Toward the adoption of digital assistive technology: Factors affecting older people's initial trust formation

In recent decades, Europe has experienced a major societal challenge—the aging of the human population. The Finnish government has responded to this challenge by focusing on individually tailored services that enable older adults to live independently and comfortably at home for longer with the help of digital assistive technology. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study on how initial trust is formed with regard technology adoption by older people. Four bases of trust (personality, cognitive, calculative, and institutional) underpin the theoretical framework of the study. A qualitative research approach was adopted, utilizing individual and focus group interviews with older people living independently in urban and rural areas of South Finland. The findings derived from thematic analysis offer new insights into the complex and multidimensional process of older people's initial trust formation, which is affected by an interplay of 12 identified factors shaping the four bases of trust and four supplementary factors. These findings lead to propositions for future research

Active Digiage? : Desirable Futures for Aging People

The changing age structure of population, with its growing number of ageing people, is a worldwide phenomenon among industrialized countries, and Finland is not an exception. This has implications for swiftly rising healthcare and social welfare costs, but also for new type of demand in related services, and thus creates business opportunities for Finnish know-how. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews this research builds understanding on the desires, needs and challenges that the ageing people have in their every-day life and especially in their use of digital technology and different kinds of digital services. This will further provide insight for the service creation for the needs of elderly people in Finland. The results presented in this paper are part of a larger research project, of which this paper represents the pilot study phase

Active Digiage? : Desirable Futures for Aging People

The changing age structure of population, with its growing number of ageing people, is a worldwide phenomenon among industrialized countries, and Finland is not an exception. This has implications for swiftly rising healthcare and social welfare costs, but also for new type of demand in related services, and thus creates business opportunities for Finnish know-how. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews this research builds understanding on the desires, needs and challenges that the ageing people have in their every-day life and especially in their use of digital technology and different kinds of digital services. This will further provide insight for the service creation for the needs of elderly people in Finland. The results presented in this paper are part of a larger research project, of which this paper represents the pilot study phase

Luottamuksen kehittymisen edellytykset suhteessa riskeihin suomalais-venäläisissä liikesuhteissa

Despite the continuing increase in international business over the last few decades and general recognition that trust is a key attribute of successful cooperation, our understanding regarding trust development and risks in the context of intercultural business relationships remains limited. Thus, the primary aim of this research is to contribute to the understanding of how trust development can be supported in relation to potential risks perceived in different phases of relationships between the Russian subsidiaries of Finnish firms and their Russian partners operating in the Russian construction market.  This qualitative research took a structured approach in the exploration of complex research questions. The theoretically grounded concepts and the initial conceptual framework were employed to direct the inductive empirical investigation and theory building. The empirical part of the research consists of three studies: Pilot, Main and Supplementary. The Pilot study provided a preliminary understanding of the research questions. The primary focus of the Main study was on the conditions that support trust development in Finnish-Russian business relationships and the role these conditions play in relation to risks. The study also highlighted that a higher level of trust is needed in order to be able to accept relationship risks and raise the willingness to cooperate. A decisive role was ascribed to trust-constituting conditions, which are directly related to the growth of trust and are, to a great extent, in reverse relationship with risks. Further, the most critical conditions and risks in terms of their impact on the level of trust were demonstrated. Among the identified conditions, cultural adaptation was found to be particularly significant. This was explored in depth in the Supplementary study. The research contributes to the scarce literature on trust development in an intercultural business relationship context. It sheds more light on the conditions that directly and indirectly support trust development and their role in relation to relationship risks by bringing forward an integrative perspective. This research also contributes to international management literature. In particular, it adds to the literature on uncertain institutional contexts, such as the Russian business environment, by introducing the conditions supporting trust and the risks perceived in the different phases of relationship development with Russian firms. The research has also practical implications that benefit managers who are about to or are contemplating to bring their business into the Russian market. Specifically, the findings can be used as guidelines and practical tools for establishing and sustaining trust over time with Russian business partners. The scope of identified risks offers a valuable knowledge base for successful decisions in managing relationships with Russian partners.Tietoa luottamuksen kehittymisestä ja riskeistä kulttuurien välisissä liikesuhteissa on edelleen vähän, vaikka kansainvälinen liiketoiminta on kasvanut jatkuvasti viime vuosikymmenien aikana ja luottamuksen merkitys on yleisesti ymmärretty. Tutkimuksen päätavoitteena on edistää ymmärrystä siitä, miten luottamuksen kehittymistä voidaan tukea suhteessa riskeihin suomalais-venäläisten liikesuhteiden eri vaiheissa. Tutkimus keskittyy Venäjän rakennusalan markkinoilla toimivien suomalaisten yritysten venäläisten tytäryhtiöiden ja niiden venäläisten kumppaneidensa välisiin liikesuhteisiin. Kvalitatiiviseen tutkimukseen on valittu strukturoitu lähestymistapa. Teoriaan pohjautuvia käsitteitä ja alkuperäistä konseptuaalista kehystä käytettiin ohjaamaan induktiivista empiiristä tutkintaa ja teorian rakentamista. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osa on jaettu kolmeen osaan: pilottitutkimus, päätutkimus ja täydentävä tutkimus. Alustavaa tietoa tutkimuskysymyksistä saatiin pilottitutkimuksella. Päätutkimuksessa suunnattiin ensisijaisesti selvittämään edellytyksiä, jotka tukevat luottamuksen kehittymistä suomalais-venäläisten liikesuhteiden eri kehitysvaiheissa ja edellytysten roolia suhteessa riskeihin. Luottamuksen täytyy olla korkealla, jotta liikesuhteiden riskit voidaan hyväksyä ja yhteistyöhalu voi kasvaa. Ratkaiseva rooli on edellytyksillä, jotka suoraan tukevat luottamuksen kehittymistä ja suurelta osin ovat päinvastaisessa suhteessa riskien kanssa. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa on osoitettu kriittisimmät edellytykset ja riskit, jotka vaikuttavat luottamustasoon. Erityisen merkittävää luottamuksen kehittymisen kannalta oli kulttuurisiin eroihin mukautuminen. Kulttuurisiin eroihin mukautumisen vaikutuksia luottamukseen tutkittiin kattavasti täydentävässä tutkimuksessa. Tutkimuksessa saatiin lisää tietoa luottamuksen kehittymisestä kulttuurien välisissä liikesuhteissa. Tutkimuksen integroivan näkökulman kautta ymmärretään syvemmin edellytyksiä, jotka suoraan ja välillisesti tukevat luottamuksen kehittymistä ja niiden roolia suhteessa riskeihin. Tutkimus myös kontribuoi kansainvälisen johtamisen kirjallisuuteen, erityisesti epävarmoista instituutionaalisista konteksteista, kuten esimerkiksi Venäjän liiketoimintaympäristö. Tutkimuksella on myös käytännöllisiä implikaatioita, joita voivat hyödyntää Venäjän markkinoille liiketoimintaansa laajentamista suunnittelevat ja siellä jo toimivat yritykset. Tutkimuksen tuloksia voidaan erityisesti käyttää käytännöllisenä työkaluna luottamuksen luomiseen ja ylläpitoon venäläisten liikekumppaneiden kanssa. Riskien laajuuden tunnistaminen antaa johtajille arvokasta tietoa, jota he tarvitsevat onnistuneiden päätösten tekemisessä ja jo solmittujen suhteiden ylläpitämisessä

Active DigiAge – Technology Acceptance by the Ageing People

The ageing of society is a worldwide phenomenon, particularly in industrialised countries, like Finland. To tackle the challenges of swiftly rising healthcare and social welfare costs and a new type of demand for related services, digital assistive technology solutions have emerged in recent years. Through qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted in South Finland, this empirically driven study contributes to the understanding of the attitudes of ageing people toward digital assistive technology that maintains their activities of daily living. Empirical investigations demonstrated that ageing people cannot be treated as one homogeneous group when developing technology for them. The findings have revealed that the major moderating factors that may significantly influence older adults’ acceptance and willingness to use the digital assistive technology include functional capacity, socio-demographic characteristics, digital literacy and educational background as well as the social environment supporting their ability to maintain an independent life in their own homes

Knowledge management visualisation in regional innovation system collaborative decision-making

Purpose – This study was developed in response to the need to develop age-friendly smart living environments (SLEs) due to the complex demands placed on society by the ageing of the population. It sought to analyse the potential that knowledge visualisation offers collaborative decision making applied to the development of a multiple criteria framework supporting knowledge management (KM) through knowledge collaboration (KC) and knowledge sharing (KS) in the context of Regional Innovation Systems (RIS). Design/methodology/approach – Using a socio-technical approach, knowledgeable and experienced representatives of RIS innovation actors were brought together to develop a constructivist multiple criteria framework that integrates knowledge visualisation and collaborative decision-making techniques (i.e., cognitive mapping and system dynamics). Findings – The study introduces a multiple criteria model supporting KM encompassing conditions and practices of RIS innovation actors facilitating and encouraging KC and KS. The potential for knowledge visualisation in collaborative decision making is explored in great depth and illustrated in a case study setting. Practical implications – The panel members who participated in this study consider our methodological proposal to be extremely versatile and see great potential for further applications in RIS contexts. Originality – The combined use of cognitive mapping and system dynamics according to the strategic options development and analysis (SODA) approach offers a holistic and well-informed perspective on the issue in question. The literature reports no prior work of this methodological combination in the same research context

Supporting Sustainable Development Using Multiple Criteria Decision Aid: Towards an Age-Friendly Smart Living Environment

This chapter aims to contribute to a better understanding of how sustainable development (SD) can be supported in the building of age-friendly SLEs to meet the needs of an increasingly ageing population. The proposed holistic analysis framework enables regional stakeholders engaged in building age-friendly SLEs to analyse the identified conditions and practices facilitating and encouraging knowledge collaboration (KC) and knowledge sharing (KS) that are key determinants of knowledge management (KM) and decisive means in supporting SD. Drawing on multiple criteria decision-aid (MCDA) approach, the framework was developed by involving representatives of regional stakeholders, who are innovation actors of the Häme region’s (Finland) quadruple innovation helix model, Quadruple Helix, into a collaborative decision-making process within two empirical studies. The pilot study provided a substantial background for a deeper exploration of multidimensional, complex research questions and context in the main study which utilised problem structuring methods and techniques such as strategic options development and analysis (SODA), cognitive mapping, nominal group technique (NGT), and multi-voting. Assuming a constructivist, process-oriented stance, the main study enabled the development of a more realistic analysis framework through the sharing and aggregating of stakeholders’ expertise and experiences and the uncovering of the cause-and-effect relationships among factors related to the topic under study. Taking the form of a collective cognitive map, the framework was validated by both the regional stakeholders engaged in the decision-making process of the main study and two external experts, who represented business organisations building age-friendly SLEs. Both studies revealed senior citizens’ genuine enthusiasm and motivation to be engaged in building age-friendly SLEs and the vast potential they have in developing collaboration and sharing their knowledge and experience with other stakeholders