Finnish perceptions on management accounting systems: towards an upgraded sophistication model

This study is based on a large survey study of over 1500 Finnish companies’ usage, needs and implementation difficulties of management accounting systems. The study uses quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods to answer the research questions. The empirical data used in the study was gathered through structured interviews with randomly selected companies of varying sizes and industries. The study answers the three research questions by analyzing the characteristics and behaviors of companies working in Finland. The study found five distinctive groups of companies according to the characteristics of their cost information and management accounting system use. The study also showed that the state of cost information and management accounting systems depends on the industry and size of the companies. It was found that over 50% of the companies either did not know how their systems could be updated or saw systems as inadequate. The qualitative side also highlighted the needs for tailored and integrated management accounting systems for creating more value to the managers of companies. The major inhibitors of new system implementation were the lack of both monetary and human resources. Through the use of mixed methods and design science a new and improved sophistication model is created based on previous research results combined with the information gathered from previous literature. The sophistication model shows the different stages of management accounting systems in use and what companies can achieve with the implementation and upgrading of their systems.

Accounting treatment for intangible assets acquired in a business combination under IFRS

The role of intangible assets and the amount of business combinations have increased significantly during the last decades which has caused the need to reform and harmonise the accounting treatment for acquired intangible assets. The aim of this study is to find out how the new accounting standard for business combinations, IFRS 3, has affected the accounting treatment for identifiable intangible assets and goodwill in the examined media companies between 2005 and 2014. The most significant reforms introduced by IFRS 3 have been goodwill impairment test and the fair value accounting for acquired intangibles. This study is conducted by using a descriptive analysis and the empirical data consists of financial statement information of listed Finnish and international media companies. The main objectives of IFRS 3 have been to reduce the amount of acquisition cost allocated to goodwill and allow companies to recognise new intangible assets separately from goodwill. The results of this study show that the amount of the acquisition cost allocated to goodwill has decreased during the examined period and due to the fair value accounting, business acquisitions have made new intangible assets visible that otherwise would have not met the recognition criteria under IAS 38. The application of IFRS has revealed a big amount of invisible assets in the balance sheets but at the same time this has reduced the comparability between companies.

Cross Listing of a Finnish Company on an Exchange in the United States of America

Finnish companies cross listing in the United States is an exceptional phenomenon. This study examines the cross listing decision, cross listing choice and cross listing process with associated challenges and critical factors. The aim is to create an in-depth understanding of the cross listing process and the required financial information. Based on that, the aim is to establish the process phases with the challenges and the critical factors that ought to be considered be- fore establishing the process plus re-evaluated and further considered at points in time during the process. The empirical part of this study is conducted as a qualitative study. The research data was collected through the adoption of two approaches, which are the interview approach and the textual data approach. The interviews were conducted with Finnish practitioners in the field of accounting and finance. The textual data was from publicly available publications of this phenomenon by the two BIG5 accounting companies worldwide. The results of this study demonstrate the benefits of cross listing in the U.S. are the better growth opportunities, the reduction of cost of capital and the production of higher quality financial information. In the decision making process companies should assess whether the benefits exceed the increased costs, the pressure for performance, the uncertainty of market recognition and the requirements of management. The exchange listing is seen as the most favourable cross listing choice for Finnish companies. The establishment of the processes for producing reliable, transparent and timely financial information was seen as both highly critical and very challenging. The critical success factors relating to the cross listing phases are the assessment and planning as well as the right mix of experiences and expertise. The timing plays important role in the process. The results mainly corroborate the literature concerning cross listing decision and choice. This study contributes to the literature on the cross listing process offering a useful model for the phases of the cross listing process.

Internationalization of a Finnish accounting firm to Russian markets

Despite the unstable situation at the moment in Russia, the Russian market and St. Petersburg have been a very attractive from the point of view of Finnish companies. The objective of this research was to define how a Finnish accounting firm should perform its market entry to Russian markets as a part of its internationalization process. In addition, the special characteristics that support the internationalization to Russia were examined together with the implications from the behavior of potential customers at the market. The actual market entry mode was developed based on the theories of Uppsala model, transaction cost economics and the network approach. Additional emphasis was given for the service point of view. The primary data in this research was collected through semi-structured interviews with professionals from the Russian market. The results of this research show that there exists potential especially at the accounting markets in Russia. However, the current unstable situation and sanctions in Russia have led to situation where the price-sensitivity among customers is high, and costs savings are searched from multiple processes in organizations. Therefore, the accounting company should perform its market entry in small incremental steps to decrease the risks involved, and to gain specific market knowledge before committing more resources into Russian markets. A simplified process was developed to evaluate the suitable market entry mode. As a result, the level of commitment and market knowledge affect the final entry model of the firm, as well as defined goals for the particular market.

Entry mode choice of Finnish startups entering Chinese market in tablet industry

Since the implement of opening policy, the overall economy of China has maintained rapid and stable development, which has now makes China become the world's second largest economy. China, it is to become the largest overseas market for many large global enterprises from various industries, this naturally also includes the Tablet PC industry that raised in recent years. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze different internal and external factors that influence the entry mode choices of Finnish SMEs in tablet industry entering Chinese market. The goal is to find out the suitable entry modes for the Finnish tablet or other relevant SMEs entering Chinese market. Qualitative analysis is the main research method in empirical part of this study. The interviews were carried out with the case company and other two Finnish business organizations in China. The result of the study indicated that the internal resource and external business environment affect the entry modes choices much more than other factors for SMES. The exporting mode and sales subsidiary could be a better choice for SMEs entering Chinese market. Furthermore, firms should fully learn the Chinese market combine with its own background before making decisions.

The role of management accounting systems and venture capital investors for start-up firms

The role of star-up firms in economy and the importance of venture capital investors for the growth of start-up firms have been highlighted in recent years. The growth challenges of start-up firms consist of fast changing environment, the availability of venture capital funding and the development of firm management in the growth phase. A growing number of studies have focused on management accounting systems and venture capital in start-up and growth firm context. In this thesis the role of management accounting systems and venture capital investors is considered in the growth phase of firm development. The theoretical objective of this thesis is to construct a theoretical framework in order to describe the importance of management accounting systems and venture capital investors in start-up firms. The practice orientated objective of this thesis is to study the application of management accounting systems and management accounting based information in start-up firms in high-technology industry as well as the impact of venture capital for management accounting system design. In addition, the growth challenges of start-up firms are studied in order to understand the context in which management accounting systems are used. The research approach of theoretical part is conceptual as the theoretical framework is constructed by combining literature on firm growth, management accounting and venture finance in order to analyse the phenomenon. The action-orientated research approach is appropriate for analysing and describing of the studied phenomenon through empirical evidence. The empirical evidence was collected through interviews with three experts in start-up firm accelerator centers, four representatives of start-up firms and one venture capital investor. The results indicate that the growth challenges of stat-up firms are not related to the development of management accounting systems. Managers of start-up firms expressed a positive attitude towards management accounting systems that improve efficiency of operations. In start-up firms flexible and adjustable management accounting practices, such as budgets, cash flow calculations and future-orientated analysis tools, are applied that support planning and coordination of operations. The results indicate that venture capital investors affect the provision and the quality of management accounting information during the investment process. In addition, venture capital investors enhance the use of management accounting information for internal coordination in start-up firms. By applying the theoretical framework in the analysis, it can be stated that by acting as support function management accounting systems facilitate start-up firms development.

Freedom of choice and bounded rationality: a brief appraisal of behavioral economists' plea for light paternalism

Behavioral economics has addressed interesting positive and normative questions underlying the standard rational choice theory. More recently, it suggests that, in a real world of boundedly rational agents, economists could help people to improve the quality of their choices without any harm to autonomy and freedom of choice. This paper aims to scrutinize available arguments for and against current proposals of light paternalistic interventions mainly in the domain of intertemporal choice. It argues that incorporating the notion of bounded rationality in economic analysis and empirical findings of cognitive biases and self-control problems cannot make an indisputable case for paternalism.

Attractive silences in cricket courtship song : mate choice using a short-range signal /

Matings systems using signals for sexual communication have been studied extensively and results commonly suggest that females use these signals for locating males, species-identification, and mate choice. Although numerous mating systems employ multiple signals, research has generally focused on long-range signals perhaps due to their prominence and ease of study. This study focused on the short-range acoustic courtship song of crickets. The results presented here suggest this signal is under selection by female choice. Females mated preferentially with males having shorter silences between the two types of ticks within the song. The length of these silences (Gap 1) was correlated with male condition such that males having long silences were significantly lower in mass with respect to body size when compared to males having short silences. Both Gap 1 length and male condition were significantly repeatable within males over time suggesting the possibility these traits have a genetic basis. This study is the first empirical study to test female preferences within the natural variation of the courtship song. It now appears, at least in crickets, that both the longand short-range signals of a multi-signal mating system may contribute to male mating success.

Effect of age on female choice in the field cricket, Gryllus interger

Female choice is an important element of sexual selection that may vary among females of the same species. Few researchers have investigated the causes of variation in selectivity with respect to potential mates and overall level of motivation toward a stimulus source representative of a mate. This study demonstrates that female age may be one cause of variation in female choice. Females of different ages may have different mate preferences. As females age, they have less time left to reproduce, and their residual reproductive value decreases. This should correspond to a higher reproductive effort which may be represented as increased motivation and/or decreased selectivity. The effect of age on mate choice in Gryllus integer was investigated by using a non-compensating treadmill, called the Kugel, to measure female phonotaxis. Artificially generated male calling songs of varying pulse rates were broadcast in either a singlestimulus or a three-stimulus experimental design. The pulse rates used in the calling song stimuli were 70, 64, 76, 55 and 85 pulses per second. These corresponded to the documented mean pulse rate for the species at the experimental temperature, one standard deviation below and above the mean, and 2.5 standard deviations below and above the mean, respectively. Test females were either 11-14 days or 25-28 days post-ecdysis. Trials usually were conducted two to seven hours into the scotophase. In the single-stimulus experiment, females were presented with stimuli with only one pulse rate. Older females achieved higher vector scores than younger females, indicating that older females are more motivated to mate. Both groups showed little phonotactic response towards 55 or 85 pIs, both of which lie outside the natural range of G. integer calling song at the experimental temperature. Neither group discriminated among the three pulse rates that fell within the natural range of calling song. In the three-stimulus experiment, females were presented with stimuli with one of three pulse rates, 64, 70 or 76 pIs, In alternation. Both age groups had reduced responsiveness in this experiment, perhaps due to an increase in perceived male density. Additionally, younger females responded significantly more to 64 and 70 pIs than to the higher pulse rate, indicating that they are selective with respect to mate choice. Older females did not discriminate among the three pulse rates. Therefore, it was concluded that selectivity decreases with age. A further study was conducted to determine that these effects were due to age and not due to the differing periods without a mating between the two age groups. Again, stimuli were presented in a three-stimulus experimental design. Age was held constant at 28 days and time since last mating varied from 11 to 25 days. Females varyIng in time since last mating did not differ in their responses to the calling song pulse rates. This indicated that the increased motivation and decreased selectivity exhibited In the initial experiments were due to age and not to time without a mating. Neither time of trial nor female weight had an effect upon female phonotaxis. Data are discussed in terms of mate choice, residual reproductive value, and costs of choice.

School choice behaviour of independent school parents

One hundred and thirty-three parents of students new ~o ~ive independent schools in Ontario wer. surveyed to inve~tigate school choice behaviour. Paren~s were asKed to indicate their reasons for changing schooling, ~he criteria for selection o~ a school and the nature of the search process. Parents were also asKed to ranK speci~ic precipitants for change and criteria for choice. Spearman RanK Correla.tion tests were run comparing precipitants for change and criteria for choice for the entire sample and sub-groups based on socioeconomic status, gender of the child and family size. No signl~icant differences were found between the various $ub-groups, however, there was a strong positive correlation between precipitants for change and criteria for choice.Chi sq,uare tests were run compa.ring the number of information sources utilized in the search process, and a comparison was made between the importance of the va.rious sources of information. The majority of parents were classified as ac~ive searchers, researching one alternative more carefully than others. Socioeconomic status was the only factor to have a sign ific:ant- effect on the ranKing of information sources.