Approaches to Using e- and m-Business Components in Business

This paper discusses using e- and m-business components in supporting and enhancing existing businesses and in creating new business innovations. A framework illustrating two different approaches companies have to adoption of e- and m-business components is proposed. Three cases of how Finnish companies have, in an innovative way, used e- and m-business components to support, to enhance, and to launch businesses are presented. Based on the illustrative framework and the cases, some rules of thumb for using e- and m-business components in business are proposed. The aim of this paper is to offer managers helpful insights for planning e- and m-business component investments.e-Business; m-Business; Business Models; Case Studies

Wearables and Wellness for the Young Elderly - Transforming Everyday Lives?

Mobile and wearable technologies have unique advantages within health and wellness. Current knowledge on wearables shows, however, that users easily abandon them after an initial use period. We wanted to investigate whether adding a social dimension to wearable use would be valuable in the young elderly age group, and investigate user experiences of wearables when introducing them to people not in the traditional target group of fitness wearables and without previous experience of wearables. In this exploratory study aimed at gaining a holistic picture to guide further research, we utilize multiple research methods to gain rich data. We found that the young elderly had a clear interest in the wearable. Introducing a social dimension to the wearable seemed beneficial as the young elderly quickly formed a both supportive and competitive relation. The social connection formed through the device appeared to be value adding for the participants and seems to at least partially address the previously identified barriers

Technology readiness, UTAUT2 and continued use of digital wellness services - A configurational approach

Digital wellness is a multi-disciplinary domain that makes use of digital and mobile technologies in order to provide personalized services for the users to improve their mental and physical well-being. In order to understand the main drivers of continued usage of digital wellness services, we make use of the well- established Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) and extend it by considering user's technology readiness (TR). Survey data is collected from 162 Finnish young elderly who participate in a research program and use a digital wellness application. With Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis combinations of UTAUT2 dimensions and TR that lead users to continue or stop using digital wellness services, are identified. The results show that technology readiness can contribute to our understanding of users’ continued usage behavior, both as an independent dimension and when combined with some of the UTAUT2 dimensions. Contrasted with previous research, our study confirms the importance of Effort expectancy whereas the impact of Performance expectancy is found to be less direct

When the Sea meets City: Transformation towards a Smart Sea in Finland

The Baltic Sea is increasingly becoming a living laboratory for rapid prototyping and testing solutions from cleaner and safer shipping to remote and autonomous navigation. The maritime industry in Finland is rapidly undergoing digital transformation to make activities at sea smarter. A Smart Sea can be understood as an ecosystem across city and sea interface in which businesses, knowledge institutions, citizens, municipal agencies and government collaborate towards shared situational awareness and create value in multiple dimensions – economic, social and environmental. This article presents Smart Sea implementation journey in Finnish public sector through notable improvements and setbacks, and identifies larger transformation effects for the society

An Exploratory Three Year Segmentation of Finnish Mobile Service Users

In this study we describe users of mobile phones and mobile services, based on three random samples from the years 2007, 2008 and 2009 which are valid representations of the Finnish general population. We carried out a detailed analysis of the sample for 2009 and used the results to do a first exploratory segmentation of Finnish mobile service users. Then we wanted to find out if the same segments could be found in the 2007 and 2008 sam- ples as well or if there has been some evolution in the formation of user categories. The findings are potentially important both as mobile service providers do not appear to pay attention to the consumer segments and as changes in the major segments offer opportunities for either successes or disasters in the mobile services market. We add to the body of knowledge on mobile services as the results we have and the methods we use can be benchmarked in other countries and comparisons can contribute to a general understanding of the demand for mobile services

Digital Coaching - An Exploratory Study on Potential Motivators

The objective of our study is to explore the importance of different sets of functionalities in a digital coaching system. Digital coaching is defined as systems providing the user with actionable advice and feedback to reach fitness goals. From previous research we identify five sets of functionalities likely to be important in the digital coaching context: mental support, exercise programs, goal setting, feedback and social functionality. We employ Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to understand users’ opinions of digital coaching. Our results highlight the importance of exercise programs and goal setting functionality, whereas feedback and social functionality are surprisingly not so important. Some gender-related differences emerge

“Who cares about fireworks?” – A Study on Digital Coaching, Gamification and Exercise Motivation

Digital coaching systems offer users support in their physical training through insights and advice based on the individual’s activity data. Often these systems utilize gamification mechanisms to motivate users. In this study we conduct interviews with digital coaching users to understand how digital coaching systems are used to motivate physical activity, what kind of a role gamification plays, and how digital coaching systems should be developed further to better motivate users. We find that data itself is more motivating than gamification mechanisms, that players use data to play their own, internal games; and that data is also used for social purposes. We find that the benefits from digital coaches today are limited and mainly related to accurate exercise tracking and visualization of user data. Gamified elements are used on a low level and not perceived as value-adding by the users; deeper understanding of motivation theory and promoting intrinsic motivation is needed

I AM A SMART PHONE USER - KEY INSIGHTS FROM THE FINNISH MARKET

Smart phones are seen to drive the development of mobile applications and a more or less intuitive belief is that once the users have a smart phone they will download applications and start using a wider variety of mobile services and/or more advanced mobile services. In this paper we describe Finnish smart phone users based on a survey study carried out with a random sample representative of Finnish consumers between the ages of 16 and 64. We divide smart phone users into three categories based on the range and frequency of using different mobile services and applications. We find, in addition to a small ‘power user’ group (15 %) and a substantial set of ‘interested but inactive users’ (47 %), that 38 % of smart phone users do not use their devices for any advanced services and have a low motivation to continue using smart phones in the future. The demand for and the sales of smart phones is growing rapidly; combined with this is the notion that users of smart phones will become users of more advanced applications and a wider variety of services, which will give a boost to the mobile service market. In light of our results we believe this development is slower to happen than expected. Also noteworthy is the sizeable minority of decidedly underwhelmed smart phone users, who are likely to jump ship to simpler devices