An empirical study on the adoption of mobile location-based advertising

Increasing market penetration of smart phones and mobile broadband subscriptions has created new marketing communication avenues that allow interactive and highly targeted advertising based on individuals' location and contextual environment. However, the factors that guide consumers' adoption of such advertising and consumer perceptions of this new advertising channel are not yet fully understood. This research attempts to bridge this gap. Location-based services are smart phone applications that enable this avenue. The purpose of this study is to understand the factors that influence consumer acceptance and adoption of one specific type of location-based service, location- based advertising, where advertising messages are customized to individuals' location, personal information and interests. Drawing theories from the fields of technology adoption, social psychology, and mobile marketing, ten constructs are identified and a modified conceptual model and hypotheses are built and tested with survey data from 138 individuals. Structural equation modeling is used to test 10 factors that influence consumer adoption of location-based advertising: (1) attitude, (2) social influence, (3) perceived usefulness, (4) perceived ease of use, (5) perceived enjoyment, (6) compatibility (7) incentives, (8) personal innovativeness, (9) privacy issues, (10) Attitude toward advertising in general. The results indicate that enjoyment - as entertainment, fun, and interactive - is the strongest driver that influence individuals' attitude that in turn, is the strongest determinant of behavioral intention to adopt location-based advertising. A strong indirect influence of compatibility, perceived usefulness and incentives to adoption is also found. The relationship between privacy issues and personal innovativeness toward adoption are not statistically significant and therefore, their importance in guiding consumer adoption of location-based advertising cannot be determined based on this research

The Lorentz group and its finite field analogues: local isomorphism and approximation

Finite Lorentz groups acting on 4-dimensional vector spaces coordinatized by finite fields with a prime number of elements are represented as homomorphic images of countable, rational subgroups of the Lorentz group acting on real 4-dimensional space-time. Bounded subsets of the real Lorentz group are retractable with arbitrary accuracy to finite subsets of such rational subgroups. These finite retracts correspond, via local isomorphisms, to well-behaved subsets of Lorentz groups over finite fields. This establishes a relationship of approximation between the real Lorentz group and Lorentz groups over very large finite fields

Time Delay in Robertson-McVittie Spacetime and its Application to Increase of Astronomical Unit

We investigated the light propagation by means of the Robertson-McVittie solution which is considered to be the spacetime around the gravitating body embedded in the FLRW (Friedmann-Lema{\^i}tre-Robertson-Walker) background metric. We concentrated on the time delay and derived the correction terms with respect to the Shapiro's formula. To relate with the actual observation and its reduction process, we also took account of the time transformations; coordinate time to proper one, and conversely, proper time to coordinate one. We applied these results to the problem of increase of astronomical unit reported by Krasinsky and Brumberg (2004). However, we found the influence of the cosmological expansion on the light propagation does not give an explanation of observed value, $d{\rm AU}/dt = 15 \pm 4$ [m/century] in the framework of Robertson-McVittie metric.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in New Astronom

Retirement trajectories and income redistribution through the pension system in Finland

In this article, we investigate the redistributive outcomes of the Finnish pension system. We hypothesize that a pension system does not straightforwardly diminish, maintain, or increase income differences after retirement, but it can have different outcomes for different groups. Our focus is on differences in changes in income between groups that vary in their timing and type of retirement. We make use of longitudinal register-based data from the Finnish Centre for Pensions and analyze income and retirement trajectories of Finnish employees born in 1948 from the age of 57 to 66 (N = 44,449). Our aim is to find out in what way trajectories of income from earnings and pensions are related to different types of retirement trajectories, while controlling for gender, sector of employment, and length of working life. Eight distinct retirement trajectories are identified using sequence analysis. The results of our multilevel regression models indicate that the pension system sustains inequalities related to gender and employment sector. Early old-age retirement and part-time retirement are associated with higher earnings and more generous pension entitlements, indicating cumulative advantage. Lower earnings are associated with higher risk of early exit through unemployment and disability pensions, while the pension system guarantees a minimum income level in retirement, resulting in status leveling. Those who retire later are relatively well off in work, but worse off in retirement, suggesting a status-leveling outcome. By disentangling these outcomes of the pension system, it is possible to learn social policy lessons for other national institutional contexts as well

Carrots, sticks and old-age retirement : A review of the literature on the effects of the 2005 and 2017 pension reforms in Finland – an extended version

This article reviews the behavioural effects of Finland’s pension reforms in 2005 and 2017. With employment rates in older age groups at relatively low levels, both these reforms aimed to encourage later retirement and introduced a flexible old-age retirement age, initially between ages 63–68 and progressively raised to 65–70 years. However, the two reforms differed notably in terms of the means adopted. The 2005 reform relied heavily on “carrots”, i.e. individual choices and financial incentives. In the 2017 reform, “sticks” had a much bigger role, raising the age of eligibility for old-age pension. We consider how the behavioural effects of these two policies differed from each other. The article reviews the existing literature on pre-reform policy evaluations concerning the effects of the pension reforms and explores actual post-reform retirement behaviour based on studies that use register and survey data. It is shown that the 2005 reform failed to induce later retirement, and that employees in higher socio-economic positions benefited more from financial incentives associated with later retirement. In this regard, the 2017 reform, which will automatically increase retirement age via a higher age of eligibility, treats different socio-economic groups more equally

Using stories to communicate corporate identity on the web: A study of Nordic fashion companies.

Objective of the Study The objective of the study was to examine how stories are being used to communicate corporate identity in the Nordic fashion industry. The study focused specifically on the web communication of small and medium sized Nordic fashion companies. The study explored the communication discovered on the selected web sites to answer the three research questions: 1) To what extent do Nordic fashion companies use storytelling when communicating their identity to global consumers on the web? 2) What kind of story elements do they use in their web communication? 3) Based on their stories, how unique are their individual identities? Theoretical Framework and Methodology The theoretical framework of the study was based on identity management research as well as traditional and corporate storytelling theories. Through a method of qualitative content analysis, the study examined the web sites of 10 up-and-coming fashion companies from Finland as well as 10 companies from the more successful fashion countries of Sweden and Denmark. Findings and Conclusions The study revealed that despite the proven benefits of storytelling, majority of Nordic fashion companies hardly ever use stories when communicating their identity to global consumers. Instead of communicating their characteristics through appealing and well-structured plotlines, companies mostly settle for simply describing their identity though product features and design. Founders of the companies are often portrayed as heroes on a mission start their own business. Differentiation between the companies was minimal. All companies communicated nearly the same kind of features and characteristics. Minimalism, functionality and contemporary design as well as high quality and tailoring, were all popular traits among the studied brands. No large differences between the use of storytelling of the Finnish, Swedish and Danish companies were discovered. However, the findings show that Finnish companies emphasized ecological values as well as production processes and selection of materials slightly more. The findings of this study indicate that companies are not aware of the full potential that storytelling has as a method of business communication and differentiation. Furthermore, as far as communication is concerned, the up-and-coming Finnish companies are on the same level with their Swedish and Danish competitors

Workforce composition and the risk of labor market exit among older workers in Finnish companies

This article investigates how a firm’s workforce characteristics affect an individual’s timing of exit from the labor market. It analyzes the relations between the age, skill, and wage structures of companies and the risk of labor market exit of Finnish older workers by using the detailed longitudinal register-based Finnish Linked Employer–Employee Data. The study follows the Finnish working population born between 1942 and 1950 (N = 216,713). Multilevel discrete-time survival analysis with individuals nested in firms is applied to estimate the risk of permanent exit from work between the ages of 53 and 68. The results show that these risks differ between firms: greater diversity in age and education levels among the workforce as well as seniority-based wage systems within a firm decrease the propensity of early exit, while being employed at a firm with an older staff increases the risk of exit. The findings from interactions between individual- and firm-level characteristics further illustrate that one’s individual characteristics matter in relation to the characteristics of the overall firm’s workforce. Being dissimilar from one’s coworkers, especially in terms of skills and education, can reduce the risk of early exit

Education and Longer Working Lives: A longitudinal study on education differences in the late exit from working life of older employees in Finland

This register-based study offers information on educationrelated differences in the likelihood of older Finnish employees to remain in working life up until the old age retirement. In the study, the education-related differences are seen to develop in a longitudinal process. The aim is to analyse and elaborate how the characteristics of the past adult life course of employees and the labour market-related factors contribute to these differences. Furthermore, the study provides comparison of the education-related differences in the risk of various early exit routes during the late 1990s. The results support the expectations that younger and better-educated cohorts are likely to prolong their working life as they grow older. Furthermore, the results indicate that education-related differences in remaining employed up until the old age retirement are essentially connected to characteristics of the employees’ work paths and labour market context. The significance of the work and labour market-related factors suggest that investments in the improvement of working conditions and personnel policies are effective ways of encouraging longer working lives

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