Merit‐based Rewards,Job Satisfaction and Voluntary Turnover: Moderating Effects of Employee Demographic Characteristics

This paper draws on the reflection theory of compensation (Thierry, H. (1998). ‘Compensating work’. in P. J. D. Drenth, H. Thierry and C. J. de Wolff (eds), Handbook of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2nd edn, pp. 291–315, Psychology Press: Hove; Thierry, H. F. (2001). ‘Job evaluation systems and pay grade structures: do they match’, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 8, pp. 1313–1324) to examine the influence of individual merit‐based rewards on voluntary turnover via job satisfaction. It also tests the moderating effects of employees’ gender, age and education level between merit‐based rewards and job satisfaction. Data were collected from 636 employees in Japan at three points in time over a 12‐month period. The findings show that merit‐based rewards have a direct, positive effect on job satisfaction and an indirect effect on voluntary turnover. The effect of merit‐based rewards on job satisfaction was moderated by gender and education, providing evidence that merit‐based rewards are more important for male and highly educated employees. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Recruiting channels of foreign subsidiaries in Japan

Despite increasing interest in recruitment and selection, surprisingly little is known regarding recruiting practices and channels in foreign subsidiaries. This study focuses on the utilization and success of recruiting channels of foreign subsidiaries in Japan. Interviews with 40 company managers show that recruitment strategies in foreign subsidiaries progress through different stages. Lacking social networks but possessing substantial financial resources, small and newly established subsidiaries rely primarily on headhunters. However, larger subsidiaries with longer presence in Japan tend to diversify and localize their recruitment channels. Owing partly to a reduction in ethnocentric attitudes, foreign subsidiaries in certain industries are capable of attracting high-quality job candidates. Overall, the interviews revealed that referrals are the best recruiting channel for the production of high-quality candidates who fit in well, exhibit high company loyalty, and perform well on the job.     

Fitting disposition codes to mobile phone surveys: experiences from studies in Finland, Slovenia and the USA

Summary.  Using mobile phones to conduct survey interviews has gathered momentum recently. However, using mobile telephones in surveys poses many new challenges. One important challenge involves properly classifying final case dispositions to understand response rates and non-response error and to implement responsive survey designs. Both purposes demand accurate assessments of the outcomes of individual call attempts. By looking at actual practices across three countries, we suggest how the disposition codes of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, which have been developed for telephone surveys, can be modified to fit mobile phones. Adding an international dimension to these standard definitions will improve survey methods by making systematic comparisons across different contexts possible.     

The business ecosystem concept in innovation policy context: building a conceptual framework

The aim of this conceptual paper is to explore the business ecosystem concept in innovation policy context, and question whether it has something new to bring to the innovation policy field compared to previous theoretical discussions. A comparative study was conducted where three widely utilized policy approaches were examined together with the business ecosystem concept. The ecosystem concept differs from the three approaches, for example, in its evolving around innovation, and its self-organizing and self-renewing nature. This paper sets a conceptual basis for further empirical research concerning the innovation policy implications of the business ecosystem concept.     

Seasonality in recreation supply and demand in an urban lake ecosystem in Finland

Urban Ecosystems - Monetary valuation methods are commonly used to analyze recreation values of water ecosystems. However, most studies on water-related recreation values have not analyzed direct...     

The Concept of International Opportunity in International Entrepreneurship: A Review and a Research Agenda

Recent research in the field of international entrepreneurship (IE) has emphasized the concept of international opportunity. The entrepreneurial behaviors focused on international opportunities have been found to be critical in IE. International opportunities, however, are often depicted in rather abstract and unspecified ways, and the research suffers from narrow theoretical discussion in relation to the concept of opportunity. To address these issues, the authors draw from entrepreneurship research and present alternative conceptualizations of opportunities as a basis for more in‐depth study of international opportunities in IE. To further articulate a future research agenda, the authors review the state of knowledge on opportunities in the IE field by content‐analyzing articles published between 1989 and 2012. All the analyzed articles incorporate the concept of opportunity into their studies. It is found that, although the IE research has investigated many relevant elements, it is rather limited in the articulation of the conceptual features of international opportunities and opportunity‐focused behaviors. Building on these observations, the authors propose a definition of international opportunity and research questions and strategies to advance IE research on international opportunities.     

Increased differentiation between individuals,but no genetic isolation from adjacent rural individuals in an urban red squirrel population

Whether or not individuals in cities and adjacent rural areas form separate populations depends on the origin of urbanized individuals. The rural individuals may have simply gradually invaded the city. Alternatively, the urbanization depended on arrival of individuals with specific adaptations for city life. A population within the city could also remain separated from adjacent rural populations if there are physical or behavioural dispersal barriers lowering the possibility of genetic exchange between individuals. All this is linked to dispersal behaviour of the species as gene flow is determined by distances moved during dispersal. In this study, we used microsatellite markers to evaluate whether or not Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) individuals in an urban environment are genetically separated from their sub-urban/rural counterparts. Using radio-telemetry, we also studied natal dispersal distances of urban red squirrels to evaluate the potential for gene flow within the city. We observed no indication that urban squirrels had been genetically isolated from rural squirrels. In addition, increased amount of built area did not explain differentiation between urban individuals, further indicating that there were no barriers restricting movement. Still, the genetic differentiation within the city was increased and natal dispersal distances relatively short, perhaps indicating lack of need to move long distances in the urban environment. We conclude that urban and adjacent rural squirrels were part of the same larger population with gene flow in and out from the city. Yet, urbanization was related to increased genetic differentiation, indicating different spatial genetic structure in urban and rural populations.     

Bypassing Publicity for Getting Things Done: Between Informal and Formal Planning Practices in Finland

This article contributes to the discussion concerning the ways in which network governance and classical-modernist government practices juxtapose and redefine the idea of publicity in planning practices. Through Finnish urban planning cases we ask what kind of publicity is being promoted. We argue that new modes of governing build and employ institutional ambiguity for ‘getting things done’. This provides possibilities to ‘skim the cream’ of the best possible ways of resolving present planning issues. The crucial question is whether the possible positive outcomes give a mandate to the process, even if the process operates in a democratic void.     

Staying inside: social withdrawal of the young,Finnish ‘Hikikomori’

This article explores socially withdrawn young Finnish people on an Internet forum who identify with the Japanese hikikomori phenomenon. We aim to overcome the dualism between sociology and psychology found in earlier research by referring to Pierre Bourdieu, who provides insights into how individual choices are constructed in accordance with wider social settings. We focus on the individual level and everyday choices, but we suggest that psychological factors (anxiety, depression) can be seen as properties of social relations rather than as individual states of mind, as young adults have unequal access to valued resources. We scrutinise young people’s specific reasoning related to the social and psychological factors and contingent life events that influence their choice to withdraw. An experience of inadequacy, a feeling of failure and a lack of self-efficacy are common experiences in the data. This indicates that young adults who identify with the hikikomori phenomenon find external society demanding and consider themselves lacking resources such as education, social networks or the personality type that they see as valued in society and as essential to ‘survival’. They also feel that they cannot control their life events, which may mean that they receive little help in their everyday lives.