Of the respondents, 23% were very satisfied with their qualification, and a combined 94% were satisfied to some extent (satisfied, quite satisfied or very satisfied). The M.Sc. (Econ. & Bus. Admin.) qualification was generally considered to be a good and respected foundation, opening doors to different kinds of work.

Respondents believed that studying at the university helped them to develop good communication skills in English, a familiarity with business principles, skills in analytical and structured thinking, group work and social skills, data collection skills and a good theoretical background in their own fields. A few critical comments came from the open response fields and focused mainly on requests for studies to be of an even more practical nature.

’For us, the graduate career report is an instrument for the development of our teaching. Based on the previous survey of two years ago, we have focused on the systematic development of skills such as team work, communication and project work,’ says Vice Dean Seppo Ikäheimo, who is responsible for teaching and learning in the School of Business.

’With the results of the latest survey, we plan to give greater emphasis to argumentation skills for negotiation in our teaching of practical skills. We highlight practicality in our teaching and learning in many ways, such as closer collaboration with the business world.’

New bachelor's and master's programmes starting in autumn

The School of Business will be the first of the Aalto University schools to offer the reformed bachelor's and master's degrees. The new degree programmes will begin in autumn 2013. Thanks to the new programmes, students will be offered more opportunities to take courses in other Aalto schools and to develop interdisciplinary skills, which are in increasing demand in working life. The programmes will also include practical career skills, the development of which will be monitored regularly.

The teaching method of analysing and solving real-life business challenges is increasingly being adopted. New bachelor's degree students starting at the School of Business in Helsinki in autumn will learn about Rovio's business operations from the very start of their studies. Students will also get to align theory with practice in several business case studies throughout their degrees and with several different organisations.

’The key thing is that the students learn. The most important is what the students do, not what the teacher does,’ concludes Ikäheimo.

Further information

Degree programmes starting 1 August 2013

Degree structures starting 1 August 2013

Career Development Report Summary

Education and degree reform: Vice Dean Seppo Ikäheimo, Aalto University School of Business, tel. +358 (0)50 505 4990, seppo.ikaheimo@aalto.fi

Career Development Report: Jonna Söderholm, Head of Corporate Relations and Career Services, Aalto University School of Business, tel. +358 (0)40 353 8417, jonna.soderholm@aalto.fi

She has also worked for 13 years as a development worker and a co-creative coach in different organisations that want renew their ways of acting and their organisation culture.

Takanen's defence of her dissertation on being present at work took place at the Aalto University School of Business on 3 May. Her dissertation research is based on three years of participatory action research, in which an expert organisation, the Personnel and Governance Policy Department at the Finnish Ministry of Finance, carried out exceptional development work project.

Staff and clients benefit from new practices

The results of the new working practices included changes in the way the staff worked and interacted with one another. The experience of both staff and clients with the new working practices was positive.

‘The staff's way of developing their work changed from a controlling mode towards a more enabling mode. People started to renew not only their work, but also their ways of relating with other and oneself  and with their customers. Work satisfaction also remained at a good level, even though the staff numbers were being reduced at the same time,’ says Takanen.

The organisation's level of client satisfaction also improved significantly during this development work.

‘Many clients felt that they were being engaged properly, that their feedback was being heard and that they were regarded as partners.’

Being present in action enables  new ways of relating with oneself and other

‘Practicing being present also serves to make us pause and helps to make us aware of how we are working. Bringing more awareness to our activities can, in and of itself, change the way in which we relate with others.’

According to Takanen, being present in action means being oriented towards the present. This orientation is something that can be practiced in any situation, even in one's own work.  She has also practiced it by herself as a developer and researcher.

‘Let's say I'm having a conversation with a colleague. I can consider whether I'm really present in the moment: Am I really listening to her or am I taking in all of her words? This is something we can practice. Being present in action also means the ability to be open to what is happening in the moment.’

Focusing on the present, not the future

‘It is possible to practice being present in the workplace in different ways, for example by slowing things down before a meeting or a development session, by stopping to take stock of things during work or by developing new ways of listening to oneself and to others. Even strategic work can be carried out by focusing on the here and now, not by projecting visions of the future but by looking at life in the present.’

Mindfulness is often brought into the workplace through different mindfulness programmes.

‘These kinds of programmes could be a good start. Still, it is particularly important to find everyday ways of practicing being present in all activities,’ says Takanen. ‘I don’t speak about mindfulness, because it is often understood as an individual state of mind or an individual capability. This research work underlines being present in action as an ongoing everyday practice. It is not understood as a state of mind or an individual capability, but rather as a relational process. This is a new opening both in mindfulness research but also in development work.’

‘We have also co-developed a new development approach, called Co-Creative Process Inquiry, which invites workers to start with everyday challenges by focusing on the present. This enables them to create new ways of relating with oneself and other and to renew their ways of working,’ she says.

Takanen's dissertation as pdf

‘Experiences of Co-creative Process Inquiry’ in Terhi Takanen and Seija Petrow's book Kohtaamisten voima (The Power of Encountering), as pdf; available in Finnish only (sitra.fi) 

For further information: Terhi Takanen, tel. +358 (0)400 775 508, terhi.takanen@cocreators.fi

More about Co-Creative Process Inquiry

Open enrolment and customized programs are ranked separately in the FT Executive Education ranking. The overall listing is based on the total rating achieved in these two categories. The ranking is derived from open customer feedback and statistics provided by the schools.

“In three years, we have improved our ranking in the customized program listing by 15 positions, and our overall ranking is five positions higher. This is an excellent achievement in a highly competitive global market. This development reflects also our increasing investments in customized programs,” says Visiting Professor Pekka Mattila, Group Managing Director of Aalto University Executive Education.

According to the Financial Times, in the customized program category Aalto EE was particularly valued among corporate customers for value for money, gaining new skills and learning, and for its comprehensive teaching methods and materials. In the open enrolment listing, Aalto EE's strengths lay in the aims achieved among the students and repeat business and growth which are generated by confidential customer relations built over the years.

“We are in a constant competition with the world's leading education providers. Our proven ability to achieve the aims set forms our main strength; this is also a key criterion in the Financial Times ranking. We are an agile challenger in the international executive education market. Thanks to our operating model, we are able to provide high-quality, and at the same time, cost-efficient services,” Mattila continues.

The top-three leading international business schools in the ranking remained the same: HEC Paris, Iese Business School and IMD. ESADE, a strategic partner school of Aalto EE, improved its ranking to fourth position.

Now participating for the 13th time, Aalto University Executive Education is ranked under the name Aalto University.

Aalto EE

Aalto University Executive Education (Aalto EE) offers high-quality executive development services, supported by the competence of Aalto University and a diverse international network. Aalto EE’s mission is to build a better world through better leadership and to educate a new generation of leaders. The organization’s strengths lie in its global operating model and versatile offering. In addition to Finland and Singapore, Aalto EE offers education programs in Poland, Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia and Russia. As part of Aalto University, we hold the 'Triple Crown' of accreditations, the three most respected business university accreditations, granted to only 0.4% of the world’s business schools: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS.

Helsinki School of Economics offered its first Open University courses in May 1993.  The same year also saw the beginning of Open University instruction at the Helsinki University of Technology. The first open courses at the University of Art and Design Helsinki were held already in 1989.

'The open teaching at Aalto University focuses on economics. last year 81 per cent of credit units that were earned came from studies in economics, 11 per cent from technical studies, and 8 per cent from art and design. A total of 7570 registrations were received for all courses', explains Leena Ylä-Anttila, senior planning officer at the Open University.

Additional skills for work, a path to a degree

Ylä-Anttila says that many students study a secondary subject at the Open University as part of some other degree, or they study to gain more competence for working life.

The Open University is also a channel for work on a degree.  Each year between 15 and 30 students, whose course grades are high enough, are admitted to studies aimed at achieving a degree. The courses of the Open University correspond to teaching at the university aimed at getting a degree, and the quality is constantly monitored.

'A study is currently under way comparing examination scores of the degree side and those of the open courses. There should not be very much variation there.'

According to Ylä-Anttila, more than 30 per cent of students at the Open University have completed an academic degree, but there are also those with just a comprehensive school background. This lack of prior university studies can be a challenge for teachers, but many teachers nevertheless find teaching at the Open University to be meaningful.

'Those who study at the Open University often have work experience. They want to talk to their teachers and to bring their own examples into the teaching.'

Queueing and filling forms

Leena Ylä-Anttila, who is now on part-time retirement, started her work as the head of training at the Open University of the Helsinki School of Economics in 1993 when the first courses were starting.

 'The Open University at the Helsinki School of Economics was founded as the result of negotiations between the Ministry of Education and institutions of higher education. Education was one of the key remedies for the recession of the early 1990s and state funding became available for various training programmes', she explains.

The first courses at the Open University were summer courses which were advertised in the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. Those wanting to sign up for teaching had to queue up at the office of the Open University, fill out a form and pay 200 markka in cash into the cash box. 

'The queue from the office, which was located at Hieteniemenkatu 7 at the time, extended all the way to Hietaniemi Cemetery', Ylä-Anttila recalls.

Toward the end of the 1990s telephone registration was introduced, but even then the fee had to be paid in person. In the past two years registration has been electronic, and payment of the fees has been possible via on-line banking.

Open University will celebrate it's twenty years of teaching with coffee and cake on 21 May between 15 and 16.30 at the Main lobby of the School of Business' Main Building. Welcome!

Further information about Aalto University's Open University (avoin.aalto.fi)

Text: Tea Kalska

Her talk presented the approach of intercultural rhetoric to intercultural communication, and she challenged the audience to question the top-down view of culture -  but  to keep the concept , and look at it from bottom up: “how people do things” makes culture. In other words, culture as a static concept (Finnish culture, Japanese culture) could be rejected, but in all interaction dynamic, (multi)cultural elements are present.

Professor Connor, IUPUI University, and Director of the Center for Intercultural Communication, Indianapolis, visited Aalto University School of Business in the end of April.

Her presentation was followed by a communications practitioner perspective offered by  Pia Friberg, Senior Manager, Wärtsilä Corporation, Communications & Branding. Pia Friberg is a communications graduate from Aalto University School of Business (Helsinki School of Economics). She vividly described her daily multilingual and intercultural life among 114 nationalities and dozens of languages, giving interesting examples of  ‘bottom up’ cultural  situations.

As in the earlier Seminars in 2008-2012, the academic and practitioner perspectives converged , complementing each other.  At the end, it was concluded that culture is not a dirty word, but an important concept that we had been discussing as “culture”?! –   with all the punctuation marks of Aalto identity giving meaning to the word.

The seminar was organized by the Department of Communication of the School of Business and the Corporate Relations Unit.

More information: Leena Louhiala-Salminen, tel. 040 353 8201

Photo: From the left:  Pia Friberg, Senior Manager, Wärtsilä Corporation,  Prof. Leena Louhiala-Salminen, Aalto University School of Business, and Prof. Ulla Connor, IUPUI University.

The list of accepted students can be found from Admission results section: http://www.aalto.fi/en/studies/admissions/biz/masters_degree/publication_of_results/

Please note that the list contains only the names of those applicants who have given the permission to publish their admission decision on the web site.

The applicants can also check their own admission results in the online application system apply.aalto.fi.

A formal letter of acceptance will be sent to the admitted students by mail.

More information:
Aalto University Admission Services
admissions@aalto.fi

These are some of the findings of the dissertation research conducted by Johanna Frösén, M.Sc. (Econ.), at Aalto University School of Business. The research explores the use of marketing metrics, as well as the practices of measuring marketing performance and marketing control in Finnish companies.

Effectiveness of different forms of marketing control varies across business contexts

The research identifies five distinct profiles of performance measurement among Finnish companies, each focusing on different dimensions of marketing performance. All profiles are typically linked to specific types of industries, company size or market.

The findings of the research particularly underscore the multidimensionality and contextuality in marketing performance and its measurement. No universal 'best practices' for marketing performance measurement or marketing control exist - rather, both need to be carefully adapted to the individual firm's objectives, strategy, and business environment.

In addition to formal performance measurement, there are also other, complementary tools for a firm to control its marketing. Surprisingly, especially for small businesses, formal performance measurement is sometimes not even necessary – having a right kind of corporate culture may in some specific cases well suffice for controlling the relationship between the company and its markets.

For managers, the study provides new tools for developing a comprehensive understanding of the firm’s marketing performance, as well as practical guidelines for developing comprehensive systems for marketing performance measurement and control.

Dissertation defense

The doctoral dissertation of Johanna Frösén, M.Sc. (Econ.), titled Marketing Metrics, Marketing Performance Measurement, and Marketing Control, in the field of marketing will be examined at Aalto University School of Business on Friday, 26^th of April 2013 starting at 12 noon.

Professor David Stewart from Loyola Marymount University, representing one of today’s most distinguished scholars and experts in the field of marketing, serves as the opponent at the defense. Professor Stewart has published more than 200 scientific peer-reviewed articles, authored several books and served as chief editor for several top scientific journals in marketing. Today he is Editor in Chief for the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing and President’s Professor of Marketing at Loyola Marymount University in California. In addition to his academic work, Professor Stewart also acts as founding Director and Chair of the American Marketing Accountability Standards Board (http://www.themasb.org/).

Professor Henrikki Tikkanen, Head of the Department of Marketing at Aalto University will act as the custos.

Representatives of the media may request free copies of the dissertation from the Aalto University School of Business Communications Unit at viestinta-biz@aalto.fi or by telephone at +358 50 566 5673.

Further information: Johanna Frösén, tel. +358 40 3538 230, johanna.frosen@aalto.fi

Aalto EE was again the Nordic countries' best provider of Executive MBA programs, according to the Financial Times international ranking in 2012. This ranking evaluates the world's 100 best Executive MBA programs – once again, Aalto EE was the only Finnish player that made the cut. On the domestic scene, Aalto EE rose to a clear first position among providers of management education – based on the Education 2012 survey by Finnish business publication, Talouselämä. In a corporate image survey conducted by Taloustutkimus Oy, Aalto EE received the best overall score out of 26 education providers in the Greater Helsinki catchment area.

”As an indicator of our own, we refer to our education services' economic footprint and our overall impact within the Aalto University community. Last year, this accounted for over EUR 1.5 million. It's great to see that professors and experts from Aalto University contributed around 34 per cent of our teaching”, describes Visiting Professor Pekka Mattila, Group Managing Director.

”We have implemented our growth strategy on a consistent basis. Last year was a year of several investments in system and process development. We are aiming for EUR 20 million in turnover by the end of 2016. This will take us into the international major league”, Mattila explains.

Aalto EE functions as a management expertise bridge between East and West. In addition to its main locations in Finland and Singapore, Aalto EE operates in Poland, Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, and Russia. As part of the Aalto-University, Aalto EE has all three internationally respected business university accreditations: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. This places the school among the top 0.4% in the world.

”We will continue to grow and aspire to be the preferred partner for major international companies in Northern Europe and Asia”, Mattila adds.

Key figures

For further information, please contact:
Pekka Mattila D.Soc.Sc., Group Managing Director, Visiting Professor
Aalto University Executive Education
Tel.: +358 40 738 7221
pekka.mattila@aaltoee.fi

Aalto EE

Aalto University Executive Education offers high-quality executive development services, drawing on the many strengths of its extensive international network and the competencies of Aalto University. Its mission is to build a better world through better leadership and educate a new generation of leaders. Aalto EE’s strengths lie in its global operating model and diverse offering. In addition to Finland and Singapore, Aalto EE offers programs in Poland, Sweden, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, and Russia. Aalto EE holds three respected business university accreditations: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS certificates. In this respect, it is representative of the top 0.4% institutions in the world.

- Ability to find misstatements depends on the auditor’s technical competence. Likelihood of reporting them is determined by the degree of auditor's independence, says Lasse Niemi, Professor of Accounting and Auditing at Aalto University School of Business.

According to Niemi, as the investor cannot observe the actual level of audit quality, she makes a ‘guess’ based on the image of the suppliers of audits and their supervisors. If there is no trust on the auditors or their supervising bodies, there is no value for the investors.   

New regulation brought major changes

Niemi describes the major developments of the audit quality globally as follows:
- In short perspective there has been several high profile corporate scandals on the both sides of the Atlantic in early 2000's (Enron and WorldCom in the US; Parmalat in Europe). In the States this caused the development of new regulation (the Sarbanes–Oxley Act) and end of self-regulation. Also a new regulatory body of auditing (Public Company Accounting Oversight Boardin, PCAOB) was established.

- In Finland, the deregulation of capital markets in the late 1980 and joining the EU in 1995 were the major changes. In consequence the introduction of the first Auditing Act to implement EU legislation on auditing to Finnish legislation. Prior to this, the rules and regulations on auditing were in other laws, e.g. in the Company Law, says Niemi.

The Department of Accounting of the Aalto University School of Business will organize a seminar on audit quality on Monday, 22 April. The seminar will discuss eg. the future of auditing and the major developments of the audit quality. The guest speakers include Professors David Hay and Stuart Turley.

Professor Niemi says that the seminar aims at fruitful discussion of the audit regulators, supervisors, researchers and auditors on the recent developments and which way we are going in the future.

Seminar on Audit Quality 22 April

Welcome to hear about the future of auditing and what are the major developments of the audit quality. 

The seminar is organized on Monday 22 April at 1 pm at the Chydenia building of the School of Business, PwC hall (1st floor), Runeberginkatu 22-24, 00100 Helsinki.

The event is targeted at those interested in auditing and its development, including regulators, members of the audit oversight bodies, auditing professionals and students.

The key note speakers are distinguished professors and researchers in the field of auditing and accounting:

• The Future of Auditing- Professor David Hay, University of Auckland, New Zealand. See Hay's bio
• Audit Regulation and Promoting Audit Quality in Practice - Professor Stuart Turley, Manchester Business School, Great Britain. See Turley's bio

Insights and views on audit quality and regulations by:

• Professor Teemu Malmi, Head of the Department of Accounting, Aalto University School of Business
• Professor Pontus Troberg, Hanken School of Economics, Member of the Auditing Board
• Ms Tiina Torniainen, Partner, KPMG
• Ms Arja Talma, Senior Vice President, Kesko Corporation

The seminar is followed by cocktails.

The event is organized and hosted by the Auditing Board (TILA) and the Department of Accounting at Aalto University School of Business.

Registrations to the seminar. The event is open and free for everyone.

“The latest energy statistics and the National Energy and Climate Strategy are both indications that an energy turn-around is underway in Finland,” Professor Raimo Lovio sums up. Within the FICCA programme, he heads the extensive LAICA project that focuses on the local use of energy innovations.

According to Lovio, there are many factors that point to a turn-around in the way that Finns consume energy. The increase of energy consumption has stopped; energy consumption has not increased in ten years and the anticipated increase by the year 2020 will likely remain minimal. Furthermore, for the first time, the amount of energy produced by renewable energy sources and nuclear power exceeded the energy produced by fossil fuels and peat in 2012.

“In 2012, for the first time, the carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and peat fell clearly below the level in 1990, which is the year of comparison. So, the era of reduction in greenhouse gases has begun,” says Lovio. “Another benefit of the energy turn-around is that, by replacing imported energy with domestic energy sources, we will, in the future, improve the trade balance, create jobs and promote the export industry related to energy technology.”

Wood energy and heat pumps successful – wind and solar energy on a rapid rise

Until now, the most successful technologies involved in the turn-around have been wood energy and heat pumps.  The increase in the use of forest processed chips in the production of electricity and heat has been the greatest single factor promoting wood energy. Projects have also been proposed for the purpose of using wood to create new types of fuel for various uses. According to Lovio, wood will continue to be Finland’s most important energy source, even if only a portion of these projects are realised.

Finland is one of the leading European countries in terms of the use of heat pumps. Already now, every second new single-family home is equipped with a geothermal system. These types of systems are also becoming more common for the heating and cooling of larger properties. Heat pumps have seen an increase due to the proactive approach of SMEs and the citizens themselves, without nearly any promotional public funding. “The newest aspect of the trend is that wind and solar energy, which have generally been on a slow rise, have now picked up momentum. The wind power capacity will nearly double during 2013. By 2020, the increase will be manifold. This is possible because of the subsidised feed-in tariff, careful placement of wind power plants and the development of marine wind power,” explains Lovio.

According to Lovio, a turn-around in the field of solar energy is visible in a new attitude of the citizens and companies, as well as the Government. “Finland is seeing the development of a solar energy cluster that operates within both the domestic and export markets. Along with smaller companies, the large energy corporations have begun to sell solar energy solutions to their customers, and we’re seeing the implementation of smart grid-connected solar power systems, which would be attractive to consumers. ”

In 2012, the trade deficit for Finland’s energy products stood at over 7 billion euros. As a result of changes in energy production and consumption, the deficit will shrink by 2 billion euros over the coming years.  New jobs will be created in many fields.  Solutions that improve the energy efficiency of our traffic, lighting and heating are being developed at a rapid pace.  Energy solutions are the most promising aspect of Finland’s cleantech exports.

As part of the Academy of Finland’s Research Programme on Climate Change (FICCA), the LAICA project is being implemented as a joint effort by the Aalto University School of Business, the Finnish Environment Institute, and the National Consumer Research Centre. The project will continue until the end of 2014.  

More information:

• Professor Raimo Lovio, Consortium Leader, Aalto University, firstname.lastname(at)aalto.fi, tel. +358 40 353 8242

Information on the Academy of Finland's FICCA programme:

• Paavo-Petri Ahonen, Programme Manager, firstname.lastname(at)aka.fi, tel. +358 29 533 5005
• Tuula Aarnio, Programme Manager, firstname.lastname(at)aka.fi, tel. +358 29 533 5146
• www.aka.fi/ficca

Aalto University Open University offers courses in Economics, Arts and Design, and Technology.

Open University education allows everyone interested in the fields represented by Aalto University to pursue studies meeting the current Aalto University degree requirements. Open University courses are open for everyone regardless of their background.

Courses are worth a one to ten credits and the registration payment is 10€ per one credit.

Please go to the Open University webpages and find information about summer courses 2013.

− Now there is proof that customers who engage with a business through social media contribute more to the bottom line than customers who do not, said Ashish Kumar, assistant professor of marketing at Aalto University.

− Our study showed that social media activities help strengthen the bond between the customer and the firm. Participating customers on a firm’s social media site contribute 5.6% more revenue and visit the business about 5% more than non-participating customers, he explains.

In the past there was no individual-level data that connected a customer's participation in a firm-hosted social media site and their actual purchase behaviors. Companies questioned whether there was any return on their investment of resources to operate their social media site. This study proves that building online communities, personalizing messages and encouraging contributions from online members enhances the customer experience as well as increases the frequency of social media visits and promotes sales overall. Such data is important to confirm the pay-offs of social media efforts by firms.

The research showed that the keys to success include maintaining a user-friendly site, sending regular updates about events, personalizing key messages to customers and encouraging interaction from them. By fostering an online relationship, customers can be segmented depending upon their purchase history and prior interactions to determine which customers would be best to target with this marketing effort. It is important to note that not all customers respond to social media efforts equally. This makes market segmentation essential.

As a result of this study, business managers now have a better understanding of the return on their investment in social media. They also now know there is a direct correlation between social media participation and the number of items a customer puts in their shopping basket and subsequently purchases. By capitalizing on this knowledge, marketing can be focused on creating and nurturing the social media communities that generate the most profits.

This study has been published in a special issue of the journal Information Systems Research on ‘Social Media and Business Transformation’. This study was conducted by Ashish Kumar from Aalto University in collaboration with Rishika Rishika and Ramkumar Janakiraman from Texas A&M University, and Ram Bezawada from the University at Buffalo, New York.

Article: Rishika, Rishika; Kumar, Ashish; Janakiraman, Ramkumar; Bezawada, Ram: The Effect of Customers’ Social Media Participation on Customer Visit Frequency and Profitability: An Empirical Investigation. Published in Information Systems Research, March 2013. Article online (dx.doi.org) 

More information:
Assistant Professor Ashish Kumar
Aalto University, School of Business
e-mail. ashish.kumar@aalto.fi
Tel. +358 50 4311813

Aalto University School of Business Corporate Advisory Board:

• acts in an advisory position to the leadership of the School with the aim to inform and further strengthen the engagement between the School and society, the corporate sector in particular
• promotes the School’s abilities to access non-academic sources of know-how and other resources to shape its long-term development
• ensure that the School through its research and educational programmes addresses the current and future needs of companies and society.

The members of the Aalto University School of Business Corporate Advisory Board:

The CAB is made up of distinguished leaders from the corporate sector and society at large. The members and chair persons of the CAB are identical with those of the board of the Support Foundation of the School (the HSE Foundation), whose task is to support the Aalto University School of Business through grants and other support. The activities of CAB are fully integrated with those of the Foundation. The Dean of the School is ex officio member of CAB.

• President Kari Jordan, Chairman
• CEO Matti Vuoria, Vice Chairman
• CEO Elina Björklund
• MSc (Econ.) Arto Hiltunen
• CEO Pekka Laaksonen
• Executive Vice President Pii Kotilainen
• Dean, professor Ingmar Björkman

The Corporate Advisory Board convenes in conjunction with and as an integrated part of the board meetings of the Foundation. At these meetings, members are informed about strategic issues and events and are asked to express their opinions on important decisions, projects and developments.

This information emerges from the Knechel-Niemi-Zerni team's research, which will be published in the Journal of Accounting Research. The research team consists of Lasse Niemi, Professor of Accounting and Auditing at Aalto University, W. Robert Knechel from the University of Florida and Mikko Zerni from the University of Vaasa.

The researchers investigated large Swedish firms of auditors, where the owners (partners) were managers at the same time, and how the firm's returns were divided between the concerned.  There are large pay differentials both between firms and partners: those with the top salaries earn many times the income of those earning less.

The income is dependent on the operating result of the firm and on the career length. The longer one has worked as an authorized public accountant, the higher one's income. If you belong to the firm's top management, for example to the board, extra payment is made for that work. In some firms, women as auditors earn less than men do, but the reasons for that are not revealed by the research data.

Partners’ income is also affected by their customer portfolios. When adding up the balances of the clients, the greater the sum, the greater the income.  If there are listed companies among the clients, that increases the income; the same happens if the partner is specialized in a certain economically significant industry.

’The aim of auditing as such is not to predict economic difficulties, but, if the quality of reporting is measured by the prediction accuracy, it would seem that good prediction accuracy increases the partner's income whereas poor prediction accuracy reduces the income. In income distribution, at this point, attention is thus paid to the quality of work,’ Professor Lasse Niemi says.

A loss of a customer does not seem to affect the auditor's income, but a gain of a new customer would seem to increase it. With career advancement, good performance generally increases the income.

Professor Lasse Niemi is trying to figure out what a good incentive system would be like. ’ It should encourage quality in auditing, provide rewards for long-term work benefiting the firm and protect the auditor from the pressure from individual customers.’

The auditing firms investigated pay attention to the performance of their managers, but based on the research data it is not possible to rank the systems as good or bad.

Text: Heinä Hirvikorpi

 ”In the case of digital services, the traditional view that switching to a service-based economy will slow productivity growth and reduce the competitiveness of the national economy does not hold true. On the contrary, digital services increase productivity, economic growth and wellbeing,” comments Professor Matti Pohjola of Aalto University, who gave a presentation yesterday at DiViA – the Digital Business Forum.

In discussions of our economic competitiveness, we should pay more attention to enhancing the role of service exports.

”Even now, the digitization of knowledge work is creating new practices, which are generating wealth and wellbeing. This change is comparable to past events such as the industrial revolution and the arrival of electricity,” Pohjola continues.

Success in the digital economy requires the ability to create new business and business models, and new practices – both back-office and at the customer/business interface – while markedly improving productivity through new tools and management models.  This will also increase the importance of change management in companies. The related management challenges lie in taking advantage of new opportunities, and in the radical transformation of practices and the management of knowledge work and people.

”In a constantly changing environment, leaders’ ability to create meaning and a sense of belonging in their teams is becoming more and more crucial,” says Pekka Mattila, Group Managing Director & CEO of Aalto University Executive Education and Visiting Professor at Aalto University.

The theme of today's DiViA seminar is the digital future. This spring's subsequent themes will be behavioral change, as well as brands and digimedia.

Furthermore, School of Business and Aalto University Executive Education are taking part in The Economist Digital Horizons -conference, which will be held on 13rd June 2013.

For further details on Aalto EE's DiViA forum contact: Anu Peltola, tel. +358 (0)40 501 4318, anu.peltola@aaltoee.fi This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

DiViA

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These issues are explained in the doctoral thesis of Antti Miihkinen, M.Sc.

Miihkinen studied the effects of a detailed risk reporting standard on how companies report about their risks in a textual form – for example in annual reports.  He noticed that the risk reporting standard increased reporting on risks, improved the balance of the information between various risk topics and made the description of risks more informative. 

The results of the thesis show that the responsibility for reporting risks assigned on a general level is not necessarily an effective enough way to guarantee high-quality disclosure about abstract issues such as risks.

’Earlier, the guidelines on risk reporting were very general and could be interpreted in many ways,’ Miihkinen explains.

Disagreement about future cash flow expectations decreased

Miihkinen also analysed the economic impacts of high-quality risk reporting on share markets. The results showed that the quality of risk reporting and asymmetry of information have a negative connection. When reporting on risks is carried out well, information asymmetry is lower.

’This means that a company that reports adequately about its risks has a smaller information risk. As investors are having fewer differing opinions about the future expectations for the company and about the risks related to them, also the share price will be closer to its fundamental value.’

According to Miihkinen, society as a whole benefits from this.  Peoples' assets become directed towards targets that are the most profitable, the best of the companies keep riding the wave and new workplaces are created.

Larger companies were better reporters than the small ones

In 2005, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for public companies came into force in the EU. Miihkinen also investigated how companies informed investors about the transition to the use of the IFRS standards. He found that an authoritative and actively marketed transition disclosure recommendation was an efficient way to improve companies' transition disclosure.

The quality of both risk and transition disclosures could also be explained by many factors that were not dependent on legislation. Large Finnish listed firms were on average better than small firms in both transition and risk disclosures. Other explanatory factors were profitability, financial leverage, growth prospects, listing on the New York Stock Exchange, and board independence.

Public defence of the thesis

The public defence of M.Sc. (Econ.) Antti Miihkinen's doctoral thesis in the field of accounting titled Essays on Corporate Risk and Transition Disclosures in the IFRS Era will take place at 12.15 p.m. on Friday, 15 March 2013 at the Aalto University School of Business (Chydenia building, Stora Enso Hall, H-3.24, Runeberginkatu 22-24).

Professor Petri Sahlström from the University of Oulu will act as an opponent and Professor Juha Kinnunen as custos.

Miihkinen's dissertation as pdf

Representatives of the media may request free copies of the dissertation from the Aalto University School of Business Communications Unit, viestinta-biz(at)aalto.fi or tel. +358 50 566 5673.

Further information: antti.miihkinen@aalto.fi, p. 040 353 8054

The Economic Guru (Talousguru) competition measures economics knowledge of the upper secondary students.The Economic Guru challenge is organised jointly by the Bank of Finland, the Federation of Finnish Financial Services (FFI) and the Association for Teachers of History and Social Studies in Finland (HYOL).

Approximately 900 pupils from 120 senior high schools from across Finland participated in the competition.

The finals were held between 28.2. and 1.3.2013 and the winner was Antti Luukkanen from Helsingin normaalilyseo lukio school, Helsinki.

Joona Suhonen from Tampereen klassillinen lukio school, Tampere came in second and Jaakko Markkanen from Äänekosken lukio school, Äänekoski was third. The three best of the competition can choose to study at the Aalto University School of Business, the University of Helsinki, Economics, Jyväskylä University School of Business or Economics at the Swedish speaking Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki.

Read more at the webpages of the Bank of Finland

His areas of specialisation are innovation management in business, innovation policy and the development and regulation of the digital economy.

Erkki Ormala has served as Nokia's Vice President of Technology Policy since 1999, overseeing the global development of the company's economic and regulatory environment. Ormala has represented Nokia widely in different international organisations. One notable role was President of the European information and communications technology and consumer electronics sector organisation DigitalEurope from 2008 to 2012.

He was also a member of the Board of Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) during 2009-2010 and is currently a member of the Board of the University of Oulu. During 2011-2012, Ormala was Chairman of the research and innovation committee of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK).

Between 1987 and 1999, Erkki Ormala was Secretary of the Science and Technology Policy Council of Finland, significantly influencing the formation of Finland's innovation system as one of the world's leading systems in the 1990s. He has held a number of international positions of trust: he has been a chairman with the OECD and a member of a number of research and innovation programme evaluation and monitoring panels.

The doctoral dissertation of Tomi Heimonen, M.Sc. (Econ. & Bus. Admin.), published at the Aalto University School of Business examines the characteristics of innovative, high-growth and highly successful small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the significance of business and innovation services to Finnish rapidly growing SMEs.

According to Heimonen, the innovative growth of sales and business success should not be confused with each other, but examined simultaneously. Business success includes profitability, liquidity and/or solvency. The results of Heimonen’s work support previous results according to which innovations increase sales, but do not necessarily increase business success in the short run.

Innovative and successful SMEs in business for several years

The dissertation contradicts the one-sided view that new businesses and entrepreneurs are the ones who reform the economy, employ people and create new value. Heimonen brings forward how existing SMEs and entrepreneurs are able to undergo reform, employ, grow and succeed.

According to his study, innovative and successful high-growth SMEs do not have a uniform or typical development path. What the majority of successful high-growth businesses have in common is that they have been in business for several years. These SMEs are often the second, third or n^th generation of growing enterprises and entrepreneurs.

Tekes funding allocated appropriately

According to the results of the study, Tekes funding has a positive influence on the innovative growth of SMEs. This means that funding has been allocated appropriately and that it has even exceeded the basic requirements set for the impacts concerning technology development and commercialisation.

The results show that the rapid growth and success of businesses are often preceded by various critical events and focused strategies. Type of ownership also affects how businesses view rapid growth and success and other personal meanings associated with success. Entrepreneurs from family businesses have a different approach to that of entrepreneurs with a university background, for instance.

However, a survey targeted at Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) firms and interviews with key KIBS informants indicate that current innovation support services do not flexibly meet the challenges faced by growing innovative businesses. These challenges are mainly related to the simultaneous development of technology and commercialisation and to increasing the impacts of the relationship between innovations and growth.

Public examination of the doctoral dissertation

The doctoral dissertation of Tomi Heimonen, M.Sc. (Econ. & Bus. Admin.), Characteristics of innovative, high growth and highly successful SMEs, in the field of entrepreneurship will be examined at the Aalto University School of Business Mikkeli Campus on Friday 8 March 2013 at 12 noon (Auditorium, Lönnrotinkatu 5, Mikkeli).

The opponent will be Professor Pasi Malinen (University of Turku, Business and Innovation Development (BID) Special Unit). Professor Paula Kyrö will act as the custos. The event will be held in Finnish.

Representatives of the media may request free copies of the dissertation from the Aalto University School of Business Communications Unit, viestinta-biz(at)aalto.fi or tel. +358 50 566 5673.

Pdf file of the dissertation

Further information: Tomi Heimonen, tomi.heimonen@aalto.fi, +358 50 522 8587