Browsing by Author "Rytkönen, Antti"

Finnish sawmill industry's competitiveness has recently been poor due to the worsen economic situation, collapsed demand and the inactivity on the timber market. The sawmill industry has attempted to operate as domestic business by creating a long-term welfare for the Finnish society. However, this attempt requires, that the domestic sawmilling industry can operate in conditions, which is enabling profitable business. The market share of Finnish sawmill industry in Europe and the world is so small that it has no practical ability to determine the level of prices in international markets. Therefore it must adapt to the prevailing world market prices and demand fluctuations. Sawmill industry is in a turning point, which led to the examination of the current state and industry-related perspectives. The theoretical framework bases on McGahan (2004) book How Industries Evolve. It is a descriptive framework for the trajectory of industry change. The descriptive framework is combined with Porter's Diamond model (1990), which he introduced in his book “The Competitive Advantage of Nations” (Porter 1990). The aim of the Diamond is to describe the business environment, where the Finnish sawmilling industry is operating in. Resource based view by Barney (Barney 1991) will describe the corporate environment and resources of the sawmilling companies. SWOT analysis was used to evaluate the results. The study was conducted as a qualitative work. Primarydata was acquired by expert interviews and secondarydata consists of the literature, publications and internet sources. According to the results in order to improve the competitiveness of Finnish sawmilling industry a common understanding needed of a number of related changes. Attempts to improve the competitiveness should be implemented so that all the factor conditions are effective and try to regenerate. When the factor conditions are functioning, there is demand for wood products, prices are adequate and wood markets operate in balance. It is noteworthy that it was the sawmill industry pays more than 70% of the income for private forest owners, which is ensuring employment for the rural localities and creating economic welfare. Globalization will also modify business environment of the Finnish sawmilling industry therefore the state as a legislator needs to influence the industry's changing needs. Political decisions should be encouraging the industry to create new production possibilities so that industry can maintain their competitiveness in relation to other competing countries. The use of forests and wood can respond to the many challenges in the future. Finnish sawmilling will be supporting the targets of the Finnish government as well as the EU's priority areas: sustainable development, climate change adaptation and welfare development of the rural areas.