Consumers In Finland Research Articles

Flexibility services for household consumers in Finland: Requirements and provided properties

The ability to shift energy consumption to a time when a lot of energy is available supports the integration of renewable energy sources. Services that intend to do this automatically are currently emerging in the markets. These kinds of flexibility services are targeted as smart services to household consumers, promising them cost savings, optimal living conditions, and other benefits. The purpose of this paper is to examine the current demand and offering of these kinds of services in Finland. We performed an extensive consumer survey to untangle consumers’ potential, motivation, and engagement in flexibility services and surveyed the properties, similarities, and differences of the flexibility services in the markets. We then defined a quality dimensions framework for flexibility services, with which we evaluated the results to understand the required properties of the services from a consumer viewpoint and how the services respond to these requirements. The results show that Finnish household consumers are quite willing and ready for these kinds of services, and several services are currently available that fulfill some of the identified requirements. Most of the services are currently provided to larger customers, but it should be noted that there also exists demand among individual households. Therefore, clearer incentives, unambiguous definitions of responsibilities, and effortless service introductions are required to motivate consumer participation.

Consumer Perspectives on Bio-Based Products and Brands—A Regional Finnish Social Study with Future Consumers

This article presents a Finnish social design study that focuses on consumer perspectives and future expectations related to bio-based products and brands. The qualitative regional study addresses the global concern associated with sustainability of the bioeconomy. Because a gap in research was identified from the regional consumer perspective, the article presents a case study that was held with 50 consumers in Finland. The main research method was qualitative online focus group discussions, with an objective to gain an understanding of consumer behavior, motivations, concerns, and intentions related to bio-based products and brands. The results are presented according to the sustainability framework, which was constructed around four topics: (1) consumer awareness, (2) illustrated examples and their consumer acceptance, (3) consumption habits, and (4) future consumption behavior. The main findings indicate that Finnish consumers were extremely well-informed on the bio-based concept, and they trusted domestic regional brands the most. Throughout the research, Nordic consumers highlighted the role of companies and urged sensible science-based communication on the sustainability aspects. Finally, the results led to consider how the value-sensitive consumer insights may be utilized by proposing prominent impact assessment methods for decision-making in both the business and consumer sectors.

Towards more environmentally sustainable diets? Changes in the consumption of beef and plant- and insect-based protein products in consumer groups in Finland

This study investigated consumers' self-reported past changes and future intentions to change the consumption of beef and alternative, plant- or insect-based protein products. A survey of 18–79-year-old consumers in Finland (N = 1000) was analysed with latent class analysis, and five consumer clusters were identified. The largest cluster (37%) consumed beef, but no alternative protein products; three clusters incorporated alternative protein products in their diets in different ways (in total 55%); and one cluster did not consume beef or alternative proteins (8%). In total 27% of the respondents intended to reduce the consumption of beef in the future, whereas 26% planned to increase the consumption of plant-based and 24% planned to increase the use of insect-based protein products. Multinomial logistic regression indicated that the use of alternative proteins was associated with higher health and sustainability motives, and lower food neophobia. The results suggest that demand for new, more sustainable proteins and protein innovations will grow in the future.

Generation Z Food Waste, Diet and Consumption Habits: A Finnish Social Design Study with Future Consumers

This article presents a Finnish social design study that was targeted at future Generation Z consumers. The main objective was to gain understanding of the target group’s attitudes, routines and skills relating to food consumption, diets and food waste within their households. The sustainability framework studied the Generation Z experience, obstacles and opportunities relating to behavior patterns, in addition with current habits—with respect to planning, shopping, cooking, eating and storing—and future motivations. The aim of the social design investigations was to provide contributions to the design outcome: a behavior change application that steered young consumers’ behavior patterns towards a more sustainable direction. The design framework was applied in two case studies that focused on 17–26-year-old consumers in Finland. The main method was qualitative online focus group discussions. Based on the results, the most important behavior change opportunities related to social aspects, the role of company sponsoring, localization and context-awareness potential in young consumers’ close environment and the need to engage wider sustainability aspects—such as carbon footprint, comparison of diets and financial savings—to the behavior change framework. Based on the results, the participants took the climate change challenge associated with food waste and biased diets very seriously.

How national culture and ethics matter in consumers’ green consumption values

Going green in consumption is gaining momentum globally, but little is known how national cultural values and consumers’ ethical ideologies explain green consumption. With a culturally rich sample of 1929 responses from consumers in Finland, Germany, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, the present study examines how cultural long-term orientation and collectivism predict consumers’ green consumption values, and if these relationships are moderated by ethical ideologies. The study finds that cultural collectivism has a significant positive effect on green consumption values, as expected. However, the results show that the two long-term orientation constructs, namely planning and tradition, point in opposite directions when predicting green consumption. We demonstrate that while long-term planning has a significant positive effect on green consumption values, the effect of traditional values is negative. We further show that this negative effect varies across consumers’ ethical ideologies so that the effect is the greatest for Exceptionists and Absolutists, that is, those who rely in their actions on universal moral principles rather than particular circumstances. Therefore, our research contributes to the literature by providing new evidence for the cultural and ethical aspects in green consumption values. Furthermore, the study suggests that managers pay special attention to the consumers who have high collectivistic and future-oriented values to promote environmentally friendly consumption.

Sharing-Dominant Logic? Quantifying the Association between Consumer Intelligence and Choice of Social Access Modes

Abstract With sharing economy and access-based consumption, consumers increasingly access goods through social access modes other than private ownership—such as co-ownership, leasing, or borrowing. Prior research focuses on consumers’ attitudinal motivations and consumption-cultural use experiences pertaining to such social exchange–based access modes. In so doing, prior research has overlooked the influence that consumers’ fundamental, even biologically shaped, cognitive traits may have on their choice of access modes. To fill this research gap, this study analyzes a data set of more than 30,000 new car registrations by male consumers in Finland, including cognitive test data from the Finnish Defense Forces and covariates from other governmental sources. The field data suggests that consumers’ intelligence scores and their choice to co-own and lease their cars are positively associated. Econometric evidence further suggests that the association between intelligence and choice of social exchange–based access modes can be explained by intelligent consumers’ higher social trust in people and institutions, as well as two circumstantial mechanisms: their financial standing and tendency to seek savings. The findings from the field data are supported by an additional survey study (n = 460). Implications for the evolution of markets and consumption, as well as human intelligence and cooperation, are discussed.

Taking a Stand through Food Choices? Characteristics of Political Food Consumption and Consumers in Finland

This study looks at food as a realm of political consumption by examining buycotting and boycotting of foods for ethical, political or environmental reasons in Finland. The results of an Internet-based survey (N = 1021) showed that around half of the respondents often or occasionally both buycotted and boycotted foods. Multinomial regression models indicated that women, the highly educated, the political left, those who donated for charity, those whose food choices were motivated by domestic origin and ethical food production, and those who trusted that consumption choices, institutional actors and the media can advance ethical food production and consumption, were most likely to be active in buycotting and boycotting. Buycotters/boycotters were very active in buying local food but less eager, for instance, to buy organic or Fair Trade products or to reduce the use of meat or milk. The article concludes by critically assessing the complex relationship between buycotting/boycotting and sustainable practices and suggesting that consumers may be more willing to transform their eating patterns if other societal actors, too, make an effort to influence ethical food consumption.

Digital participation in service environments among senior electricity consumers in Finland

Research to date suggests that older adults engage with digital technologies less frequently than young adults. Studies typically focus on chronological age, ignoring the effects of life course factors on the adoption and use of digital technologies. By utilising multiple triangulation, the article investigates the role of age and life course stage in the usage of an electricity company's online services among senior consumers. The data are derived from an internet-based survey study (N = 1366) and six focus group discussions involving Finnish electricity consumers (N = 29). The results suggest that online consumers aged 50 and over utilise electricity company online services more frequently than younger consumers. Seniors report lack of knowledge regarding online environments less frequently than young adults. On the bodily level, senior consumers mention physical discomfort as a challenge and maintaining a physically active lifestyle as a driving force for digital participation. On the mental level, seniors report environmentally conscious attitudes and altruistic values as a challenge and social connectedness as a motivation to digital participation. On the biographical level, a decline in social networks challenges digital participation but simultaneously provides new opportunities for strengthening existing networks. In conclusion, the article suggests that life course factors (e.g. multidimensionality of age and other socio-demographic variables, such as occupation and income level) may better explain use of electricity company online services among seniors than chronological age.

The effect of gender, age and product type on the origin induced food product experience among young consumers in Finland

Locally produced and sourced food products are gaining popularity among consumers. The effect of the expectations induced by the origin of the food was studied with 1491 consumers in two separate studies among different age groups. In order to test the consumer response to the product origin neutral, domestic, and local conditions were used. Consumers evaluated the product's pleasantness, their probability to choose it, the overall quality, and their willingness to pay. To gather information on whether the phenomenon was consistent, independent from the product category, three different types of products were tested (meat, bread, and vegetables). Our results show that a closer origin does not necessarily produce a positive response, but that there are several moderating factors such as gender, age, and product type. Female university students responded equally to domestic and local origins in the case of bread, but for meat products, only those of local origin induced a positive reaction. In this study population, the male respondents only reacted to a local origin in the case of bread, while domestic meat products provided similar results to local origins. Among young men consumers in the 7th-9th grades responded to the local origin of vegetables positively, while others among the youngest consumers, the origin did not induce a significant effect. The results indicate that even when the product is not appealing itself, locality can still increase the perceived quality.

Market failure in the diffusion of consumer-developed innovations: Patterns in Finland

Empirical studies have shown that millions of individual users develop new products and services to serve their own needs. The economic impact of this phenomenon increases if and as adopters in addition to the initial innovators also gain benefits from those user-developed innovations. It has been argued that the diffusion of user-developed innovations is negatively affected by a new type of market failure: value that others may gain from a user-developed product can often be an externality to consumer-developers. As a result, consumer innovators may not invest in supporting diffusion to the extent that would be socially optimal. In this paper, we utilize a broad sample of consumers in Finland to explore the extent to which innovations developed by individual users are deemed of potential value to others, and the extent to which they diffuse as a function of perceived general value. Our empirical analysis supports the hypothesis that a market failure is affecting the diffusion of user innovations developed by consumers for their own use. Implications and possible remedies are discussed.

The Diffusion of Consumer-Developed Innovations: Patterns in Finland

Empirical studies have shown that millions of individual users develop new products and services to serve their own needs. The economic impact of this phenomenon increases if and as adopters in addition to the initial innovators also gain benefits from those user-developed innovations. It has been argued that the diffusion of user-developed innovations is negatively affected by a new type of market failure: value that others may gain from a user-developed product can often be an externality to consumer-developers. As a result, consumer innovators may not invest in supporting diffusion to the extent that would be socially optimal. In this paper, we utilize a broad sample of consumers in Finland to explore the extent to which innovations developed by individual users are deemed of potential value to others, and the extent to which they diffuse as a function of perceived general value. Our empirical analysis supports the hypothesis that a market failure is affecting the diffusion of user innovations developed by consumers for their own use. Implications and possible remedies are discussed.

Situated lifestyles: II. The impacts of urban density, housing type and motorization on the greenhouse gas emissions of the middle-income consumers in Finland

The relationship between urban form and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has been studied extensively during the last two decades. The prevailing paradigm arising from these studies is that a dense or compact urban form would best enable low-carbon living. However, the vast majority of these studies have actually concentrated on transportation and/or housing energy, whereas a growing number of studies argue that the GHG implications of other consumption should be taken into account and the relationships evaluated. With this two-part study of four different area types in Finland we illustrate the importance of including all the consumption activities into the GHG assessment. Furthermore, we add to the discussion the idea that consumption choices, or lifestyles, and the resulting GHGs are not just a product of the values of individuals but actually tied to the form of the surrounding urbanization: that is, lifestyles are situated. In part I (Heinonen et al 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 025003) we looked into this situation in Finland, showing how the residents of the most urbanized areas bring about the highest GHG emissions due to their higher consumption volumes and the economies-of-scale advantages in the less urbanized areas. In part II here, we concentrate only on the middle-income segment and look for differences in the lifestyles when the budget constraints are equal. Here we also add the variables housing type and motorization into the assessment. The same time-use and private expenditure data as in part I and the same GHG assessment method are used here to maintain high transparency and comparability between the two parts. The results of the study imply that larger family sizes and economies-of-scale effects in the less dense areas offset the advantages of more dense living when the emissions are assessed on per capita basis. Also, at equal income levels the carbon footprints vary surprisingly little due to complementary effects of the majority of low-carbon lifestyle choices. Motorization was still found to increase the emissions, but a similar pattern regarding housing type was not found.

Cell phone behaviour of young consumers in Finland

This study investigates cell phone behaviour among high school, undergraduate and graduate college students in Finland. Following the literature review, the paper analyses the responses of 118 high schools, 268 undergraduate and 84 graduate students from educational institutions located in the metropolitan area of Tampere, Finland. The study found significant differences in cell phone behaviour between the high school, undergraduate and graduate students. Differences were also seen in the way the students at different educational levels conceptualise cell phone behaviour. The study shows that there are age-related stages of behaviour. The paper concludes with a discussion of the academic and managerial implications.

Communicating the benefits of wholegrain and functional grain products to European consumers

In order to increase the consumption of wholegrain products or grain products with functional properties, it is important to understand consumer beliefs about such products and the impact of health claims. In a series of consumer studies several differences were found between countries. While consumers in Finland, Italy and the UK saw wholegrain products as having positive attributes, those in Finland had more negative beliefs about refined grain products. Health claims and wholegrain labels increased perceived healthiness but had a less positive impact on likelihood of buying, and in Italy both health claims and wholegrain labels even decreased the likelihood of buying.

Antecedents to permission based mobile marketing: an initial examination

PurposeThis paper's aim is to develop a conceptual model to examine the influence of four antecedent factors (personal trust, institutional trust, perceived control and experience) on consumers' willingness to participate in permission‐based mobile marketing. The model is to be tested empirically across three European countries and gender.Design/methodology/approachData are collected from surveys of consumers in Finland, Germany and the UK. The partial least squares (PLS) approach is utilised to test the model fit.FindingsThe main factor affecting the consumers' decision to participate in mobile marketing is institutional trust, which is a significant factor in all three countries and across gender. The influence of other antecedent factors are less pronounced. On the whole, it is found that the more experienced consumers become with mobile marketing, the less influence perceived control will have on permission. There are notable variations across gender, with perceived control being an important determinant of permission for men, while it is not so for women.Research implications/limitationsThe results indicate the relative importance of four antecedents in the likelihood of consumers giving their permission to companies to send mobile marketing messages.Practical implicationsAs institutional trust is the most important determinant of permission based mobile marketing, mobile marketers should focus on building a strong and positive media presence and image, and thereby influence consumers' likelihood of giving permission to mobile‐based marketing.Originality/valueThis is the first international empirical investigation of the different antecedents of permission‐based mobile marketing.

Permission‐based mobile marketing and sources of trust in selected European markets

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a three‐country comparison of personal and institutionally based trust as factors affecting consumers' willingness to participate in permission‐based mobile marketing.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual model of different dimensions of personal and institutionally based trust and their effect on the consumer's willingness to provide personal information and the permission to use it is tested with data from surveys of young consumers in Finland, Germany and the UK. The data were analysed by structural equation modelling (LISREL8.7).FindingsThe main factor affecting the consumers' decision to participate in mobile marketing is the company's media presence, which is a significant factor in all three countries.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the results of this study establish the sources of trust that play a role in permission‐based mobile marketing, the study of trust in the context of mobile marketing would greatly benefit from research that addresses the process of how trust emerges and develops over time. As a company's presence in the media weighs more than the customer's own experiences or control, mobile marketers should focus on building a strong and positive media presence and image in order to gain consumers' permission for mobile marketing.Practical implicationsAs a company's reputation conveyed by the media weighs more than the customer's own experiences, mobile marketers should focus on building a strong and positive media presence and image, and thereby gain consumers' trust.Originality/valueThe paper is the first international empirical investigation of the different antecedents of trust in the context of mobile marketing.

Consumers’ beliefs about whole and refined grain products in the UK, Italy and Finland

The objective of this study was to increase our understanding of consumers’ product related expectations that may influence their willingness to use whole grain (WG) foods. Consumers’ beliefs about WG and refined grain (RG) product categories were measured, compared and consumers were segmented based on these beliefs. Data were collected with self-completion questionnaires in the UK ( N=552), Italy ( N=504), and Finland ( N=513). On average, consumers in Finland, Italy and the UK were aware that WG products are healthier than RG products as the WG product category was rated as more nutritionally balanced, healthier, more natural, more filling, releasing energy more slowly and slightly more digestible than the RG product category. However, certain consumer segments did not perceive much difference between whole and RG products in their health-related characteristics suggesting a lack of motivation for increasing WG consumption. This sets a challenge for promoting WG products especially in Italy and the UK, where the respondents were less likely to differentiate between the healthiness of WG and RG products than the Finnish respondents. Differences between the consumer segments and ways of promoting WG consumption are discussed.

The impacts of EU CO 2 emissions trading on electricity markets and electricity consumers in Finland

In this paper, the likely impacts of the EU emission trading system on the Nordic electricity market and on the position of various market actors are assessed. In its first phase, the EU CO 2 emission trading system includes power plants with thermal capacity greater than 20 MW, metals industry, pulp and paper industry, mineral industry and oil refineries. This paper describes the assessment done for the Finnish Minister of Trade and Industry, analysing the likely impacts on power plant operators, on energy-intensive industries, on other industries and on other consumer groups. The impacts of emissions trading were studied with the VTT electricity market model and with the TIMES energy system model. The annual average electricity price was found to rise 0.74 EUR MW h − 1 for every 1 € tonne CO 2 −1 in the Nordic area. Large windfall profits were estimated to incur to electricity producers in the Nordic electricity market. In Finland, metals industry and private consumers were estimated to be most affected by the electricity market price increases. Expanded nuclear power generation could limit the increases in the prices of electricity to one-third compared to those in the base case.

Exploring consumers’ perceptions of local food with two different qualitative techniques: Laddering and word association

In recent years, a growing number of consumers in Finland have started to show interest in the origin of the foods they eat. Although the concept of local food has been launched to describe food produced near the consumer, it is not yet well-defined and consumers may understand it in different ways. The aim of the study was to establish the personal values, meanings and specific benefits consumers relate to local food products by comparing two different qualitative interview techniques: laddering and word association methods. Product names, presented as cards for participants, were used as stimulus material. In the word association ( n = 25), four product categories (general term, fresh pork meat, marinated pork slices, and pork sausage) and of four types of production method or production location (locally, organically, conventionally and intensively produced) were presented. In laddering ( n = 30), the production methods were the same as in the word association method, with the exception that there were only two product categories, instead of four. The content analysis of the participants’ responses resulted in very similar categories in both studies, such as “quality”, “locality”, “vitality of rural areas”, “short transportation distances”, “freshness”, and “animal well-being”. Only the laddering study, however, revealed cognitive structures, i.e., links between such constructs as “short transport” and “animal welfare”. Word association was found to be an efficient and rapid method for gathering information on consumer perceptions of local foods. Laddering interviews, which were time-consuming and required laborious analysis, provided us with important information on the relationship between perceived attributes and the reasons for choices.

Institutionalization of Life‐Cycle Thinking in the Everyday Discourse of Market Actors

SummaryThe widespread popularity of life‐cycle assessment (LCA) is difficult to understand from the point of view of instrumental decision making by economic agents. Ehrenfeld has argued, in a 1997 issue of this journal, that it is the world‐shaping potential of LCA that is more important than its use as a decision‐making tool. The present study attempts to explore the institutionalization of this “LCA world view” among ordinary market actors. This is important because environmental policy relies increasingly on market‐based initiatives. Cognitive and normative assumptions in authoritative LCA documents are examined as empirical data and compared with data from focus group interviews concerning products and the environment with “ordinary” manufacturers, retailers, and consumers in Finland. These assumptions are (1) the “cradle‐to‐grave” approach, (2) the view that all products have an environmental impact and can be improved, (3) the relativity of environmental merit, and (4) the way responsibility for environmental burdens is attributed. Relevant affinities, but also differences, are identified. It is argued that life‐cycle thinking is not primarily instrumental, but rather is gaining a degree of intrinsic value. The study attempts to establish a broader institutional context in which the popularity of LCA can be understood. From the point of view of this broader context, some future challenges for the development of LCA and life‐cycle thinking are suggested.