Entrepreneurs and producers: Identities of Finnish farmers in 2001 and 2006

The farmers' role within the EU has recently been under reconstruction: in addition to primary agricultural production farmers should fulfil multiple functions such as maintaining the rural landscape, conserving nature and providing services. One essential feature of this new role is the demand for entrepreneurship. Farmers should be capable of competing in the worldwide, global agricultural market. They are also encouraged to diversify into business activities beyond agriculture. How do farmers see themselves in this situation? Is their self-perception compatible with this new reconstruction of the farming economy and the farmers' role? Research, thus far, seems to indicate that traditional or production oriented identities are still dominant among farmers. But there is also some evidence that new identities, such as the entrepreneurial identity, are emerging. In our study we are especially interested in how Finnish farmers have met the demand for adapting to the role of an entrepreneur. We approach the issue of the farmers' changing role from a social psychological perspective by utilizing the concept of identity. Our empirical evidence comes from two nation-wide postal questionnaire data sets, both containing samples from three subgroups: conventional farmers focusing solely on primary agricultural production, diversified farmers who also had other business besides agricultural production, and rural non-agricultural small-scale businesses. The results show that Finnish farmers do not experience “entrepreneur” as something distant from themselves and as not fitting in with their world of ideas, as the work of some researchers would depict. Instead, the majority of Finnish farmers, especially diversified farmers, conceive of themselves both as entrepreneurs and as producers.     

What explains frontline workers' views on poverty? A comparison of three types of welfare sector institutions

The study analysed views on poverty among Finnish frontline workers in three welfare sector institutions. Two different institutional logics, universal and selective, and two sectors, the public and the voluntary, were represented. A nationwide survey among social security officials, municipal social workers and diaconal workers was utilised (N = 2,124). The methods applied included factor analysis, the examination of means and multivariate analysis of variance. Frontline workers were found to support structural reasons for poverty regardless of institutional affiliation. Analyses, however, also revealed significant differences between the institutions, but not of the kind expected. Social security officials, working in a universal institution, were less likely to endorse structural factors and more likely to endorse individualistic poverty explanations than were social and diaconal workers. Type of education and personal political ideology, respectively, were also found to be of significant importance for poverty perceptions, independent of institutional logic.     

Possibilities for Intervention in Domestic Violence: Frame Analysis of Health Care Professionals’ Attitudes

ABSTRACT. Violence is a serious problem, and social and health care providers are in a key position for implementing successful interventions. This qualitative study of 6 focus groups with professionals (n = 30) examines the health care professionals’ ways of framing a domestic violence intervention. Of special interest here is how professionals see their own roles in the process of recognizing and helping victims of domestic violence. By using Erving Goffman's frame analysis, this study identifies several frames that either: a) emphasize the obstacles to intervention and justify nonintervention, or on the contrary, b) question these obstacles and find justifications for intervention. The possibilities for intervention are further explored by analyzing the ways in which the dynamics between the different frames allow redefinition of domestic violence interventions. Despite the challenges involved in a domestic violence intervention, there seems to be potential for change in personal attitudes and reform of professional practices. The research findings underline the role of social and health care professionals as members of a larger chain of service providers working collaboratively against domestic violence. Implications for practice and directions in policy and future research are suggested.     

Innovation in family firms: an empirical analysis linking organizational and managerial innovation to corporate success

Family firms play a significant role in national economies worldwide, accounting e.g. for 85% of all enterprises in the OECD countries as well as for the majority of companies in Central Europe. Previous scholarly research on family firms has mostly focused on the question of how they differ from public corporations, describing family firms as being more conservative, less risk-raking, or reluctant to grow—in sum, as being less entrepreneurial than their non-family counterparts. Similarly, the existing literature often criticizes the lack of innovation in family firms. But since innovation has long been discovered as one of the key drivers to company success, it is surprising that its role in family firms has been mostly neglected in existing academic research so far. The aim of this article is therefore to study the role of (managerial and organizational) innovation in family firms compared to non-family firms on the basis of an empirical survey of 533 companies from Finland, using structural equation modelling (MPlus) for the statistical analyses.     

Elaborating the Contingency Theory of Organizations: The Case of Manufacturing Flexibility Strategies

What determines which manufacturing flexibility strategies are feasible and which are not? In this paper, I build both theoretical and empirical understanding of task‐environmental contingencies that may either enable or constrain the selection of various flexibility strategies. The special emphasis is on the various plant‐level actions that are used to seek manufacturing flexibility. Demand uncertainty and variability, technology, and competitive strategy emerge as the most important contingencies, although not in ways that are immediately apparent. Finally, managerial implications at both the corporate as well as manufacturing unit levels are discussed.     

Less Partnering,Less Children,or Both? Analysis of the Drivers of First Birth Decline in Finland Since 2010

European Journal of Population - In the 2010s, fertility has declined in the Nordic countries, most strikingly in Finland, and first births drive the decline. It remains unclear whether this...     

Probabilistic Forecasting Using Stochastic Diffusion Models, With Applications to Cohort Processes of Marriage and Fertility

In this article, we show how stochastic diffusion models can be used to forecast demographic cohort processes using the Hernes, Gompertz, and logistic models. Such models have been used deterministically in the past, but both behavioral theory and forecast utility are improved by introducing randomness and uncertainty into the standard differential equations governing population processes. Our approach is to add time-series stochasticity to linearized versions of each process. We derive both Monte Carlo and analytic methods for estimating forecast uncertainty. We apply our methods to several examples of marriage and fertility, extending them to simultaneous forecasting of multiple cohorts and to processes restricted by factors such as declining fecundity.     

Debt problems and life transitions: a register-based panel study of Finnish young people

This register-based panel study analyzed the impacts of key life events on debt problems among emerging adults using a within-individual design. In this study, 8093 Finnish young people (born 1988–1990) were monitored for 9 years (2005–2013). The data comprised information from administrative registers, including information about debt enforcement, which was used as an indicator of debt problems. Key life events included leaving home, obtaining the first full-time job, and becoming a parent. Debt problems were highly common. They increased after leaving home, especially among those leaving home at a young age. Obtaining the first full-time job was not regarded as a major event in the context of debt problems, although having a job was associated with a lower level of debt problems. Such problems increased after becoming a parent. The results imply that life-changing events can have an impact on economic problems.     

Venture Capital Syndication: Synthesis and future directions

This paper reviews and synthesizes the extant literature on venture capital syndication. By considering the questions of how, why and when syndication affects the performance of venture capitalist (VC) firms and their portfolio ventures, a schematic structure of the syndication literature is formed and areas for further research are identified. The results of the review show that, while the venture‐level aspects are relatively well understood, the current literature lacks an understanding of how and why syndication affects the performance of VC firms. This suggests that more attention should be directed towards syndication as a component of the overall strategy of VC firms.