Search results
1 – 8 of 8Pekka Malinen and Antti J. Niemi
A system consisting of an industrial robot and a computer was provided with a camera of high resolution. The camera/computer interface was provided with an electronic window which…
Abstract
A system consisting of an industrial robot and a computer was provided with a camera of high resolution. The camera/computer interface was provided with an electronic window which was made controllable by computer program. A rough raster scan was used for detection of presence and approximate location of the objects. A finer raster and a set of seven thresholds for the brightness were then applied in a limited window around each object only, in order to save memory space and time without losing accuracy. Thus, e.g. two objects could be detected at the location of an originally unified area, or objects of the same form but differing colors were distinguished. The observation, indentification and classification of the objects by the robot were performed as a fully automatic sequence.
Antti Rautiainen, Jani Saastamoinen and Kati Pajunen
Key audit matters (KAMs) in International Standard for Auditing, 701 seek to enhance the value of the auditor’s report by increasing the transparency of how the audit was…
Abstract
Purpose
Key audit matters (KAMs) in International Standard for Auditing, 701 seek to enhance the value of the auditor’s report by increasing the transparency of how the audit was performed. The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional auditors themselves perceive the impact of KAMs on audit quality and audit effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
Statistical analyses of an electronic survey of certified public auditors (CPAs) in Finland.
Findings
Regarding the perceptions of KAMs, the authors found two dominant views on auditing: quality and efficiency. In general, the respondents did not consider that KAMs improve audit quality. However, auditors focusing on efficiency considered that KAMs make the audit process more fluent. Further, the use of KAMs may facilitate audit effectiveness and cooperation between auditors and managers. The authors also found three factors related to the KAMs processes and auditing work: effectiveness, risks and workload.
Practical implications
Auditors may use KAMs to provide focus in their work. This facilitates balancing between the demands for added value while keeping the workload and audit risks at a tolerable level.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the emerging literature on KAMs as well as to the literature examining practitioner views of changes in auditing regulation. It is, as far as we know, the first study to report survey evidence on how CPAs themselves perceive KAMs and the effects of KAMs on audit work in an European Union country context.
Ulla Saastamoinen, Lasse Eronen, Antti Juvonen and Pasi Vahimaa
Schools have a significant role in ensuring children's wellbeing as children spend a lot of time at school. Students need to have an active role in their learning and an…
Abstract
Purpose
Schools have a significant role in ensuring children's wellbeing as children spend a lot of time at school. Students need to have an active role in their learning and an opportunity to participate in issues concerning wellbeing and studying. This research examines students' wellbeing in an innovative learning environment. The classroom is built with professionals, teachers and students (aged 9). The authors call it Learning Ground.
Design/methodology/approach
Students' wellbeing was measured with smart device application for a six-week period. Students answered the questionnaire with a Likert scale of five (very poor – excellent) responses. Two weeks during the six weeks research period, students were able to use digital study aids, EEG-biosensor headsets, to observe the effectiveness of their learning, defined by NeurSky app. The EEG-biosensors enabled students to use a tool to recognise their own learning factors during the lessons. The effectiveness was available to students via tablets all the time.
Findings
The students at the Learning Ground are satisfied with wellbeing and the environment support for students' wellbeing experience is notable. They have “good vibes” before and after the school day. When wearing EEG-headsets “study aids”, which enabled them to observe their learning via tablets at lessons, the wellbeing experience in the mornings even increased.
Originality/value
Schools need to be visionaries concerning 21st century learning and children's wellbeing. Building flexible learning environments and bringing innovative technologies into schools to provide active support for students will enable 21st century learning. Wellbeing of children should become first when developing the future schools.
Details
Keywords
An Chen, Paul Martin Lillrank, Henni Tenhunen, Antti Peltokorpi, Paulus Torkki, Seppo Heinonen and Vedran Stefanovic
In healthcare, there is limited knowledge of and experience with patient choice management. The purpose of this paper is to focus on patient choice, apply and test…
Abstract
Purpose
In healthcare, there is limited knowledge of and experience with patient choice management. The purpose of this paper is to focus on patient choice, apply and test demand-supply-based operating (DSO) logic integrated with clinical setting in clarifying choice contexts, investigate patient’s choice-making at different contexts and suggest context-based choice architectures to manage and develop patient choice.
Design/methodology/approach
Prenatal screening and testing in the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS), Finland, was taken as an example. Choice points were contextualized by using the DSO framework. Women’s reflections, behaviors and experience at different choice contexts were studied by interviewing women participating in prenatal screening and testing. Semi-structured interview data were processed by thematic analysis.
Findings
By applying DSO logic, four choice contexts (prevention, cure, electives and continuous care) were relevant in the prenatal screening and testing episode. Women had different choice-making in prevention and cure mode contexts regarding choice activeness, information needs, social influence, preferences, emotion status and choice-making difficulty. Default choice was widely accepted by women in prevention mode and individual counseling can help women make informed choice in cure mode.
Originality/value
The authors apply the DSO model to contextualize the patient choice in one care episode and compare patient choice-making at different contexts. The authors also suggest the possible context-based choice architectures to manage and promote patient choice
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to explore the potential for disclosure recommendations given by authoritative supervisory bodies to reduce information asymmetry between the management and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the potential for disclosure recommendations given by authoritative supervisory bodies to reduce information asymmetry between the management and shareholders.
Design/methodology/approach
There is only meagre existing evidence concerning firms' responses to disclosure recommendations. This paper uses descriptive statistics and OLS regression analysis to test if firms behave more similarly to voluntary or to mandatory disclosure when they follow the Committee of European Securities Regulators disclosure recommendation for International Financial Reporting Standards transition. Second, it analyses the determinants of and incentives for recommended transition disclosure.
Findings
Recommended disclosure is documented to have more mandatory characteristics than purely voluntary disclosure. Moreover, the certain disclosure incentives for managers and corporate governance factors prove to have an impact on recommended disclosure. Firm size, growth prospects, and independent board members associate positively with recommended disclosure whereas there is a negative relationship between financial leverage and recommended disclosure.
Research limitations/implications
The paper does not provide evidence on the cost differences between disclosure laws and authoritative disclosure recommendations. This could be examined by future research.
Practical implications
Authoritative disclosure recommendations reduce information asymmetry. In some cases they may be a faster and more cost‐efficient way to achieve disclosure enhancements than regulation.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to explore the efficiency of authoritative disclosure recommendations in situations where urgent disclosure improvements are needed. The results have implications for regulatory bodies evaluating different strategies to reduce asymmetric information in these situations.
Details
Keywords
Keijo Räsänen and Sirkku Kivisaari
In modern corporations, internal R&D is considered an important source of new products and, therefore, a major mechanism of new business generation. Innovation studies report…
Abstract
In modern corporations, internal R&D is considered an important source of new products and, therefore, a major mechanism of new business generation. Innovation studies report, however, that only a small fraction of all R&D projects are successful. They recognise that the quality of management is a key factor in predicting the outcome of innovation processes. In spite of this consensus, only a few empirical studies have described how managers from various organisational positions jointly produce certain innovative outcomes in certain industries and corporate contexts (Maidique 1980, Burgelman & Sayles 1986).
Nation states’ neoliberal policies do not regard asylum seekers and undocumented migrants as deserving of a good life. Social work in welfare states is highly connected to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Nation states’ neoliberal policies do not regard asylum seekers and undocumented migrants as deserving of a good life. Social work in welfare states is highly connected to the policies of nation states. There is a need to address theories in social work that have a transnational focus at the local level. Axel Honneth’s recognition theory enables an approach to forced migration from the direction of personal relations and personhood itself. The core idea is that if people cannot gain recognition, this causes harm to their self-realisation. The purpose of this paper is discuss how the recognition theory overcomes a national focus in social work.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is theoretical. The relations of recognition are discussed in the context of transnational social work in welfare states with forced migrants.
Findings
The theory of recognition in social work practice with people who do not have a residence permit is best articulated by an understanding of rights concerning all the attributes of the person, i.e. as a needy being, autonomous and particular in a community.
Originality/value
Forced migrants’ backgrounds provide a specific backdrop for misrecognition, which may harm self-relations. The relations of recognition contribute to social work by providing the sensitivity required to evaluate the complexity of views and attitudes that affect the way we encounter service users. The relations of recognition (care, respect and esteem) give normative criteria for communication in order to take another person as a person, which, in turn, contributes to healthy self-relations of forced migrants.
Details
Keywords
This case explores the turnaround and corporate renewal of the Chicago Blackhawks professional hockey team, which transformed from one of the worst-run organizations in all of…
Abstract
This case explores the turnaround and corporate renewal of the Chicago Blackhawks professional hockey team, which transformed from one of the worst-run organizations in all of professional sports in 2007 to one that won the Stanley Cup (the National Hockey League championship trophy) in 2010. W. Rockwell “Rocky” Wirtz was faced with making critical decisions shortly after inheriting the team from his father, who was the individual most associated with the organization's decline. The team faced financial trouble and had narrowly avoided missing payroll; the previous customer relations strategy (which included refusing to televise home games or to conduct effective marketing) had resulted in significantly diminished brand value; and management and player personnel were devoid of effective leadership. At its nadir, the team was named “The Worst Franchise in Professional Sports” by ESPN in 2004. After assuming control, Rocky embarked on an ambitious corporate renewal strategy that included the following components: leadership: install a new management team with clear goals and creative ideas about how to turn around the organization; culture: reward players for accomplishing their goals and establish a performance-based culture; financial: seek new corporate sponsorships and increase ticket prices once the team established a winning record; and brand and marketing: send a clear message that the team was intent upon winning the championship and design a customer-focused marketing strategy.
After analyzing the case, students should be able to: recommend strategic, financial, and operational changes needed to turn around the organization, and identify key leadership qualities that enable execution of a turnaround plan.
Details