[diss] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ

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    How environmental irresponsibility is maintained in Russian multinational enterprises through their interactions with the national and global institutional contexts
    (Aalto University, 2024) Villo, Sofia; Granqvist, Nina, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland; Johtamisen laitos; Department of Management Studies; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Halme, Minna, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland
    Despite the increasing calls for businesses to behave responsibly, corporate irresponsibility, i.e., firms' actions that cause harm to humans or nature, still recurs in different parts of the world. Part of the reason why corporate irresponsibility continues to take place is the inability of business and society studies to produce critical knowledge on the mechanisms that give rise to and maintain corporate irresponsibility – the basis for understanding whether and how corporate irresponsibility could be prevented. One of the key factors limiting the impact of business and society studies is the over-reliance of business and society scholars on the economic view of the firm. In doing so, business and society scholars have tended to consider the sources of corporate bad acts to be located almost exclusively inside the firm. As a result, the insights of business and society scholars on how corporate irresponsibility can be prevented stemmed from analytical frameworks that do not account for the systemic origins of corporate bad acts. Recently, however, calls for a contextual turn in studies of corporate irresponsibility have arisen. Scholars have been pointing out the need to acknowledge the systemic nature of corporate irresponsibility and examine harmful corporate practices within broader institutional contexts in which firms are embedded. Therefore, aiming to advance an evolving understanding of corporate irresponsibility being more than a product of corporate greed, this dissertation addresses the following overall research question: How is corporate irresponsibility maintained in Russian MNEs through their interactions with the Russian national and global institutional contexts? Empirically, this dissertation examines the environmental irresponsibility of three Russian MNEs. The dataset for this study includes interviews, observations and archival materials. The findings demonstrate corporate bad acts as perpetuated through constellations of multiple actors and valuation logics of both national and international levels.
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    Essays in Economics of Education and Migration
    (Aalto University, 2024) Kalmbach, Aino; Terviö, Marko, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Economics, Finland; Huttunen, Kristiina, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Economics, Finland; Taloustieteen laitos; Department of Economics; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Sarvimäki, Matti, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Economics, Finland
    In the first essay, I analyse the effects of changing a student admission system such that it prioritizes admission to more-preferred schools. A reform in 2004 changed the algorithm used to match applicants to secondary schools in Finland so that applicants were granted priority points for tracks they ranked first or second. I estimate empirically the effect of this reform and use simulations to corroborate my findings. I find that the reform increased the number of applicants who were admitted to the school they ranked highest on their application. This did not, however, decrease dropout rates. The findings suggest that admission mechanisms aiming to mechanically increase the likelihood to be matched with a higher-ranked program may make applying more difficult without having positive effects on educational outcomes. In the second essay, we examine the impact of exposure to immigrants during childhood on natives' marriage behaviour when they are adults. We use extremely high-resolution spatial data on where everyone in Finland born between 1977 and 1999 grew up to calculate the share of immigrants among each individual's immediate neighbourhood, and then use naturally exogenous acrosscohort within-location variation in immigrant shares to examine the impact of childhood exposure. We show that greater immigrant contact as a child significantly increases the probability that a native will marry an immigrant as an adult. Further results suggest that changes in attitudes or preferences are likely to drive at least part of this result. The third essay analyses the challenge of recruiting and retaining high-quality professionals in the public sector. In the essay, I examine this question by analysing careers of early childhood education (ECE) teachers in Finland. Leveraging comprehensive administrative data from 2007 to 2020, I analyse teacher shortages, regional disparities, career trajectories, and compensation trends. I find persistent shortages of qualified ECE teachers, with significant proportions pursuing alternative public sector roles despite similar compensation. In contrast to previous literature on the quality of public sector services, I find no evidence that ECE teacher quality is affected by changes in the business cycle. The results suggest that factors affecting shortages are not limited to wage gaps between relevant outside options or the availability of alternative employment.
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    Essays on the Implications of an Employee-empowering Agile Management Approach on Management Control Elements
    (Aalto University, 2024) Niemelä, Antti; van der Kolk, Berend, Assoc. Prof., Vrije Universiteit, School of Business and Economics, Netherlands; Derichs, David, Senior University Lecturer, Aalto University, School of Business, Department of Accounting, Finland; Laskentatoimen laitos; Department of Accounting; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Malmi,Teemu, Prof., Aalto University, School of Business, Department of Accounting, Finland
    Organizations must adapt to constant change to ensure viability. Evolving technology, the need for innovation, changing customer behavior, and unexpected events intensify the demand for responsiveness. To improve their responsiveness to changing circumstances, organizations are adopting new management approaches and practices that influence various management control (MC) elements. One such approach that has entered the mainstream of business management is the agile method. For instance, the adoption of agile methods calls for self-managing teams, a flatter hierarchy, and the delegation of decision-making authority. While agile methods suggest greater organizational agility and one of their key features is employee empowerment, they differ significantly from more hierarchical management methods and their MC configurations. Therefore, the adoption of agile methods has implications for MC elements, such as organizational structures, routines, performance measures, incentives, and value systems. Although agile philosophy and methods are attracting interest in business world and among researchers in various fields, accounting research has so far overlooked this management phenomenon. The three essays of this dissertation address following questions: How MC elements are designed and used to promote responsiveness within an employee-empowering agile context, how non-management employees deal with tensions arising from combinations of MC elements, and how different MC systems affect employees' work motivation.
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    Supporting decision making in complex multiobjective problems : Practical tools and experiences from the healthcare context
    (Aalto University, 2024) Neuvonen, Lauri; Liesiö, Juuso, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Information and Service Management, Finland; Tieto ja palvelujohtamisen laitos; Department of Information and Service Management; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Vilkkumaa, Eeva, Assist. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Information and Service Management, Finland
    In many countries, healthcare organizations face increasing pressure for providing more services while at the same time suffering from lack of resources, both problems exacerbated by aging populations. This development highlights the importance of resource efficiency. At the same time healthcare decisions often have to take into account multiple, potentially conflicting objectives and complex dynamics. These overlapping requirements make them an interesting application area for multiobjective optimization tools. Recent developments in both computing power and algorithms have made such tools viable in supporting decision making related to healthcare problems of practical scope. This Dissertation develops multiobjective optimization approaches and explores their use in three practical healthcare decision making problems: i) mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic, ii) improving the efficiency of the Finnish colorectal cancer screening program, and iii) designing a hospital network for carrying out hip and knee replacement surgeries. These approaches help accommodate robustness considerations as well as hidden or partial information about the decision-maker's preferences. The overall focus in the approaches is on modeling the problem setting in high enough accuracy for the solutions to provide practical insights, while at the same time being able to leverage multiobjective optimization techniques in finding the most promising solutions. The contributions of this Dissertation are two-fold: First, it presents multiobjective optimization approaches, supported by other analytical techniques, that can be used to develop decision recommendations for real-life, complex healthcare decision making problems. These approaches help generate insights that would have been difficult to obtain without the use of model-based tools. A second, more general contribution of the Dissertation is the demonstration of the usability, challenges, and benefits of multiobjective optimization in supporting decision making in problems of realistic scope in the field of healthcare.
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    The Changing Regulatory Landscape : Implications for Corporate Disclosure, Financial Discipline, and Auditor Reporting
    (Aalto University, 2024) Pham, Ly; Huikku, Jari, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Accounting, Finland; Myllymäki, Emma-Riikka, Prof., Audencia Business School, France; Sihvonen, Jukka, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Accounting, Finland; Laskentatoimen laitos; Department of Accounting; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Niemi, Lasse, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Accounting, Finland
    The dissertation consists of three essays that delve into the effects of regulatory changes in three different contexts. The first essay uses the Australian setting, where two governmental bodies implemented regulations pertaining to the disclosure of the financial impact of climate risks in financial reports. The essay investigates the relationship between auditor expertise and the quality of climate risk disclosures, revealing that companies audited by auditors possessing relevant expertise are more likely to provide higher-quality climate risk disclosures. The second essay explores the impact of a regulatory change aimed at enhancing the financial performance of European football clubs and addressing the soft budget constraint problem within the industry. The findings indicate that, following the issuance of the regulation in 2009, football club profitability improved, but losses persisted. Moreover, the owners continued to inject equity, and the financial position of football clubs remained weak. Consequently, while the regulation led to some financial performance enhancement, it did not completely resolve the soft budget constraint problem. The third essay examines the consequences of a new regulation extending audit reports to include the disclosure of critical audit matters (CAMs). Specifically, the focus is on whether this regulation has influenced the value relevance of intangible assets. The results reveal that intangible assets are more value-relevant in firms where auditors have disclosed CAMs related to intangible assets. In summary, the three essays collectively suggest that the effectiveness of regulatory changes is contingent on various factors. Furthermore, successful implementation of cross-national regulations requires careful consideration of differences in enforcement mechanisms across jurisdictions.
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    Unearthing Different Bodies Through Experiential Consumption
    (Aalto University, 2023) Padhaiskaya, Tatsiana; Bhatnagar, Kushagra, Prof., Aalto University, School of Business, Dept. Marketing, Finland; Markkinoinnin laitos; Department of Marketing; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Weijo, Henri, Prof., Aalto University, School of Business, Dept. Marketing, Finland
    Consumers are becoming increasingly detached from their physical bodies. The accelerated pace of life, the prevalence of a sedentary lifestyle among contemporary knowledge workers, and the prioritization of visual appearance over internal sensations are the major drivers of such detachment. Past consumer research has extensively documented how consumers problematize, control, and enhance the appearance of their bodies. However, recent studies have also emphasized consumers' increasing desire for body re-discovery. This dissertation provides a more in-depth understanding of body-related matters in consumption and sheds light on how marketplace experiences help consumers discover various aspects of their bodies. This dissertation consists of three interrelated essays. The first essay builds on the ethnographic inquiry into ultra-running and showcases how consumers develop enhanced body awareness through using various marketplace resources. Such enhanced consumer body awareness challenges previously stable relationships with brands and preferences for marketplace resources. The second essay builds on the phenomenological inquiry into the lived experience of cold-water swimmers and illuminates the experiential elements of accelerated consumer deceleration. Moreover, it highlights the role of embodied intensity in consumption experiences. The third essay also builds on the ethnographic inquiry into ultra-running and showcases how service providers help consumers discover the entactogenic and empathogenic aspects of their bodies through the orchestration of slow servicescapes. Together, the findings of the three essays provide several theoretical contributions to the literature on consumer embodiment, body rediscovery, and orchestration of consumption experiences.
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    Strategiatyö ja digiherätys - Strategisen muutoksen diskursiivinen rakentuminen
    (Aalto University, 2023) Kevätsalo, Jukka-Pekka; Tienari, Janne, Prof., Hanken Svenska handelshögskolan, Suomi; Vaara, Eero, Prof., University of Oxford, Iso-Britannia; Johtamisen laitos; Department of Management Studies; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Schildt, Henri, Prof., Aalto-yliopisto, Johtamisen laitos, Suomi
    In this study, I examine the discursive formation of strategic change in the wake of hegemonic discourse on digitalization. Research on strategy-as-practice has focused on who engages in strategy work, how they do it, and why. Discursive strategy studies have in turn further turned attention into linguistic phenomena, i.e., how language is used to create, repeat, and reinforce social norms, identities, power relations, and changes in strategy work. However, hegemonic discourses have received less attention in these research streams. To add, studies in these streams tend to examine change that has already occurred as opposed to shedding light on the emergence of strategic change. My research contributes to the literature on strategy as discourse with a qualitative case study on strategy work of a large Finnish financial organization in the mid-2010s. The primary data consists of interviews, media articles, and over a thousand pages of strategy documents. As secondary data, I use video materials and articles about digitalization talk in financial industry. With this research, I answer to the question of how the discourse on digitalization creates strategic change in an organization's strategy work. Based on my findings, I argue that the discourse on digitalization constructs strategic change through hegemonic local interpretations in strategy practices. The discourse on digitalization received four local interpretations: an external threat, customer power, customer-oriented development, and the need to diversify. Using these digitalization interpretations, strategic changes were constructed through three modes of operation, awakening, anchoring, and operationalization. These modes of operation constructed and legitimized strategic changes both in strategy work practices and in the strategy document. Based on my research, the modes of operation appear as a polyphonic and shared social process, where actors at different levels of the organization from top management to middle management and experts create and use digitalization interpretations together. The modes of operation affected both the nature of activity and the participation of actors in strategy practices, creating and enabling strategic changes. The modes of operation also served as linguistic means to justify changes in the strategy document. At the same time, digitalization as a large, hegemonic, ambiguous discourse that had gained a legitimate position in the organization seemed to provide an opportunity to divert the attention of strategic decision-makers away from organizationally challenging topics. Through these findings, my research broadens our understanding of how hegemonic discourses function within strategy work and in emerging strategic changes.
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    Twittering about Digital Human Resource Management:Digital field development in the context of social media
    (Aalto University, 2023) Platanou, Kalliopi; Vuorenmaa, Hertta, University Lecturer, Aalto University School of Business, Department of Management, Finland; Johtamisen laitos; Department of Management Studies; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Mäkelä, Kristiina, Provost, Aalto University School of Business, Department of Management, Finland
    Social media have revolutionized communication for individuals and organizations, redefining the spatial-temporal framework of interactions and amplifying diverse voices. However, their impact on institutional fields, i.e., communities of actors who interact frequently and share a common meaning system, has received little attention. To address this, I propose the term "digital field" to describe institutional fields that emerge within social-media contexts. To enhance understanding of digital fields, I study the development of a digital field centered around the issue of digital Human Resource Management (digital HRM) on Twitter. Digital HRM involves the use of digital technologies to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and strategic orientation of HRM, offering a rich context for investigating digital fields. This dissertation comprises three essays. Essay 1 underscores the significance of incorporating online data alongside traditional qualitative and quantitative data for the study of HRM phenomena. It also introduces analytical methods like network-text analysis. The empirical part of the dissertation leverages social-media interactions and discourse among 473 individual and organizational actors within the identified digital HRM field on Twitter, generating 818,302 tweets and retweets, and 93,626 dyadic relationships based on their retweets. Essay 2 examines the relational structure of the digital HRM field through retweet interactions that facilitate the flow of information, identifying four roles played by key actors: information leader, information disseminator, information broker, and information influencer. It also reveals the fluid and permeable nature of digital fields, with leading actors often coming from outside the boundaries of the field and assuming multiple roles. Essay 3 delves into the social-media discourse of these actors, identifying three discursive practices: i) raising awareness of digital HRM, ii) advocating digital technologies, and iii) practicing digital HRM using Twitter as a tool. It also reveals that field actors use various discursive practices simultaneously to try to create favorable meanings aligned with their interests. This dissertation makes several contributions. First, it offers a fresh approach to studying HRM phenomena using social-media data and methods that combine computational and qualitative traditions. Second, it sheds light on the relational structure and discursive practices that define the digital HRM field on Twitter, emphasizing its fluidity, permeability, and emergence of novel central actors. Third, it advances HRM research by identifying a broader set of actors and practices shaping the development of digital HRM through relational and discursive means.
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    Business for Peace: A New Paradigm for Making a Collective Living - What is Business? What is Peace? How Can, and Why Should, Business Foster Peace? A Conceptual Treatise on How the Expanded Concept of Peace Paves the Way to a New Paradigm for the 21st Century.
    (Aalto University, 2023) Bauer, Tilman; Takala, Tuija, Doc., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland; Johtamisen laitos; Department of Management Studies; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Häyry, Matti, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland
    This research is a philosophical treatise on the role of business as a force for peace. The topic falls within the field of business and society, the normative intention being to make business a force for good. This requires delving deep into the question of what the purpose of business is, as profit maximization, the traditional answer, is likely the cause of global problems that we face. Alternative answers have provided only weak and conceptually empty answers. The terms "positive impact", "sustainability", and "responsibility" are widely used as attempts to mitigate the negative impacts of business, but their adequacy in offering substantial solutions related to the complexities of the business-society relationship is questioned. While these terms acknowledge the need to contribute to societal wellbeing and environmental preservation, they ultimately fall short in capturing the broader scope and depth of the challenges we face. With an elaborate set of arguments deduced from peace research, we may state that peace can be seen as the substance of any positive impact. Therefore, if we want business to create a positive impact, we should study how business can foster peace. This research advocates for a paradigm shift toward a more holistic understanding of business that places peace at its core through the following research questions: 1) What is business? 2) What is peace? 3) How are the concepts of business and peace connected? 4) What are the main criteria for a new paradigm for business, if we accept that the purpose of business is to foster peace? 5) How can business foster peace? The study has shown that "business" and "purpose" are intrinsically connected. The key question comes down to the following: What is the purpose of business, and what does "creating positive impact" actually mean? The findings indicate that peace can be divided into three levels: weak, strong, and holistic peace. These levels can be construed as the substance of lower or higher levels of positive impact and as a "ladder of morality", where attention is shifted away from merely not being unethical to being more ethical. In view of the historical and contemporary nexus of business and peace, I argue that the idea that business is about maximizing profits is a misunderstanding, as historically the idea of business fostering peace was accepted. By addressing the contemporary role of business in fostering peace on the micro-level, i.e., from the perspective of individual companies and their multidimensional potential to contribute to peace, this study provides a framework for business to contribute meaningfully to the betterment of society, including nature, and promote a more sustainable and peaceful future. In doing so, the main hypothesis of the study, that peace is the purpose of business, is confirmed. Therefore, Business for Peace is proposed as a new paradigm within management theory. As for practical implications for management, a Business Peace Index is devised to answer the question of how business can foster peace.
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    Essays in the Economics of Education
    (Aalto University, 2023) Tervonen, Lassi; Pekkarinen, Tuomas, Prof., Aalto University, Finland; Huttunen, Kristiina, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Finland; Taloustieteen laitos; Department of Economics; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Sarvimäki, Matti, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Economics, Finland
    Student selection procedures are a major factor in determining who is able to enter universities. In Finland, one of the main selection mechanisms is selection based on success in program-specific entrance exams. As a result of this selection procedure, the vast majority of applicants are rejected, and over 70% of marginally rejected applicants reapply a year after the rejection. The first essay of this dissertation studies the disparate effects of failure in these entrance exams on individuals who come from different socioeconomic backgrounds. The results show that marginally rejected high-SES applicants are more likely to enroll in university in the forthcoming years than their low-SES counterparts. This effect is mostly driven by higher success rate of high-SES reapplicants rather than differences in reapplication rates. Additionally, I show that low-SES applicants respond to failure by enrolling in vocational universities more often than high-SES applicants, thus contributing to segregation in higher education. The second essay studies the effects of university major switching on dropout probability. I follow individuals who are already studying in a university, but reapply through the same system as other applicants. As a result, I achieve quasi-random variation in major switching, as some individuals are successful when attempting a switch while others are not. By using regression discontinuity design, I find that a successful switch decreases the probability of dropping out. Also, switching seems to increase graduation rates after a few years. Moreover, the results suggest that the effects are driven by an increase in student-major match quality. The third essay analyzes the effects of selective schools on students' educational and labor market outcomes. We utilize regression discontinuity design based on the centralized admission system of upper secondary schools in Finland to obtain quasi-random variation for selective high school offers and attendance. By using nationwide administrative data, we first show that the selective schools do not improve high school exit exam scores, even though there is a large jump in peer quality for students attending selective schools. Despite lacking short-term impacts, we find that selective schools increase university enrollment and graduation in the long run. Yet, we do not observe positive effects on income. Importantly, our results suggest that selective high schools or better peer groups do not improve students' human capital or skills, but affect their preferences on educational choices after the secondary school.
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    Beyond Formal Risk Management: Sensemaking in Riskwork
    (Aalto University, 2023) Taussi, Thomas; Huikku, Jari, Prof., Aalto University, Finland; Sinha, Vikash Kumar, ASST. Prof., Aalto University, Finland; Laskentatoimen laitos; Department of Accounting; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Vaivio, Juhani, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Accounting, Finland
    This dissertation seeks to improve our understanding of riskwork in organizations by extending the focus from implementational risk management towards more "improvisational" practices. Theoretically, the study employs the sensemaking and sensegiving perspectives which focus on the micro-level processes of constructing shared understanding and joint action. This work consists of an introduction and three essays. They analyze the fine-grained mechanisms and the heterogeneous factors influencing the understanding of risks and riskwork in practice. All three essays are empirical studies, with the first two being single case studies in a financial conglomerate, and the third essay being a field study. More specifically, the research agenda seeks to contribute to recent emerging streams of literature in accounting and riskwork. The first essay is positioned within the stream of "the communicative turn in riskwork studies". It investigates how the organizational enterprise risk management implementation becomes complemented by "improvisational" riskwork carried out among other organizational functions, beyond the risk function. The second essay is positioned within "the emotional turn in accounting" and riskwork. It seeks to shed light on the complex interrelations between riskwork and (client) emotionality in the context of wealth management. It illuminates how wealth managers sought to make and give sense of the client's emotionality along the client relationship – to manage risks for the client as well as the wealth management company. The third essay aligns with "the narrative turn in accounting", by analyzing the role of narratives when diverse actors construct the opportunities and risks associated with a novel accounting technology of distributed ledgers, such as blockchain. The study shows how narratives can give credibility to particular opportunity-risk approaches while marginalizing alternative perspectives.
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    Essays Evaluating the Impact of Government Support on Exports
    (Aalto University, 2023) Tinits, Priit; Fey, Carl F., Prof., BI Norwegian Business School, Norway; Delios, Andrew, Prof., Business School, Singapore; Johtamisen laitos; Department of Management Studies; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Fey, Carl F., Prof., Norwegian Business School, Norway; Saittakari, Iiris, Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland
    In this thesis, I report a set of three studies designed to enhance our understanding of the impacts of government assistance on export. In two essays I employ empirical methods, which are the standard practice of government export support efficiency studies but with modifications regarding the theoretical models. These are followed by a conceptual essay that poses and discusses some research questions that are useful to ask in designing export support and in planning the evaluation studies. In the first essay, longitudinal population data of Estonian SMEs enabled me to compare and contrast the impacts of three government support instruments: support to attend a trade fair, to develop an export plan; and participation in a ministerial visit abroad. I describe how the interpretation of impacts differs in various dimensions of time – chronological "clock" time, "stopwatch" reference time, time sequence, and effect length time. By employing separate statistical tests to correspond to the use of multiple instruments, I also propose an optimal sequencing of the support. In the second essay, the dataset of innovative Chinese exporters allowed me to connect their innovation data with government R&D and export figures and survey data on motivational aspects within the firms. Borrowing from evolutionary economics, I establish a theoretical model of two rounds of "variation" and selection" that explains the stepwise impact to exports and the reasons for failures in each stage. In the third essay, I extend the discussion on time aspects from the first essay and the evolutionary dynamics from the second essay, and include a fundamental question from development economics - How to best target the aid? In particular I raise the question - What are the implications of allocating support to a greater or fewer number of firms and what are the tradeoffs? By combining empirical studies with conceptual discussions and including insights from other fields to a fairly traditionally empirical field of export support studies, I uncover some rarely acknowledged and discussed aspects of it. I also demonstrate that it is insufficient to merely discuss whether the government export support had a positive impact or not. Instead studies of export support need to adapt to a wider array of research questions. Further, the insights gained from a richer set of studies can then be used in designing better targeted and more impactful export support programs.
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    Empowerment and Emancipation in Entrepreneurship: - Towards a 'Change - Creator' Perspective
    (Aalto University, 2023) Haataja, Vera; Johtamisen laitos; Department of Management Studies; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Kibler, Ewald, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland
    Entrepreneurship has been argued to play a significant role in driving change and profoundly impacts society. It is widely recognised as a catalyst for human development as well as fostering empowerment and emancipation, particularly among marginalised and oppressed individuals. The research stream examining entrepreneurship's transformative potential expresses ambitious goals that go beyond wealth creation, thereby generating important contributions to entrepreneurship research and broadening our understanding of entrepreneurship's change potential. However, more nuanced understandings of empowerment and emancipation in the entrepreneurial context are needed. This dissertation applies a sociologically-informed lens to create a theoretical foundation for entrepreneurial change creation, as well as for emancipatory entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial empowerment. In this way the research at hand develops a better understanding of entrepreneurship's potential to create change, in particular how entrepreneurial activity can be empowering and emancipatory. Building on the reciprocal relationship between agency and structure, this dissertation presents how entrepreneurs as transformative agents enact the structure that functions as a source of both resources as well as constraints. To create change entrepreneurs need to challenge oppressive constraints; and this calls for a critical understanding of relevant structures in society that enable entrepreneurs to engage in emancipatory and empowering action. The three essays in this dissertation each provide a different angle on entrepreneurship as change creation. The first essay lays the foundation for further research by providing a conceptual account of empowerment and emancipation in the entrepreneurship context this work explores their distinctions and shows through an illustrative example how they apply in an entrepreneurial context. The second essay empirically investigates the empowerment of late-career women entrepreneurs who face disempowering discourses of age, gender, and entrepreneurialism. Here, interviewees' narratives reveal empowered women who acknowledge society's expectations. The third essay reminds us that entrepreneurship must neither always be emancipatory nor always culminate in positive change within society but, instead, can generate further constraints, for example in form of ecological or social harm. Therefore, it is paramount that entrepreneurs engage in responsible action, and this essay develops a theoretical understanding of entrepreneurial responsibility by conceptualising it as an ethical dualism. Change requires more than the pursuit of mundane activities. To be change creators entrepreneurs must command a revolutionary spirit, disrupting the status quo not merely for the sake of creating novel models for revenue generation, but for achieving meaningful change that improves people's lives and contributes to more equal and just societies. This, then, is the fulcrum of entrepreneurial empowerment and emancipatory entrepreneurship.
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    The employee perspective on translating management fashions
    (Aalto University, 2023) Reunamäki, Riku; Fey, Carl F., Prof., BI Norwegian Business School, Norway; Johtamisen laitos; Department of Management Studies; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Piekkari, Rebecca, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland
    Managers are tasked with navigating a complex and constantly changing business environment, so they are often on the lookout for new ideas that they could adopt. Many of these ideas can be labeled management fashions – relatively transitory collective beliefs that a certain popular management idea or technique is at the forefront of management progress. Created and disseminated by fashion setters such as management consultants, management fashions are a prominent feature of contemporary organizing and our daily working lives. Management fashions change and are changed as they travel globally and are adopted locally. Their creation, spread, and inter-organizational adoption are well theorized and studied, but the key role of employees in implementing them has not been properly acknowledged. As a result, the intra-organizational adaptation and implementation processes of management fashions are still not well understood. Instead, fashions are often treated merely as having been either adopted or rejected, and their users are thought of as rather passive recipients of ideas invented elsewhere. In contrast, this dissertation presents an ethnographic case study of an organizational implementation of the "agile" management fashion from the employee perspective. To find out how employees shape the fashions they confront, I conducted 140 days of observations and 73 interviews over 17 months in my case company OP Financial Group during its transformation into a more agile and self-managed organization. In addition, I also collected hundreds of press releases, news articles, and internal documents about the change. My study coincided with the global COVID-19 pandemic, leading me to develop the "organizational hybrid ethnography" methodology which I outline in this dissertation.In analyzing my data, I use the translation approach, which highlights the context-dependency of the interpretation of ideas when they are implemented – ideas acquire new meanings through the acts of translating. I argue for a dynamic model of the evolution of management fashions and demonstrate how their intra-organizational translation processes are more complex than simple adoption-rejection dichotomies. This challenges the prevailing one-way direction of the "fashion lifecycle," which assumes that a sharp decline in one fashion is always followed by a sharp increase in the next. Understanding the role of employees in the translation process helps in developing a more nuanced view of management fashions, i.e., how and to what degree they are adapted, consumed, and rejected inside the companies that decide to adopt them. I also show how managers strive to make management fashions legitimate in the eyes of employees, and critically analyze the role of the popular media by reflecting on its participation in the legitimation of management fashions. Ultimately, I argue that employees are an essential, yet somewhat neglected, group of actors in determining the fates of management fashions such as agile. 
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    Developing and Evaluating Entrepreneurship Education - Three case studies on Entrepreneurial Development Coaching in Teacher Training, the Impact of Entrepreneurship Education Projects, and Experiential Entrepreneurship Education in Basic and Higher Education
    (Aalto University, 2023) Gustafsson-Pesonen, Anne; O’Shea, Gregory, Dr., Aalto University, Finland; Kyrö, Paula, Dr., Aalto University, Finland; Johtamisen laitos; Department of Management Studies; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Kibler, Ewald, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland
    The aim of this dissertation is to provide perspectives on developing and evaluating entrepreneurship education based on the results of three case studies. The first case study deals with Entrepreneurial Development Coaching (EDC) and asks how EDC affects teachers' thinking and action regarding entrepreneurship. The second study reviews Entrepreneurship Education projects and their impact. The third study generates perspectives on the developmental evaluation of experiential learning concepts in primary school together with higher education, focusing on how to develop sixth-grade students' entrepreneurial mindset and the effects thereof on entrepreneurial attitudes and long-term entrepreneurial behaviour which increase self-employability in the context of entrepreneurship. The main research question underlying my dissertation is: "How to use evaluation to develop Entrepreneurship Education through the education path and strengthen its impact on attitudes, working life and entrepreneurship?" I have identified a research gap, around the development of the evaluation of entrepreneurship education. Society is changing, how we develop teachers' capabilities to support entrepreneurship in schools with the means of entrepreneurship education, what should be done at different school levels in order to improve students' entrepreneurship skills. I approach the research problem in this dissertation from the theoretical perspective of entrepreneurship evaluation, in terms of entrepreneurial pedagogy and how it implements entrepreneurial pathways, supports career planning, and develops specific mindsets, skills, attitudes, and types of behaviour. Furthermore, I explore pedagogical nudging points when discussing entrepreneurship education. I contribute to the relevance of how to evaluate and develop entrepreneurship education in relation both to entrepreneurial pedagogy and its methods, as well as to recommendations from the European Union. In addition, I explore recent debates on experiential entrepreneurship education and pedagogical nudging to widen understandings of the role played by experiential entrepreneurship education in the education system, as well as discussions on entrepreneurial mindsets, skills, attitudes, and types of behaviour. I have compiled this dissertation from three independent case studies, scholarly articles, all of which revolve around the developing and evaluating of entrepreneurship education. 
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    Consumer Responses to Service Robots - From Pre-Interaction to Post-Interaction
    (Aalto University, 2023) Lin, Yanqing; Liu, Yong, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Information and Service Management, Finland; Tuunainen, Virpi Kristiina, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Information and Service Management, Finland; Tieto ja palvelujohtamisen laitos; Department of Information and Service Management; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Liu, Yong, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Information and Service Management, Finland; Tuunainen, Virpi Kristiina, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Information and Service Management, Finland
    Although robots are increasingly being deployed in service industries, the field of research pertaining to consumer responses to service robots remains insufficient. This dearth of knowledge and understanding has the potential to hinder the widespread adoption of service robots and the successful implementation of robotic service (r-service). This dissertation answers the following research question: How do consumers respond to service robots regarding their emotion, cognition, and behavioral intention from pre-interaction to post-interaction with these robots? Paper 1 focuses on how perceived comfort with robots penetrates consumers' implicit social decision-making (trust) and affects consumer responses. This study is motivated by a scarcity of knowledge on user pre-interaction perception and reaction to service robots. To bridge this gap, this paper cartographically investigates the effect of the mechano-humanness degree of robots on users' perceived comfort with robots, disentangling the underlying mechanism of human–robot trust. The findings provide tools for future studies on social–psychological and affective factors that could inform the design of socially competent robots. Whereas studies regarding what drives consumers to use service robots have offered fragmented results, Paper 2 launches a conceptual framework to comprehend the literature and obtain an in-depth understanding of individual attitudes and intentions to use service robots. Drawing on a triangulation of three perspectives on end-users in adoption research, this framework adopts technology acceptance theories, service quality, and expectancy-value theory to set up the skeleton of the framework. The antecedents of service robot acceptance are subdivided into robot design, consumer-oriented, relational components, and exogenous factors. The paper not only elaborates on the present situation of service robot acceptance research but also promotes the literature by developing a comprehensive framework regarding the effect factors. Paper 3 is motivated by a lack of well-developed studies sorting out the antecedents that affect consumer evaluation of r-service. This paper seeks to develop an r-service quality scale. I conducted a systematic literature review on r-service quality evaluation, thereby identifying the indicators of r-service dimensions and potential methodological issues of developing measurement instruments. The deliverables are strategically relevant for business operations of r-services. Drawing from the view of functional adaptivity, Paper 4 investigates how service heterogeneity affects consumer post-interaction responses to r-service by differentiating satisfying and dissatisfying service situations. This paper delineates the effects of different service providers and the inclusion of prior r-service experience on r-service heterogeneity. The findings offer theoretical and practical implications by answering the call for more research on r-service, broadening the understanding of the business value of artificial intelligence innovations and their relation to human responses.
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    Essays on Competition Policy
    (Aalto University, 2023) Buri, Riku; Pietola, Matias, Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority, Finland; Taloustieteen laitos; Department of Economics; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Toivanen, Otto, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Economics, Finland
    A key challenge in cartel enforcement is identifying collusive agreements. In the first essay, together with my co-authors, we study two major Nordic procurement cartels that operated in the asphalt paving market. We find evidence that during the cartel period bids were clustered and the winning bid was isolated. We implement two cartel detection methods that exploit variation in the distribution of bids. The method developed by Clark et. al. (2020) correctly rejects competitive bidding for the cartel period in both markets. The method suggested by Huber and Imhof (2019) predicts a significantly higher probability of collusion for the cartel period in one of the markets. Our results indicate that statistical screening methods with modest data requirements can be useful for competition authorities in detecting collusive agreements. In the second essay, together with my co-authors, we study the effects of entry deregulation in the Finnish interurban bus market. We find that the number of operators increased on routes connecting large and mid-sized cities. Increased competition resulted in 29% lower prices in the interurban bus market. Consistent with our evidence on entry, we find that prices decreased on routes connecting large and mid-sized cities, while on routes connecting smaller cities, we find no significant change in prices. We also study how the reform affected the long-distance railway market and find that increased intermodal competition resulted in a 22% price decrease. Overall, we find that the entry deregulation benefited consumers. Most countries have adopted a merger control regime to identify and block anticompetitive mergers. However, typically only large deals must be notified to the authorities. In the final essay, I study the effect of exempted acquisitions in the Finnish private healthcare market. The Finnish healthcare market has experienced rapid consolidation, but only a small fraction of transactions have been notified to the Competition Authority. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, I find that after the acquisitions, prices in the acquired clinics rise considerably compared to non-acquired clinics. This post-acquisition price increase in acquired clinics is related to the target clinics adopting the pricing strategy of the acquirer.
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    Navigating uncertainty and finding purpose in social mission-driven organizations
    (Aalto University, 2023) Sandström, Emma; Kodeih, Farah, Associate Prof., IÉSEG School of Management, France; Johtamisen laitos; Department of Management Studies; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Schildt, Henri, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Management Studies, Finland
    This doctoral dissertation investigates the work of social mission-driven organizations operating in contexts of uncertainty. By understanding how disruptive events affect organizations and their members' sense of purpose and meaningfulness, research can provide valuable insights into how these organizations can continue to create social impact in turbulent times. My thesis thus examines how uncertainty impacts social mission, purpose, and organizational members' perceptions of meaningful work in these shifting contexts. I explore these questions through three empirical studies. The first essay explains how a social initiative copes with dynamic uncertainty while planning a future event in a highly uncertain context. The findings contribute to the literature on sensemaking and uncertainty by showing how teams, through different strategies, can facilitate collective sensemaking under dynamic uncertainty by shaping the premises and temporal scope of the sensemaking situation. In the second essay, I examine the work of host-country aid workers during a compound crisis. This research contributes to the literature on meaningful work by demonstrating how societal events can undermine a sense of meaningfulness and how organizational members can restore it through "meaningfulness work". The third essay explores how members influence the formation and evolution of organizational purpose in a nascent social venture. This essay contributes to the literature by highlighting the organizational members' role in this process and theorizing organizational purpose as a nexus that connects organizational members to the social issues, they find important. Our empirical analysis shows how members create bottom-up pressures that shift the social purpose towards having a concrete impact on beneficiaries. The three different perspectives on social organizations in contexts of uncertainty contribute to our understanding of social mission-driven organizations by examining their specific challenges and dynamics of organizational membership.
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    Essays on Family Policies and the Child Penalty
    (Aalto University, 2023) Troccoli, Claudia; Zinovyeva, Natalia, Assoc. Prof., University of Warwick, UK; Liski, Matti, Prof., Aalto University, Finland; Taloustieteen laitos; Department of Economics; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Huttunen, Kristiina, Assoc. Prof., Aalto University, Department of Economics, Finland
    The first and third essays analyse the introductions and gradual extensions of maternity and parental leave in Finland between the 1960s and the early 1980s. I estimate causal effects of these policy changes on the labour market outcomes of eligible parents in the medium-to-long run (essay I) and on children's education and employment, as well as cognitive and non-cognitive skills of male army recruits (essay III). As the child's date of birth determined parents' eligibility to longer leave, I employ a regression discontinuity design comparing the outcomes of children (or their parents) born before and after the reforms' cut-off dates. In both studies, I find imprecisely estimated null effects, indicating that the reforms did not clearly improve nor worsen parents' and children's outcomes. Effects within the range of -10% and +10% of the mean cannot be excluded. Only for the first reform introducing maternity benefits in 1964, the zero effects are precisely estimated. The second essay presents evidence on the evolution of the child penalty in Finland over the last 50 years. During this time, several family policy reforms radically improved the conditions of new parents. Now, Finland has one of the most generous and longest parental leaves in the world. Parents are also older and more educated than in the 1970s. Exploiting population-wide administrative records from 1970 until today, we find that the child penalty in has decreased by almost 60%, from around 60% to 25%. However, most of the decline happened in the first ten years, during which both the availability of formal subsidized day care and the length of paid parental leave expanded significantly. We find that the expansion of maternity and parental leaves had a larger role, compared to changes in parental characteristics, in determining improvements in the child penalty, especially in the first decades. On the other hand, the child homecare leave is associated with a worsening of the child penalty from 1985. In the fourth essay, I replicate the paper by Danzer and Lavy (2018). They study how the duration of paid parental leave affects children's educational performance using data from PISA. An extension of the maximum duration from 12 to 24 months in Austria had no statistically significant effect on average, but the authors highlight the existence of large and statistically significant heterogenous effects that vary in sign depending on the education of mothers and children's gender. I replicate their study following the recommended estimation procedure taking into account both the survey's stratified two-stage sample design and the fact that PISA relies on imputation to derive student scores. I show that the estimates of the effects of the parental leave extension become substantially smaller in absolute magnitude and non-significant.
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    Essays on novel methods and applications of portfolio optimization
    (Aalto University, 2023) Vedernikov, Andrei; Seppälä, Tomi, Dr., Aalto University, Finland; Tieto ja palvelujohtamisen laitos; Department of Information and Service Management; Kauppakorkeakoulu; School of Business; Liesiö, Juuso, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Information and Service Management, Finland
    This dissertation advances the methods and applications of portfolio optimization and consists of two parts. The first part focuses on developing new portfolio optimization methods using drawdown measures. The second part utilizes existing portfolio optimization methods in novel application areas. The first method developed in the dissertation is designed to minimize portfolio drawdown duration, an important criterion institutional investors use. The drawdown duration measure has been discussed in several academic and white papers, but no models that allow for minimizing or controlling drawdown duration in a decision support model are present in the literature. Thus, we cover that research and practice gap and present a new family of portfolio selection models: minimizing maximum drawdown duration, average drawdown duration and tail drawdown duration. The model testing reveals that none of the traditional alternative methods achieve drawdown duration levels close to optimal ones. The second new method, drawdown stochastic dominance, allows for portfolio choice based on comparing random drawdown profiles of investments. Portfolio optimization models exist to minimize drawdown as a single value in the objective function with simplifying assumptions, but no methods account for the whole drawdown distribution. Therefore, we introduce a new variant of the drawdown measure, the corresponding optimization method, and the new dominance rule for portfolio selection in the spirit of second-degree stochastic dominance. Both new methods can readily utilize historical data because they are formulated based on scenarios with discrete returns. The first novel application demonstrates how previously established portfolio optimization models and Monte Carlo simulation methods can be utilized to support portfolio choice in venture capital (VC) markets. The second application study investigates performance enhancements in mixed-asset portfolios (MAPs) by including direct real estate investments (DREIs) in the traditional stock and bond portfolios. Third-degree stochastic dominance (TSD) is applied in the analysis to account for different risk-attitudes. Both DREIs and VC investments may represent an attractive option for investors to diversify risks, but scant studies are available in the literature dedicated to portfolio optimization applications, specifically in these markets.