska (Aalto University) provide a descriptive analysis of the ownership patterns of stocks and mutual funds in the entire Finnish population.

In addition to the three articles, this issue includes a research note by Agnieszka Jach (Hanken School of Economics) in which a high-frequency analysis of stock market activity, liquidity, and volatility during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic is presented.

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

Sami Vähämaa
Editor
Nordic Journal of Business

The current issue of the Nordic Journal of Business includes three articles. The first article by Maria Ihamuotila, Eva Liljeblom and Benjamin Maury focuses on the role of experience for acquiring firms when conducting acquisitions of high-tech target firms. In the second article, Tuomas Honkamäki, Markus Mättö and Hannu Ojala examine how the choice between fair value and cost-based accounting models influences the quality of financial reporting. Finally. the third article by Priyanka Shrivastava, Mirjami Ikonen, Taina Savolainen and Enkh-Otgon Dorjgotov investigates the lifecycle of organizational transformations and how it influences the development and sustenance of trust within employees.

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

The whole issue as a PDF here.

This issue of the Nordic Journal of Business contains three peer-reviewed articles. In the first article, Pirkko Jaatinen, Lili-Anne Kihn and Salme Näsi from Tampere University investigate the historical development of information technology innovations in financial accounting. The second article written by Pekka Belt and Juha Tuunainen from the University of Oulu focuses on the work-related well-being of entrepreneurs. Finally, in the third article, Henrik Keinonen from Hanken School of Economics examines the relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance within the Nordic corporate governance model.

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

Pirkko Jaatinen, Lili-Anne Kihn and Salme Näsi – Historical Development of IT-Related Innovations: From Manual and Paper Bookkeeping to Automated and Digital Financial Accounting

Pekka Belt and Juha Tuunainen – The Work-Related Well-Being of Solo, Micro, and Small Business Entrepreneurs

Henrik Keinonen – Blockholders and Firm Performance within the Nordic Corporate Governance Model: Finnish Evidence

The whole issue as a PDF can be downloaded here.

The current issue of the Nordic Journal of Business includes three interesting and timely articles.

In the first article, Matti Keloharju and Antti Lehtinen from the Aalto University School of Business provide a comprehensive descriptive analysis of the ownership patterns of publicly traded Finnish firms. The second article by Saara Julkunen (University of Eastern Finland), Markus Raatikainen (University of Eastern Finland), Minna Rollins (University of West Georgia), and Mikael Pennanen (University of Eastern Finland) focuses on the European esports environment and the business ecosystem formed around competitive video gaming. Finally, in the third article, Mikael Paaso (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Vesa Pursiainen (University of St. Gallen), and Sami Torstila (Aalto University School of Business) discuss the business outlook and financing alternatives of the Finnish small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

Matti Keloharju and Antti Lehtinen – A Quarter Century of Shareholdings and Trades of Finnish Stocks

Saara Julkunen, Markus Raatikainen, Minna Rollins and Mikael Pennanen – Understanding the European Business Environment in esports: An Ecosystem Perspective

Mikael Paaso, Vesa Pursiainen and Sami Torstila – Business Outlook and Financing Alternatives of Finnish Entrepreneurs During the COVID-19 Crisis

The whole issue as a pdf can be found here.

This issue of the Nordic Journal of Business contains three peer-reviewed articles. In the first article, Pertti Laine, Päivikki Kuoppakangas and Jari Stenvall provide a new perspective on change strategy and its operational definition. The second article by Anna Romberg focuses on shareholder engagement as a risk management strategy related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) responsibilities. Finally, in the third article, Jari Huikku and Aino-Maria Pöyhiä examine the valuation model choices of sell-side analysts.

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

Happy holidays!

Sami Vähämaa
Editor
Nordic Journal of Business

Pertti Laine, Päivikki Kuoppakangas and Jari Stenvall – Change Strategy (CS): Is There Any?

Anna Romberg – Nordic Private Shareholder Engagement as an ESG Risk Management Strategy – From Agents to Stewards

Jari Huikku and Aino-Maria Pöyhiä – Sell-Side Analysts’ Valuation Model Choice: A Case Study

The whole issue as a pdf can be found here.

Guest Editors’ Letter

Special Issue on Business Education

The premise of university education is scientific research and higher education based on theory. However, educators seldom see the opportunity to combine research into their teaching development work. By studying their own work, educators could gain understanding and knowledge on how to improve their practices and create effective teaching and learning methods. Cultivating a research-based teaching development benefits not only educators´ work but also creates student-centered organization culture that supports students´ performance, learning results, engagement to studies, and even graduation. This way research and teaching can support and not fight against others.

In this special issue of the Nordic Journal of Business focused on business education, we want to bring forward selected examples of research-based teaching development. The three articles included in the special issue were first presented at the 2019 Nordic Academy of Management Conference. These articles look at the role of interaction in higher education teaching from different angles and different contexts. However, all of the articles highlight the impact of teacher´s pedagogical role and professional growth in creating successful learning environments.

In the first article, Helena Kantanen, Leena Penttinen, Päivi Rosenius, and Katri Ruth discuss the importance of students´ first-term experience by looking at the teacher-student interaction. A supportive and participative study environment showed to be significant for students´ integration and the development of their professional identities. One of the crucial actors was accessible teachers and their abilities to create interesting courses and use varied teaching methods.

The second article by Henrik Virtanen and Anu Norrgrann focuses on the importance of interaction between students. This study offers an insight into e-learning and learner´s experiences on participation by studying behavior in MOOC-course. Interaction is seen as a key characteristic to improve engagement, learning experience, and skills development. The study revealed that, despite the autonomous nature of MOOC-course, educators´ guidance and encouragement is necessary to enliven interaction. The authors also find that interaction is not important only because of improving engagement and satisfaction but it has also an effect on the development of the business skills of the students.

In the third article, Taina Eriksson, Minna-Maarit Jaskari and Päivi Kinnunen discuss an online course that has been co-taught across universities. The interest here lies in the interaction between teachers, but it offers also insights on students’ experiences of trending ways of organizing courses in collaboration. Co-teaching was found to be a chance for teachers to grow professionally and build collegial relationships and build bridges across disciplines. Despite students recognized some challenges such as overlapping content and conflicting communications, co-teaching offered online learners more timely and efficient guidance and greater satisfaction.

We wish that these three articles inspire business educators to reflect on their experience- and research-based knowledge. Moreover, the ongoing pandemic has challenged educators in an unprecedented way, but at the same time opened us several interesting research paths in the context of digitalization of teaching and learning. Hopefully, these times push us educators to take stronger steps towards creating common ground and building scholarship in business education.

Finally, we would like to thank all the anonymous reviewers that gave their input in peer review and by doing so, building the scholarship on business education.

Minna-Maarit Jaskari & Jenni Kantola
Guest Editors
Nordic Journal of Business

Research Papers

Helena Kantanen, Leena Penttinen, Päivi Rosenius and Katri Ruth – Grasp Your Field! First-Year Business Students’ Engagement with the Study Environment and Their Own Academic Field

Henrik Virtanen and Anu Norrgrann – How Can Interactivity Be Facilitated in a Massive Open Online Course? Lessons from the “Principles of Service Management” Course

Taina Eriksson, Minna-Maarit Jaskari and Päivi Kinnunen – Co-Teaching is Great! – But Only if There is Time: Teacher Perspectives on Online Co-Teaching

The whole issue as a PDF can be found here.