Timo Koivumäki

Predicting consumer acceptance in mobile services: empirical evidence from an experimental end user environment

This paper studies consumer acceptance of mobile services. The theoretical framework of the study is based on extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The empirical part of the study was conducted in an experimental mobile service environment, SmartRotuaari, which was developed in the University of Oulus Rotuaari research project. SmartRotuaari is operational at the city centre of Oulu in Northern Finland. Our results show that usefulness, user guidance and support, and user skills are significant factors in explaining the acceptance of mobile services. We also found that usefulness and user-satisfaction are significant predictors of the willingness to recommend the services to others.

The perceptions towards mobile services: an empirical analysis of the role of use facilitators

The adoption patterns for new technology such as mobile services are essential to understand for developing them further. Hence, it is important to study how willing people are to try new mobile services and do variables, which facilitate the use of the services have an effect on the consumers’ perceptions of the services and their adoption readiness. This study analyses how the familiarity of mobile devices, the time the services are initially used and users’ technology skills affect the initial mobile service usage experience and the likelihood of continuous usage. The results show that the duration of the use does not effect consumers’ perceptions about mobile services, but familiarity of the device and user skills have an impact on the perceptions of the services.

Individual differences in private banking: empirical evidence from Finland

The financial industry can nowadays be viewed as a battlefield where the players are keenly planning new ways to achieve competitive advantage. Besides increasing competition and change, the current trend in private banking has been the consumer movement from traditional branch banking to stand-alone, online banking. This paper examines the uptake of online banking by the use of a survey (1167 responses) conducted during the summer of 2000 in Finland. The main results of the study indicate that while the diffusion of electronic delivery channels has been rapid, the management of digital customer relationships has become of key importance. By comparing different types of bank customers and by evaluating their perceptions of technology and delivery channels, it can be argued that nonusers of online banking might be most loyal segment whereas online banking users can be considered more likely to change their banks.

Customer delivered value in a Web-based supermarket

This paper explores the marketing of daily consumer goods in a pilot Web-based supermarket, in which no regular customers existed from among 65 registered ones at the end of the pilot project. Descriptive case research strategy and qualitative methods of analysis are utilized. Empirical evidence was obtained through multiple sources during an eight-month pilot period. The case study is analyzed using customer delivered value as a framework. The achieved results demonstrate the value and costs for pilot customers, and reveal key issues for further development. Although the Webs potential for marketing has been noted in the literature, this case shows difficulties in delivering total customer value when costs are also taken into account. It is suggested that systems development should find new means to deliver additional customer value in Web retailing context to exceed switching costs for customers.

Consumer Choice Behavior and Electronic Shopping Systems – A Theoretical Note

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of alternative approaches in modeling consumer choice behavior with respect to making purchases either in the traditional manner or using an electronic shopping system. We concentrate on the effects of two specific features: the amount of time spent on shopping and the shopping experience. We consider a simple two-good situation in which one good is a composite good that consists of all goods purchased electronically, and the other is the composite of all goods purchased in a traditional manner. The models suggest that both time saved and an increase in shopping experience related to Web-based shopping will lead to increased purchasing at a Web shop.

Micro Operators to Boost Local Service Delivery in 5G

Future digital society depends heavily on timely availability of high quality wireless connectivity the offering of which today is dominated by mobile network operators (MNOs). Future 5G systems aim at connecting billions of devices to serve versatile location and case specific needs of vertical sectors in parallel with the provisioning of traditional mobile broadband services. As the majority of mobile traffic originates from indoors, cost-efficient and fast deployment of new indoor small cell networks is fundamental, which calls for new developments in regulation and technology to enable new business. This paper proposes the concept of micro operators (uO) for local service delivery in 5G to build indoor small cell communication infrastructure and offer context related services and content. Key elements of the new micro operator concept are introduced including regulation-related factors of local spectrum access rights, and technology-related factors of flexible network implementation. Several business opportunities are identified for the uO concept including the provisioning of hosted local connectivity to all MNOs in specific locations, operation of secure networks for vertical sector specific use, and offering of locally tailored content and services.

MyData Approach for Personal Health -- A Service Design Case for Young Athletes

Collecting a digital footprint of data from ones everyday activities is becoming an information source for preventive health care. Wearable sensor technologies combined with mobile phone applications offer an interesting way to collect and monitor personal activity data for personal use, in addition to providing information for wellness and health care professionals. In this paper we present our service design approach for designing a mobile MyData Wellness concept that was developed for young athletes. The concept aims to combine different possibilities of mobile technologies to create a tool that can provide versatile support for wellness. The salient findings from the concept evaluation show that active young people find tracking sports data motivating and interesting, and call for a unified service that combines different wellness-related aspects of life.

The Blockchain Marketplace as the Fifth Type of Electricity Market

This paper tackles today’s unprecedented challenges of enabling and stimulating multiple energy stakeholders to have a more active participation in the smart grid electricity market. The research extends the existing four archetypes of orchestrator-driven business models for the electricity market and proposes a fifth type of electricity market, the Blockchain Marketplace. The key novelty of the paper is to expand the electricity market architecture and design from centralization and pseudo-decentralization to full decentralization, enabled by the blockchain. The study not only broadens the smart grid and electricity market literature but also contributes to the theoretical development of the business model and organization study domains with a systemic approach.

How MyData is Transforming the Business Models for Health Insurance Companies

This paper discusses the potential impacts of MyData in healthcare business, more precisely occupational health insurance companies, and how the coming of MyData will transform the business models and the whole logic of value creation and capture of health insurance businesses. These companies have traditionally acted alone and relied on organization-centric business models. Through an empirical study, we demonstrate how these organizations are now heading towards acting as active members of collaborative health service ecosystems.

What happened to the growth? - The case of the ICT industry in Oulu, Finland

In this paper, we attempt to shed some light on how regional high-technology industrial structures and increased globalisation in business strategies combined with structures of knowledge and innovation networks and regional innovation policy can have a significant effect on a regions ability to react to changes in the global economic and technological environment. The aim is to provide a multidisciplinary view of regional development by combining not only the various views of the traditional agglomeration and regional innovation network literature but also the views about changing business strategies. We show, based on the empirical evidence, how the very specialised industrial and highly centralised structure of the innovation network together with regional policy choices can hinder a regions ability to cope with sudden changes in the global economic and technological environment.