IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/tkp/tiim13/s4_245-258.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Public Business Services in a Sparsely Populated Area: Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Martti Saarela

    (University of Oulu, Finland)

  • Eija-Riitta Niinikoski

    (University of Oulu, Finland)

  • Matti Muhos

    (University of Oulu, Finland)

Abstract

Purpose: In Finland, customers often view public business services as being a multifaceted, complex and scattered system. Service providers in sparsely populated areas are facing context-specific challenges as they provide services for their customers. The aim of this study is to describe what kinds of business services are provided for early-stage companies in the sparsely populated case region and to investigate how customers evaluate the importance and success of provided services. Design/methodology/approach: This is a retrospective single case study focusing on a sparsely populated subregion in Northern Finland. The case study devises a four-stage configuration framework to describe the current state of public business services and to reflect the customer experiences related to these services. The study uses semi-structured interviews and surveys for data collection. Multiple perspectives were analysed in the interviews for triangulation. Findings: This study describes public business services, especially for early-stage SMEs, in a sparsely populated region. As a result of this case study, key characteristics of organising public business services in sparsely populated area context are described. The success and importance of the public business services from the service customers’ perspective are clarified. Research limitations/implications: This descriptive case study is limited to a single sub-region of a sparsely populated Northern Finland to get an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon. Originality/value: Current literature provides limited information about how to effectively and successfully organize public business services in sparsely populated areas. This study evaluates how services correspond to the needs of the customers and how customers evaluate the importance and success of the business services in the sparsely populated case area.

Suggested Citation

  • Martti Saarela & Eija-Riitta Niinikoski & Matti Muhos, 2013. "Public Business Services in a Sparsely Populated Area: Case Study," Diversity, Technology, and Innovation for Operational Competitiveness: Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Technology Innovation and Industrial Management,, ToKnowPress.
    • Handle: RePEc:tkp:tiim13:s4_245-258
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.toknowpress.net/ISBN/978-961-6914-07-9/papers/S4_245-258.pdf
    File Function: full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Per Davidsson & Frédéric Delmar & Johan Wiklund, 2006. "Entrepreneurship and the Growth of Firms," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3971.
    2. Frédéric Delmar & Johan Wiklund & Per Davidsson, 2006. "Entrepreneurship and the Growth of Firms," Post-Print hal-01892801, HAL.
    3. Frédéric Delmar & Johan Wiklund & Per Davidsson, 2006. "Entrepreneurship and the Growth of Firms," Post-Print hal-01892798, HAL.
    4. Reinhilde Veugelers (ed.), 2009. "The Evaluation of the Finnish National Innovation System - Full Report," Books, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy, number 495.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bilandžić Ana & Marina Jeger & Šarlija Nataša, 2016. "Dealing with Interpretability Issues in Predicting Firm Growth: Factor Analysis Approach," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 7(2), pages 23-34, September.
    2. Stefano Bianchini & Giulio Bottazzi & Federico Tamagni, 2017. "What does (not) characterize persistent corporate high-growth?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 633-656, March.
    3. Alex Coad & Christina Guenther, 2012. "Age, diversification and survival in the German machine tool industry, 1953-2002," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2011-23, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    4. Elert, Niklas & Stam, Erik & Stenkula, Mikael, 2019. "Intrapreneurship and Trust," Working Paper Series 1280, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    5. David Gibbs & Kirstie O'Neill, 2014. "Rethinking Sociotechnical Transitions and Green Entrepreneurship: The Potential for Transformative Change in the Green Building Sector," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(5), pages 1088-1107, May.
    6. Maria Tunberg & Alistair R. Anderson, 2020. "Growing a small firm; experiences and managing difficult processes," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1445-1463, December.
    7. Michael Sheppard, 2020. "The relationship between discretionary slack and growth in small firms," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 195-219, March.
    8. Stephan Weemaes & Johan Bruneel & Ann Gaeremynck & Jonas Debrulle, 2022. "Initial external knowledge sources and start-up growth," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 523-540, January.
    9. Boris Urban & Zethu Dlamini, 2020. "Intersections between policy and institutions: a focus on enterprise growth in Swaziland," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(3), pages 253-275, April.
    10. Firdaus Basbeth & Ainon Ramli & Muhammad Ashlyzan Bin Razik & Rosmaizura Mohd Zain & Noorshella Bin Che Nawi, 2019. "The Role of Multi Dimensional EO in the Competitive Strategy - Performance Link," Research in World Economy, Research in World Economy, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(2), pages 20-25, July.
    11. Marta Gancarczyk, 2015. "Proces wzrostu przedsiębiorstwa w świetle podejścia zasobowego i teorii kosztów transakcyjnych," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 5, pages 5-31.
    12. McKeever, Edward & Jack, Sarah & Anderson, Alistair, 2015. "Embedded entrepreneurship in the creative re-construction of place," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 50-65.
    13. Thomas Zellweger & Philipp Sieger, 2012. "Entrepreneurial orientation in long-lived family firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 67-84, January.
    14. Mary Nelima LYANI SINDANI, 2018. "Effects of Accounts Receivable Financing Practices on Growth of SMEs in Kakamega County, Kenya," Expert Journal of Finance, Sprint Investify, vol. 6, pages 1-11.
    15. Gregory S. NAMUSONGE & Mary Nelima LYANI (SINDANI) & Maurice SAKWA, 2016. "Accounts Receivable Risk Management Practices and Growth of SMEs in Kakamega County, Kenya," Expert Journal of Finance, Sprint Investify, vol. 4(1), pages 31-43.
    16. Leona Achtenhagen & Lucia Naldi & Leif Melin, 2010. "“Business Growth†—Do Practitioners and Scholars Really Talk about the Same Thing?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(2), pages 289-316, March.
    17. SooGeun Ahn & Jeewhan Yoon & YoungJun Kim, 2018. "The innovation activities of small and medium-sized enterprises and their growth: quantile regression analysis and structural equation modeling," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 316-342, April.
    18. Renata Dana Nițu-Antonie & Emőke-Szidónia Feder & Valentin Partenie Munteanu, 2017. "Macroeconomic Effects of Entrepreneurship from an International Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-21, July.
    19. José Miguel Giner & María Jesús Santa-María & Antonio Fuster, 2017. "High-growth firms: does location matter?," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 75-96, March.
    20. Aikaterina Oikonomou, 2018. "Assessing the Impact of Employee Participation on Team-work Performance: A Way to Reinforce Entrepreneurship," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 68(2-3), pages 48-61, April-Sep.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tkp:tiim13:s4_245-258. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Maks Jezovnik (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.toknowpress.net/conferences .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.