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Marketing, branding, strategic management, online retailing, and entrepreneurship.

Postgraduate courses in: strategic management; marketing management (branding); and entrepreneurship.

The case describes the founding and the first year of an Estonian internet start-up, the “deal-of-the-day” web site Cherry.ee. The focal topic of the case is the analysis of alternative scenarios for the further development of the company after the first year in business: selling the company, entering into a merger with similar businesses, or continuing to develop the brand independently. The case gives an example of creating a new market, introducing a new business model and launching a brand with substantial use of social media marketing. The successful business model was quickly copied by a lot of followers creating a fierce competitive environment and raising a question of sustainability of the competitive advantage. The case provides an opportunity to discuss how to strategically handle the development of a growing start-up company in an increasingly competitive market environment.

Understanding the critical success factors and potential pitfalls for an internet start-up; developing skills to critically analyze the concept of sustainable competitive advantage; comprehension of the main factors influencing the strategic decision on whether to follow a growth, cooperation, or exit strategy; and awareness of the relative advantages of online and offline marketing and understanding how social media strategies can be used to build a brand.

Teaching note.

This failure case study tells the story of All World Media, a start-up offering internet-based media planning and buying tool created by ambitious Estonian entrepreneurs in 2011. A few years earlier the two founders had come up with an idea that in their opinion would revolutionize the process of media planning and buying for advertisers. They had noticed that the industry worked in an intransparent and inefficient way. Based on their own extensive experience in various internet ventures and following first consultations with key industry players they were confident that the market was ready for a self-service online media marketplace.

The (A) case focusses on the initial business idea and on the events before the launch of the internet platform. The case includes the entrepreneurs' concept, the main contents of the business plan, and the operational steps until the launch of the service on the market. The (B) case outlines the events after the launch of the online service, analyzes the possible reasons for the failure of the original business model and discusses potential strategic alternatives that are still open for the entrepreneurs.

The two-case sequence can be used for a 90-minutes session in marketing, entrepreneurship or strategic management courses in graduate and executive programs. The case is accompanied by an instructor's manual which also includes suggested assignment questions and proposed session plan.

This study aims to examine innovation adoption in the context of internet banking in Estonia.

The data presented in this study are based on 1,831 questionnaires collected from individual internet banking users in Estonia.

This study extends the applicability of the innovation adoption model developed by Everett Rogers to Estonian internet banking. The model starts with the independent variables: relative advantage; complexity; perceived risk; and compatibility, and the analysis shows that relative advantage and complexity have the strongest influence on adoption of internet banking.

The managerial implications of this paper include its contributions toward better understanding of the commercial viability in CEE economies of businesses based on Western‐style technology.

This study suggests modifications to Rogers' original model in order to apply it to the fast‐growing new CEE economies, thus reaffirming the importance of his model.

The purpose of this paper is to study technology acceptance of internet banking in Estonia, an emerging east European economy.

The present paper modifies the technology acceptance model and applies it to bank customers in Estonia, because Estonia, a country with a developing economy, has focused on internet banking as an important distribution channel.

The findings suggest that internet bank use increases insofar as customers perceive it as useful. The perceived usefulness is central because it determines whether the perceived ease of internet bank use will lead to increased use of the internet bank. Put differently, a well‐designed and easy to use internet bank may not be used if it is not perceived as useful. We thus conclude that the perceived usefulness of internet banking is, for banks, a key construct for promoting customer use. We also suggest that models of technology acceptance should be re‐formulated to focus more on the key role of the perceived usefulness of the service embedded in the technology.

Implications for banks are that they need to put much effort not only into making a user‐friendly internet bank, but also into explaining to their customers how the internet bank is useful to them.

Contributes to the literature on internet banking in an East European economy.

The aim of this paper is to enhance the understanding of the consumer attitudes and behaviour towards a new currency, euro, before the process of the changeover. The approach of the current study differs from most past research on the same topic as consumer attitudes are surveyed before the currency changeover, not retrospectively based on consumer recall. The research attempts to achieve the following set of objectives: to identify the general consumer attitudes towards euro and pinpoint sources of tension, resistance and uncertainty before the currency changeover process; to identify the pre‐adoption assessment of euro value scales and inflation expectations; and to identify various emotional factors related to the national and European identity in the euro adoption process.

The data analysis of the current research adopts a qualitative methodology. To gather a full insight into the pre‐changeover attitudes, opinions, fears and hopes, a total of 29 qualitative interviews were conducted.

The results suggest that consumer attitudes and opinions towards the changeover process are multifaceted and concerns and uncertainties rise from various sources – from rational economic aspects to emotional aspects related to national identity. This research points also to the underestimated role of national pride in the process of transfer from the national currency to euro.

The study is one of the first attempts to research consumers before a forthcoming changeover; thus it is exploratory in its nature and has the traditional limitations of an exploratory research. Based on the initial findings, it would be possible to design a quantitative research for the subsequent countries adopting euro.

The research identifies the attitudes of consumers before the changeover, outlining their doubts, fears and prejudices. The results can be used by subsequent countries adopting euro while planning their changeover strategies. The efforts of the strategy developers should be directed towards addressing the real challenges people face before the changeover.

A distinctive contribution of this study lies in the addressing of the pre‐changeover attitudes and opinions before the currency change took place. Although there have been surveys asking respondents to recall their pre‐changeover opinions, the accuracy of the respondents' memory over time has decreased, which is why such surveys may not give a valid picture. This paper contributes to the understanding of the pre‐adoption phase in a currency changeover process as seen from the point of view of consumers.