Petri Rouvinen

• PhD in Economics (Vanderbilt University, TN, USA)
• Professor at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

We examine how machine learning (ML) predictions of high-growth enterprises (HGEs) help a budget-constrained venture capitalist source investments for a fixed size portfolio. Applying a design science approach, we predict HGEs 3 years ahead and focus on decision (not statistical) errors, using an accuracy measure relevant to the decision-making con...

Despite ample interest in the potential consequences of work engagement over the last two decades, the question of whether work engagement predicts proximal and more distal career-related outcomes has gained surprisingly little attention. Using Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and a sustainable careers framework, the aim of this study was to...

Available as open access - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13662716.2019.1602514 - Digital platforms are reorganising markets, restructuring the labour force, and redefining the scope of competition. These new intermediaries are transforming economic value creation, industrial structures, and innovative activity, all of which are about...

This report summarizes the BRIE-ETLA conference held on August 30, 2018 at Hotel Kämp, Helsinki. It follows the structure of the event; after a short lead-in, it summarizes the session keynotes and provides some discussion points (the slides used by the presenters are available in the Appendix of the report). The report highlights that recent techn...

In just one decade, social media have moved from being marginal phenomena to having three billion active monthly users globally in 2017. We use a large representative sample to study which company characteristics are associated with the early adoption of social media. Our findings suggest that digital orientation (outside social media), innovativen...

Upwork is the world's largest online labor market platform connecting clients with freelance professionals from various disciplines ranging from administrative support to web development. This study documents the main findings of the Upworkers in Finland survey conducted in December 2017. The survey targeted all freelancers listed on the platform w...

Sarjassaan viides Digibarometri 2018 kertoo kansakunnan "digitaalisesta asennosta" ja siinä tapahtuneista muutoksista, myös suhteessa muihin maihin. Viime vuonna Digibarometri rakentui yhden teeman, tekoälyn, ympärille. Nyt palataan vuosien 2014–2016 rakenteeseen, jossa käydään aluksi lyhyesti läpi maavertailun löydökset ja sen jälkeen syvennytään...

In this impact study, the purpose was to produce a combined forward looking (ex ante) evaluation analysis of how Tekes, Finpro and Finnvera have reached the objectives related to global competitiveness of SMEs. The study took several perspectives on measuring international orientation of SMEs. First, there was an analysis how Team Finland in gene...

Tässä kirjassa tarjotaan vastauksia kolmeen kysymykseen: (1.) Miten käsityksemme yrittäjyydestä muuttuu uusien omistajatietojen myötä? Hyödyntämällä kaikkia Suomessa asuvia henkilöitä koskevia tietoja havaitaan, että yrittäjyys on laajempaa ja hyvinvoinnin kasvun kannalta keskeisempää kuin mitä aiemman elinkeinoharjoittajia painottavan tiedon perus...

Well-functioning innovation environment for startups and accelerators help business activities to grow by bringing radical innovations to the economy. Such development expand innovation activities to new business fields. A goal for this impact study was to find the impact effects for 1) Tekes-funded start-ups; 2) Tekes NIY funding; 3) Accelerators...

International literature suggests that productivity growth of the global frontier firms – those in the best five percent – has diverged from the others during the 2000s. We study this issue using Finnish firm-level data. We find that the productivity of the Finnish frontier firms does not diverge from the others to such a degree as in the internati...

The book recounts Finnish economic history during the different phases of globalisation as defined and analysed by Richard Baldwin in “The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalisation”. We demonstrate that Finland has benefited a great deal from its participation in the international division of labour and exchange, and that...

Finland and Sweden are deeply engaged with New Globalization, which is characterized by geographically fragmented production and intense cross-border knowledge flows. Although a popular uproar has brought the steady deepening of this phenomenon to a halt, it is not about to reverse. The consequences of this new era are not well understood due to t...

Vuosina 2014–2016 julkaistut digibarometrit ovat kertoneet kansakunnan ”digitaalisesta asennosta” ja siinä tapahtuneista muutoksista, myös suhteessa muihin maihin. Näin tänäkin vuonna. Perinteisen digibarometrin tulokset ja havainnot löytyvät julkaisun alun tiivistelmästä ja liitteestä 3. Aiemmista vuosista poiketen muu osa Digibarometri 2017 -julk...

This report studies, how well suited the competitiveness reports by IMD and WEF are to support the conduct of economic policy in Finland. It is concluded that the reports, either as they are or in an enhanced form, do not meet Finnish policymakers’ information needs when it comes to components of competitiveness. The report also identifies seven ke...

With artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and other recent digitalization phenomena, we are about to enter the second era of digitalization, which poses a challenge for the conduct of economic policy and for measurement that supports it. Per se, the accounting principles employed in estimating Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remain valid also in...

Pitkän aikavälin talouskasvun tärkein yksittäinen selittäjä on innovaatiot, eli uusien ajatusten soveltaminen julkisten ja yksityisten palveluiden ja tavaroiden tarjontaan. Innovaatiopolitiikan harjoittaminen on kiistatta järkevää taloustieteellisen kirjallisuuden näkökulmasta, vaikka toimien oikeasta mixistä ja interventioiden toteutustavoista tai...

One tenth of new entrepreneurial activity in Finland is multicultural. In this brief, we study the cultural dimension of new entrepreneurial activity in Finland. One in ten nascent entrepreneurs in Finland consider themselves to possess (also) a non-Finnish background. The ventures of these multicultural entrepreneurs are more networked and more li...

In this paper, we examine in detail 35 final assembly location decisions to gain understanding of the manufacturing location decision from strategy and economic policy perspectives. We are particularly interested in the decision to locate final assembly specifically in a high-cost (high GDP per capita) environment. In contrast with the earlier lite...

The report evaluates the problems and reform options for Finland’s current business and capital income taxation from the perspective of investment incentives, economic efficiency and productivity. The objective is to provide information to support decision-making, the aim being to achieve a tax system that supports growth and investments. Finland e...

Too few long-term investments, those reaching far into the future, have been made into Finland. When such investments are made, they do not always promote structural change and regeneration. Private equity provides a solution for this challenge. Private equity stands for investments made into the equity of privately held companies, those not liste...

New and growing businesses (here referred to as "business start-ups") play a central role in economic renewal. The primary aim of the project was to examine how public policy should be developed in order to support business start-up growth as effectively as possible. The report provides a national overview of different aspects related to business...

We find that one-third of both Finnish and Norwegian employment will be highly susceptible to computerization in the next decade or two. Low-wage and low-skill occupations appear to be more threatened. Service and public sector jobs are relatively more sheltered than those in manufacturing and the private sector. Nevertheless, computerization will,...

Kuvaamme tässä kirjoituksessa lyhyesti Suomessa vuosina 2013–2014 voimassa ollutta T&K-vero-tukijärjestelmää ja ensimmäisiä havaintoja tukea vuonna 2013 käyttäneistä yrityksistä. Lisäksi esittelemme hyvän verotukijärjestelmän ominaisuuksia ja verotukien vaikutuksia ja pohdimme tukien roolia osana talouspolitiikkaa 1. • Tukea haettiin vuonna 2013 od...

In order to explore the consequences of the challenges to the patterns of innovation and competition along global value chains on the one hand and the implications for innovation policy based on seeking solutions for the challenges in relation to regional specialization patterns on the other hand, the Six Countries Programme organized a conference...

Deepening digitalization and globalization has induced an ongoing societal transformation that may ultimately prove to be as significant as the original industrial revolution. Even as the ICT industry is being restructured, global competition is being transformed. Previously dominant firms—including telecommunications carriers, equipment providers,...

Global value chains, GVCs, have had a transformative impact on the world economy since the early 1990s. We study 45 specific GVCs with company-confidential invoice-level data. We find that the case companies’ headquartering functions capture a large share of the overall value added, 27 % on average. The value added shares of other functions are as...

In this paper, we examine in detail 35 final assembly location decisions in an attempt to understand the manufacturing location decision both from a strategy and economic policy perspectives. We are particularly interested in understanding the decision to locate final assembly specifically in a high-cost (high GDP per capita) environment. In contra...

The objective of the study is to provide an up-to-date overview of the international economic literature, the relevant data and analysis on the functioning and the impact of R&D tax incentives schemes in operation in the EU Member States and beyond.

There are two competing hypotheses explaining how innovativeness influences the survival of startups: On the one hand, innovativeness is argued to foster survival-enhancing attributes (e.g., market power and cost efficiency) and capabilities (e.g., absorptive capacity). On the other hand, an innovative startup faces (and bears the associated risks...

There are almost 200,000 enterprises operating in the Finnish service sector, combined. However, not all of the service industries are the same. Some services have become independent of geographical locations, meaning that they can be exported, much like physical products. Other services still require that they are produced and consumed in the same...

Taking stock of how global innovation networks and policies (national, regional, international) interact.

We find that one third of Finnish employment is highly susceptible to computerization in the next decade or two. While this share is large, it is ten percentage points less than the corresponding share in the United States, which reflects cross-country differences in occupational structures. Low wage and low skill occupations appear more threatened...

Microsoft ’s acquisition of Nokia’s phone business has considerable implications for Nokia and po- tentially for Finland as a country, but little immediate effects on Microsoft and related industries. One might ask, couldn’t there have been better remedies for the challenges both Microsoft and Nokia were facing? ...

Worldwide liberalisation and deregulation took place between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. This, complemented with continuous improvements in digital technologies and logistics, brought about ge- ographically dispersed Global Value Chains (GVCs) in the 1990s (manufacturing) and in the 2000s (ser- vices). Armed with four decades of data, Johnson and...

With the increasing ease of communication and transportation, the falling costs of processing and transferring information, and the major political and societal changes that have occurred in recent years, the link between economies of scale and the geographic concentration of production has weakened. It has become feasible and profitable to dispers...

Pervasive information and communication technology (ICT), intertwined with global dispersion of supply chains, is inducing a sizable structural transformation. All the articles in this special issue highlight that even though technology is the key driver, the reactions of businesses and countries to these transformations will depend on economic, po...

Available statistics reveal little about the economic consequences of the increasing global dispersion of production processes. To investigate the issue, we perform grass-roots investigative work to uncover the geography of the value added for a Nokia N95 smartphone circa 2007. The phone was assembled in Finland and China. When the device was assem...

Where is your mobile coming from? This simple question is not easy to answer as the mobile has been assembled using components from different countries (including the domestic) and by using services from the domestic and foreign economies. This multi-country nature of products is not only a feature of more complex high-tech products (such as mobile...

The study investigates empirically how ownership affects firms' domestic employment and its fluctuations. We look at six different ownership categories: first generation family businesses, second generation (or older) family businesses, state-owned companies, foreign-owned companies, publicly listed companies, and others (e.g. co-operatives and non...

The marked acceleration of Finnish productivity growth since the mid-1980s is attributable to intensifying creative destruction, understood as the joint effect of market entry and exit as well as resource reallocation between continuing plants and firms. This acceleration coincided with the economy-wide deregulation, liberalization, and the opening...

An employer–employee panel is used to study whether the movement of workers across firms is a channel of unintended diffusion of R&D-generated knowledge. Somewhat surprisingly, hiring workers from others’ R&D labs to one's own does not seem to be a significant spillover channel. Hiring workers previously in R&D to one's non-R&D activities, however,...

In the last quarter century, the scope of patenting has been expanded, the requirements for patentability have been lowered, the experimental use exemption has been narrowed, and patent holders' rights have been strengthened. New actors, most notably universities, have become involved. These changes threaten technological advance by hindering the e...

Statistics Finland maintains a database which includes firm level data on public support in Finland. During this study it contained data from the years 2000–6. So far the data has been underutilized in economic and statistical analyses. We use the database in this descriptive study mainly to test the usability of the database. We analyze, for examp...

If entrepreneurs are understood to be individuals who perceive new opportunities, introduce them in the market place, and make decisions regarding the organization of production, they may be considered to be the primary source of a society’s economic well-being. If such entrepreneurship is lacking, an economy is necessarily regressive. Measuring su...

Statistics Finland maintains a database which includes firm level data on public support in Finland. During this study it contained data from the years 2000-6. So far the data has been underutilized in economic and statistical analyses. We use the database in this descriptive study mainly to test the usability of the database. We analyze, for examp...

If entrepreneurs are understood to be individuals who perceive new opportunities, introduce them in the market place, and make decisions regarding the organization of production, they may be considered to be the primary source of a society's economic wellbeing. If such entrepreneurship is lacking, an economy is necessarily regressive. Measuring suc...

The report summarises the main results from the ICT impacts project where different sources have been linked at the level of the firm for the purpose of extending the scope of analysis. The report also summarises prior research and set out recommendations for action by Eurostat and NSIs. By using a set of harmonised core ICT metrics it is shown tha...

ABSTRACT : This paper reviews the characteristics and magnitude of information technology (IT) outsourcing as well as studies its labor productivity effects with a representative sample of Finnish businesses. Depending on the IT task in question, on average from one-third to two-thirds of IT has been outsourced; of the ten categories considered, th...

ABSTRACT : This paper studies whether exposure to mass media and liking advertising are associated with an increased impulse buy tendency, and whether the availability of a credit card acts as a facilitating stimulus. It is found that impulse buys are positively associated with exposure to commercial television, but not to other forms of mass media...

ABSTRACT : even though inter-firm networking is often argued to be among the factors enhancing business performance, empirical research on the topic is scarce. We exploit Eurostat’s and Statistic Finland’s pilot survey on inter-enterprise relations to study the issue. Our uni- and multivariate analysis does not suggest that there is a statistically...

An employer-employee panel is used to study whether the movement of workers across firms is a channel of unintended diffusion of R&D-generated knowledge. Somewhat surprisingly, hiring workers from others' R&D labs to one's own does not seem to be a significant spillover channel. Hiring workers previously in R&D to one's non-R&D activities, however,...

In order to shed light on the consequences of the ongoing financial crisis, ETLA conducted two surveys at the end of October 2008. The firm survey targeted firms employing at least 10 persons in Finland (2,017 observations with a response rate of 33%) and the consumer survey targeted 15–74-year-old Finns (2,025 observations with a response rate of...

Three fourths of Finnish business enterprises have relationships that are deeper than those associated with normal market transactions, i.e., they are involved in inter-organizational networking. Regionally networking is more commonplace in North Savo, North Karelia/Kainuu, Central Finland and Lapland/Northern Ostrobothnia. Connections to other fir...

In order to shed light on the consequences of the ongoing financial crisis, ETLA conducted two surveys at the end of October 2008. The firm survey targeted firms employing at least 10 persons in Finland (2,017 observations with a response rate of 33%) and the consumer survey targeted 15-74-year-old Finns (2,025 observations with a response rate of...

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 firm...

This paper studies whether family businesses (FBs) differ from non-family businesses (non-FBs) in various dimensions of globalization with a representative sample of businesses in Finnish manufacturing and private services. FBs and non-FBs are not so different when it comes to export and off-shore (includes both in-house moves and outsourcing) prob...

This report studies various categories of intangible investment in tandem with micro-level data available for research purposes at Statistics Finland. Already at the firm level the amount of intangible investment exceeds that of tangible investment, and taking it into account changes our understanding of many key measures : for example the adjusted...

Less than a tenth of Finnish firms’ CEOs and chairmen of the board are women; less than a fourth of Finnish firms’ board members are women. An empirical regression analysis of a large firm-level data set suggests that a company led by a women CEO is on average about ten per cent more profitable than a corresponding company led by a man, even after...

ABSTRACT : This report studies Finnish growth-orientated nascent entrepreneurship on the basis of an extensive computer-aided telephone survey. The findings suggest that growth-orientated entrepreneurs are typically well-educated men with a technical degree; they have prior managerial and/or entrepreneurial experience; they are risk-takers; and the...

We examine how those re-entering paid-employment after a brief self-employment spell fare upon return using data from the European Community Household Panel. Unconditionally, those re-entering paid-employment appear to have considerably lower wages than those staying in the wage sector. This difference appears to be larger in Europe than in the US....

Factors determining the diffusion of digital mobile telephony across developed and developing countries are studied with the aid of a Gompertz model. After controlling for other factors, the speed of diffusion per se is not significantly different between the two groups of countries. Standards competition hinders and market competition promotes dif...

The labor productivity effects of portability and connectivity of information and communication technology (ICT) are studied with Finnish firm-level data. It is found that a computer with only processing and storage capabilities boosts labor productivity by 9% (corresponding to 5% output elasticity), portability by 32%, wireline connectivity by 14%...

This chapter is in part based on ETLA's prior work on the subject (Dahlman & Routti, forthcoming in 2005; Hyytinen, Paija, Rouvinen, & Ylä-Anttila, forthcoming in 2005/6; Rouvinen & Ylä-Anttila, 2003). This research is a part of the "Locational Advantage in a Global Digital Economy" collaborative research program operated jointly by BRIE, the Berke...

Evaluating the possible consequences of R&D tax incentives before their introduction is challenging, not least because the details of the system remain unknown, and because the ultimate reactions and responses of various actors involved remain uncertain. In order to shed some light on the issue, this reports studies the results of surveys targeting...

Yllä esitetyt havainnot vahvistavat arkikäsitystämme kasvuhakuisen liiketoiminnan perusluonteesta: kasvuyritys on tietointensiivinen ja toimii verkostomaisesti; kasvuyrittäjä on todennäköisesti nuori, uskoo itseensä ja on valmis ottamaan suuriakin riskejä. On myös Mielenkiintoista havaita, että heiltä löytyy usein aiempaa yrittäjyys- ja ulkomaankok...

This chapter studies the joint effects of inter-firm collaboration and electronic business on firm profitability primarily in Finnish manufacturing. It is found that deeper forms of inter-firm collaboration boost financial performance but that high e-business intensity might even strain profitability. Firms that simultaneously have high inter-firm...

Widespread use of ICT in Finnish business enterprises is quite recent. Contrary to what was believed during the new economy boom, the increasing use of ICT is primarily a phenomenon within firms; the contribution of restructuring to the observed changes in aggregate ICT-intensity is rather marginal. Decompositions of productivity growth suggest, ho...

The second Finnish Community Innovation Survey is used to study whether the technology policy practice was consistent with the official rhetoric in the mid 1990s. Findings suggest that a firmʼs likelihood of receiving public R&D support increases with outside collaboration, the ability to benefit from inward spillovers, and R&D-intensity. There is...

This chapter studies the joint effects of inter-firm collaboration and electronic business on firm profitability primarily in Finnish manufacturing. It is found that deeper forms of inter-firm collaboration boost financial performance but that high e-business intensity might even strain profitability. Firms that simultaneously have high inter-firm...

The characteristics of product and process innovators among Finnish manufacturing firms with Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data are studied. Results of bivariate probit estimations suggest that, while the product and process innovations are related, they are largely driven by different factors. The ability to benefit from inward spillovers is t...

This is a study of the effects of R&D spillovers on the cost and production structures of Finnish manufacturing firms. Confidential data on firms is used to estimate a translog cost function system with random coefficients. Although the results suggest that intra-industry spillovers are present in Finnish manufacturing, the findings regarding inter...

We study four issues in R&D–productivity dynamics: does R&D Granger cause productivity, is there a lag between R&D and its productivity effects, does the potency of R&D vary in timing and magnitude, and what is the role of R&D spillovers and aggregate shocks. The results suggest that R&D causes productivity but not vice versa, productivity responds...

We study four issues in R&D–productivity dynamics: does R&D Granger cause productivity, is there a lag between R&D and its productivity effects, does the potency of R&D vary in timing and magnitude, and what is the role of R&D spillovers and aggregate shocks. The results suggest that R&D causes productivity but not vice versa, productivity responds...