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Banking and financial services have traditionally been a heavily regulated industry where technology alone has not been a sufficient factor to transform the operating architectures of the industry. The pervasive view in the financial industry has been that digitalization and its integrational development will take place on the platforms of the banks. Due to the inherent secondary nature of financial services, however, it is more likely that the customer interface of financial services will increasingly migrate towards primary service platforms. As a result, the commoditization of payment processing services is expected to increase. Additionally, the visibility into customer data will become more opaque and the value capturing capabilities of the financial industry will be radically redefined. Furthermore, a strategic impact can also be anticipated on several public institutions, such as financial supervisory authorities, the tax administration and other public registry holders.

In this paper, we study the value chain of a Finnish designed bicycle and how the value added of the product is spread through the value chain in three distinct cases. In the first case the bicycle is manufactured in Finland by the researched company. In the two other cases the manufacturing of the bicycle is outsourced to the Baltic countries or to Indonesia. In addition, we analyze the geography of value added in each case. We also study how the exchange rate fluctuations affect the distribution of the value added. Our results show that the researched company creates 36% of the total value added, when the bicycle is made in its plant. The manufacturing creates 16% of the total value added. The researched company creates 27-28% of the total value added, when the production is outsourced. The value added share of Finland is 67%, when the bicycle is produced in Finland, and 58-59%, if the production is outsourced. In conclusion, the results show that outsourcing offshore is financially beneficial for the researched company and that the Finnish economy suffers from the production transfer. Furthermore, the results suggest that transferring the production away from Asia is financially and otherwise justifiable - however, the production is transferred to the Baltic countries instead of Finland. Our findings support the view that, while the low value added activities and processes are outsourced, the high value added activities are still positioned to Finland, since the outsourcing partners create only 2% of the total value added.

Vaikka yritysten välistä verkostomaista yhteistyötä pidetään yleisesti yhtenä niiden liiketaloudellista menestystä tukevana tekijänä, aihetta on tutkittu varsin vähän. Tässä tutkimuksessa hyödynnämme Eurostatin ja kansallisten tilastokeskusten muutaman vuoden takaisessa pilottiprojektissa kerättyä aineistoa asian selvittämiseksi. Tutkimustulostemme perusteella yrityksen verkostoitumisen ja sen kannattavuuden tai kasvun välillä ei näyttäisi olevan selvää yhteyttä. Havaintomme ei välttämättä kerro siitä, etteikö verkostoitumisella olisi merkitystä yritysten liiketoiminnan kannalta, vaan itse tutkimuskysymys jää tämän työn perusteella avoimeksi. Pääjohtopäätöksemme on, että verkostoituminen ei ainakaan automaattisesti tai itsestään tue kannattavuutta tai kasvua; olennaista on verkostoitumisen muoto ja sisältö.

Three fourths of Finnish business enterprises have relationships that are deeper than those associated with normal market transactions, i.e., they are involved in interorganizational networking. Regionally networking is more commonplace in North Savo, North Karelia/Kainuu, Central Finland and Lapland/Northern Ostrobothnia. Connections to other firms is the most prevalent and qualitatively most important type of networking. Networking is predominantly a local phenomenon, particularly when it comes to firms' partnerships with educational and research institutions as well as public bodies. Networking may be associated with better firm profitability in low-tech industries. Participating in a national cluster may be associated with firms' better growth prospects. In the absence of functioning local markets for some productive inputs, being engaged in inter-organizational networking may be a necessary conditions for firms' survival.