Abstract The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the valuation of intangible assets in different financial environments. Value relevance of intangible investments has been largely recognized by indicating their close relatedness on future operating performance and valuation of firms. The financial environment of the country (market- or bank-based) is also found to be an important determinant of the economic performance of the firm. This thesis combines these two important issues by examining how a country's financial system affect the firm's investments and valuation of intangible assets. The study consists of four essays and an introductory section. Essay I investigates the firm's investments in human capital in different legal- and financial environments. The results of this study indicate that human capital asset constitutes an essential part of the market value of firms in all our sample countries. The results also suggest that firms make investments in human capital to increase their innovation capabilities and to improve their future benefits. Essay II investigates the firm's investments in R&D capital in different financial systems. The common result concerning both financial system is that the estimated R&D capital constitutes a great part of the firm's unrecorded goodwill. The main finding of the study is that the effects of the firm's past profitability and growth on its estimated R&D capital are stronger in bank-based than market-based financial systems. This result emphasizes the role of bank-based financing over market-based financing in the efficiency of resource allocation to R&D investments. Essay III investigates the stock market's response to the firm's R&D investments in different financial systems by taking account of lead-lag structure between the firm's R&D investments and its market value. The main result of the study is that the stock markets' response to current R&D investments varies between different financial systems with regards to the point in time against which the stock market response is examined. This study suggests that information disclosure policies, level of stock-market expectations and attitude towards risk are the most important potential factors that explain the valuation differences of R&D between market- and bank-based financial systems. Essay IV investigates the effect's of a country's financial system on current R&D investments and the future profitability of the firm. The main results of this study can be summarized as follows: the firm's current R&D investments are more strongly associated with the level of future firm profitability in bank-based than market-based financial system whereas current R&D investments are more strongly associated with the uncertainty of future firm profitability in market-based than bank-based financial system. The findings of this study suggest that differences in the valuation of R&D between market-based and bank-based financial systems mainly depends on the information asymmetry between the firm and its investors.

Abstract The main difficulty in the usability evaluation of a product concept or a prototype is that it is very difficult to take reliably into account many different characteristics or attributes, which cannot be measured with the same unit, scale or instrument. Secondly, evaluation always involves some uncertainty. One can never be really sure that all the essential aspects that affect the final user emphasis are taken into consideration. This uncertainty can be decreased by involving diverse people in the evaluation process during R&D or, before the final decision, by elaborating the best ideas to a level at which they can be really used on a pilot scale in the field. Most often, though, the latter takes too much time and would result in many other problems. Evaluation can possibly be best enhanced by using enough involved people, i.e. various experts and especially end-users, who need or use the product in question. A key ingredient to the success of product development, in addition to ergonomic knowledge, is often thought to be active involvement of the intended product users by (1) measuring user-product interaction and (2) participation in design decisions. When a potential end-user experiments with the product, both quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods can be used. This thesis shows some methodological possibilities of evaluation, especially through simulation. It also describes in detail the practical phases of the experiments. For example, a lot of development was needed to find out how to communicate product alternatives and their concepts to (elderly) users. And most importantly, this thesis aims to give evidence of how the procedure called experimental ergonomic evaluation (EEE) should be feasibly implemented and statistically confirmed for significance and consistency. A special focus in the experiments was placed on elderly end-users. Since the number of elderly citizens is increasing, there is a need for products to help the elderly live independently at their homes. Studying and understanding how users accomplish their tasks helps to identify their needs and to formulate implications for the design of technology to satisfy those needs. Thus, user studies conducted before beginning to design a new technology provide a proactive way of involving users in the design process. The first prototypes then enable usability studies, such as user trials. With an emphasis on usability engineering, trials can be developed into more feasible EEE procedures for industrial companies. All the developed and applied EEE procedures were based on a user-centred approach with different user trial types (N = 15). The users as subjects (N = 264) performed as real tasks as possible and, based on their perceptions during the trials, gave their preferences or scored certain variables. The subjects were also observed and measured by the researcher. The products or other technologies in the trials comprised a total of 9 cases, ranging from "low-tech" steps and chairs to "high-tech" information and communication technology (ICT) applications. The perceived preference and observed performance measures were then combined. Different methods are needed simultaneously to make the results more accurate. The present EEE procedures proved to be cost-effective, efficient and sufficiently valid at least in a research context. The EEE procedures ranged from subjective estimations, such as rating and ranking, to more complex multi-criteria methods that can be used to facilitate decision-making, such as conjoint analysis, Mitchell's paired comparison and use-value analysis. Objective evaluation was also used, including measurement of products and users as well various observations. Both experts and end-users (subjects) had their own important roles in the experiment. Based on this study, EEE procedures are easy to implement in industry for routine usability testing in the course of product development. EEE with its wide coverage yields more universal and absolute usability values, not only ones based on direct benchmarking.

Abstract Research on interorganisational relationships is highly fragmented. It can be found in, for example, sociology, economics, anthropology, psychology, marketing, organisational behaviour, strategic management, and entrepreneurship. It is unsurprising that the terminology and units of analysis vary notably, as does the theoretical basis of the research. The forms of interorganisational relationships researched also vary, including among others networking, outsourcing, strategic alliances, joint ventures, and partnering. The focus of this research is on outsourcing partnerships – what is the process involved in the formation and management of a software research and development (R&D) outsourcing partnership and what are the factors that affect the successful outcome of the said relationship. Understanding of how the relationship works, how it grows and develops is crucial for getting the best out of the collaboration and for avoiding possible difficulties. Outsourcing and partnering have been researched from many different viewpoints, depending on the domain. Some common topics of interest can still be found and they are presented in this study. However, a complete picture of an outsourcing partnership life cycle cannot be found in the literature. Because of that a synthesis outsourcing partnership life cycle model has been created based on the models found in other studies. In the second part of the study, empirical data from a software R&D outsourcing partnership case is analysed based on the synthesis model, and a new, improved model is created. The new model gives a more in-depth insight into the formation and management of an outsourcing partnership. Also, the success factors collected from the case are compared to the ones found in the literature. Even though the model is created and presented mainly from the customer company viewpoint, it has been affected by the partner company viewpoint as well, as the case data was collected from both companies.

Abstract This dissertation investigates the use of management accounting and control systems in R&D intensive firms in different organizational life-cycle stages. The thesis consists of four essays focusing on two categories of management accounting and control systems: capital budgeting decisions and management control systems. First, we investigate the evaluation and financing of investment projects in R&D intensive firms. Second, we moreover investigate how R&D intensive firms themselves use management control systems and how investors control their investments in R&D intensive target firms. The survey method within a contingency framework is used in the first three essays while the last essay represents the case study method. However, the dissertation as a whole is based on two main contexts, i.e. the organizational life-cycle and the field of high technology. The results indicate that more sophisticated capital budgeting methods are used in large-sized R&D intensive firms while small-sized firms are not so likely to use these methods. The results indicate that firms understand the nature of R&D investment on the level of strategic management, because they have adopted strategic management tools in order to achieve better financial performance. We conclude that high R&D intensity plays an important role in management accounting, suggesting that large-sized high R&D intensity firms take note of special characteristics of R&D investments when taking strategic capital budgeting decisions. The comparison of the growth and revival stages extends the earlier life-cycle literature indicating that the information produced by management accounting and control systems is at least as important in the revival firm as it is during the first growth stage.