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This paper argues that there are four different ways in which customer value can be created in electronic grocery shopping, but that the chosen business model will set limits to whether – and to what extent – the firm will be able to offer value‐adding services for consumers. The relationship between business models and customer value in online grocery shopping is exemplified, and some practical problems and opportunities in e‐grocering are highlighted by presenting the case of Nettimarket.com, a Finnish Internet grocery business that was founded by an entrepreneur with no previous experience of the industry. His company is a start‐up virtual grocery shop with a business model unattainable by the big industry players. The paper reports on the experiences of the company and the outlook of the entrepreneur after two and three years in business, respectively.

Marketing education today is rather isolationist — marketing students are taught too many specialities, and they are given to sharp a profile in marketing particulars. The interaction of the marketing function with other key functions of a corporation is forgotten. In this article we outline the functional requirements on marketing professionals, link these requirements to marketing theory and propose and new technology of computer‐based expert systems to be instrumental for making marketing theory operational and educating marketing professionals.

The emergence of global electronic markets on the Internet has been seen as an opportunity for small and medium‐sized tourism enterprises to improve their competitive position. However, several barriers hinder small hospitality organizations from capitalizing on IT and the Internet. This paper reports on an action research program of introducing Internet technology in a small hotel located in a peripheral region of Finland. As part of a project funded by the European Union, a complete integrated Web booking and hotel management system was developed, denoting a re‐engineering of many business processes. The system, which features customer online (real‐time) reservation services was an inexpensive, user‐friendly solution specially designed for the purposes of small and medium‐sized hospitality organizations with little prior IT knowledge. In the field of online reservation systems, the hotel is a pioneer, as it is the first independent hotel in Finland to offer online reservation services through a non‐customized reservation system.

The advent of the 3G world of mobile commerce has suffered from the wait‐and‐see mode over the last years. Existing barriers pose a challenge to all actors in the mobile commerce industry (MCI). Learning from the future and discovering a route to a desired future are keys to successful mobile commerce business. In this paper we argue that it is very important that all actors in the MCI use an industry foresight approach in order to discover a successful route to future markets. We present a framework for creating industry foresights and for understanding the future of mobile commerce. We focus on the mobile commerce industry as a whole and introduce two broad variables; (1) adoption and diffusion of mobile commerce products and services; and (2) the macro‐economic development trend. Based on these variables we build four foresight scenarios: Rapid‐Up, Rapid‐Down, Slow‐Down and Slow‐Up. On the basis of these four different scenarios we suggest some features of promising mobile commerce products and services. We are using information‐gathering agents in order to collect information for our analysis. The foresight framework will help all actors understand the future for m‐commerce.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the development in the Finnish telecommunication market and trends in actual and future user behavior with regard to three groups of mobile services. It is the authors' view that service characteristics cannot be ignored.

The research is based on data collected over a period of three years using independent samples. To test the core of our conceptual model the study used structural equation modeling.

The analysis based on the data collected over three years shows that we cannot understand the actual and future use unless we take the subtleties and usability of services, i.e. the specific characteristics, and user values of the services involved, into account. The research clearly indicates that complementary services are dependent on positive attitudes towards mobile innovations and on perceived flexibility. Service composition is of critical importance to the success of 3G and beyond.

This paper is unique due to the fact that longitudinal data are presented concerning one of the most successful countries in Europe in terms of the adoption and use of advanced mobile services.

Mothers, especially working mothers, take an active role in many activities. They manage the family’s daily lives. They take care of children. They work or study. And they also strive to take care of themselves. Working mothers are normally overloaded with all kinds of tasks ‐ almost on a daily basis, year after year. Although there are many many kinds of useful information and services available over the Internet that could be a big help to mothers, working mothers or mothers with children around them at home are often so occupied that they cannot afford the luxury of sitting in front of a computer to access those services. So, what kind of services could help to make their lives a bit easier? Readily accessible mobile services over the wireless network seem to be exactly what they need. But what mobile e‐services do working mothers need? What is the specific added value offered by such services? These form the issues that we will address in this paper.