I am no stranger to nordic countries. I taught in Estonia for a while and visited Finland a couple of times. And if Germans are known for their efficient ways, well, we can learn a thing or two from the people up north. In the course of my research on standards I came across the dissertation of Vladislav V. Fomin, who wrote on the Process of Standard Making using two case studies from the mobile phone industry. His dissertation is available from his alma mater, the University of Jyväskylä (more properly: Jyväskylän yliopiston kirjasto/Julkaisuyksikkö…). After some prodding and testing I found the link to order the book here. Filled out the form - off we go. But wait: No payment information was requested?!

A couple of days went by and I pretty much forgot the whole thing until an envelope arrived in my mailbox with the requested book inside, and a polite invoice for 10 Euros and 33 cents - the book cost 2 Euros, shipping 8 Euros and 33 cents. “Please instruct your bank to forward payment orders to …” Somewhat different from the usual Amazon.com experience.

Apparently, the default expectation of our Finnish friends is that people will pay, if you provide good service to them, as opposed to the typical US default, which is pay first, we’ll provide service later (maybe). This reminds me of a paper I read a while ago (more…)