Browsing by discipline "Puumarkkinatiede"
Now showing items 21-31 of 31
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(2012)The role of wood-based bioenergy has improved over the past few years after the European Union’s climate and energy directive came into effect. The main aim of the policy is to substitute fossil fuel with biofuels aim-ing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy security and support the development of rural com-munities. To achieve this aim it is necessary to pursue more efficient energy use in living, construction and transport. Most of the EU countries have undertaken to participate in these actions by increasing the use of renewable energy such as wood-based bioenergy. Currently, wood-based bioenergy is highly supported with subsidies and other political decisions that act as the main market driver. Furthermore, the increasing prices of fossil fuels create favorable conditions for future bioenergy market developments. Nevertheless, the role of bioenergy is growing even though the market has its own challenges due to fluctuating forest industry cycles. To better understand the wood-based bioenergy market and its current situation, this Master’s thesis has ga-thered up-to-date information on three different market areas which will assist in finding potential delivery destinations within the Baltic Sea area for wood-based bioenergy produced in the Leningrad region. In addi-tion, this thesis introduces, on a broad scale, the central concepts of wood-based bioenergy and discusses the political drivers affecting bioenergy markets. The theoretical framework is mainly based on the Information Environment Model by Juslin and Hansen (2002), an instrument for investigating the bioenergy market from both macro and micro environment aspects, and on the Relationship Commitment and Trust theory by Morgan and Hunt (1994), which examines how relationships between buyers and sellers are established and discusses the role of two variables - trust and commitment. Both models were applied when collecting both the primary data from bioenergy customers through interviews and the secondary data from research articles, publications and Internet sources. The study also includes a discussion part as well as development proposals related to future customer relationship man-agement. Wood-based bioenergy is an important energy source fighting against climate change. However, to fulfill the targets set by the European Union and country-specific politics there is still a need for more opera-tors working in bioenergy field. Based on the results, it is necessary to support good communication, coopera-tion and trust between raw-material buyers and sellers in order to achieve functional raw-material exchange circumstances. The study is conducted as a qualitative research project.
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(2015)Ongoing structural changes within the forest sector, competition with substitute materials in construction business and rising stakeholder pressure towards actions of environmentally sensitive forest sector are pushing extra challenges to the communication efforts of forest sector. Communication has an essential role when promoting the favorable characteristics of wood products and influencing perceptions of stakeholders but inapplicable messages or channels may cause obstacles for effective communication. The purpose of the study is to examine what kind of information forest sector provides to consumers related to sustainability features of wooden floor materials. Sustainability communication is defined using sustainability dimensions. Additionally, aim is to evaluate how important different type of information is for consumers purchasing wooden floor materials and to find the meaning of various communication channels for consumers in obtaining sustainability-related information. Additionally, also the communication planning is approached in the study by scrutinizing, what communication should be and could be. Data collection was conducted using quantitative questionnaire survey. Consumers of wooden floor materials were included as a consumer group of interest and survey was conducted to 52 respondents in a special wooden floor material store using exit method. Communication was approached from the theoretical view of communication process. Results of this study underline the significance of the personnel as the method to tailor the communication of sustainability. When communicating the benefits of wooden floor materials, focus should be on health aspects of wooden floor and additionally in safety issues as these were most appreciated by respondents. According to the results of this study, communication efforts should be put on tailoring communication according to the content of the sustainability messages, as there seemed to be no significant dependency in sustainability communication perceptions between different stakeholder segments.
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(2010)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.
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(2011)The operation environment in the roundwood trade in Finland in the 1990’s include several changes. They are changes in the structure of non-industrial private forest (NIPF) ownership, forest taxation, in forest legislation, in price recommendation agreement, diminishing resources of forestry extension services, etc. At the same time, the roundwood demand has been rising. All these developments cause uncertainty in wood procurement organisations, and call for research to find out how to adapt into the changing environment. The objective of this study is to produce information for roundwood purchasing planning and cus-tomer satisfaction management to be used by Stora Enso Metsä Customer Service, Helsinki. For this pur-pose, data needs to be gathered about the urban NIPFs and their forest estates, behaviour related to forestry and timber-selling, customer satisfaction in their latest timber selling transaction, and their opinions about Enso’s new customer service office and its service concept. To fulfil the objective of the study, a NIPF -owner -survey (N=1064, response rate 39,7%) was con-ducted in October 1998-January 1999. The sample was made on the basis of the marketing database of Stora Enso Oyj Forest Customer Service in Helsinki. In planning the frame of reference of the empirical study, the model of service quality by Grönroos was applied. The following aspects were included in the 7-page questionnaire: demographic, sosio-economic and forest estate background, relation to the forest service supply, behaviour related to forestry, timber-selling motives and behaviour, last contact organisation and its image in forestry business, expectations and percep-tions in the latest timber-selling transactions, and behavioural intentions. The results revealed that the share of women, pensioners and academically educated people among forest owners was quite high. The majority of the forest estates of the metropolitan forest owners were situ-ated in the provinces of South Finland and East Finland. The average forest estate area was considerably smaller than in a previous study. Economic and recreational objectives were most important in the use of forests. Forest Associations were involved in half of the roundwood sales transactions of the respondents in the metropolitan area. The wood quantity of transactions was considerably higher than the average in the whole country. Bank-organised forest-related activities, taxation infos and trips to the forest were the most popular activities. Among the services, silvicultural advices were needed mostly and stub treatment least. Brochure material related to stumpage timber sales and taxation were considered most important compared to material related to delivery sales. The service expectations were at highest for women and they were less satisfied with the service than men. 2nd and 3rd generation residents of the metropolitan area thought about the new customer service concept more positively than the 1st generation residents. Internet users under 60 years thought more positively about new satellite picture-based woodlot search concept. Cross-tabulation of factor scores against background variables indicated that women with relatively low education level a greater need to sell roundwood than entrepreneurs, white-collar workers and directors, and Internet users. Suspiciousness towards timber procurement organisations was relatively strong among women and those whose forest income share of the total income was either null or over 20 %. The average customer satisfaction score was negative in all nine questions. Statistical differences be-tween different companies did not exist in the average satisfaction scores. Stora Enso’s Helsinki forest cus-tomer service could choose the ability to purchase all timber grades as its competitive advantage. Out of nine service dimension included in the questionnaire, in this particular service dimension, Enso’s Helsinki forest customer service’s score exceeded most all organisations’ average customer satisfaction score. On the basis of importance – performance matrix, advice and quidance could have been provided more to the forest owners in their latest timber–selling transaction.
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(2014)The ongoing industrial globalization and high dependence on natural resources have stimulated forest companies to balance diverse and conflicting stakeholder demands and to disclose sustainability initiatives through corporate disclosures (Li and Toppinen, 2011). The identification of business impacts and risks associated with biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) has triggered corporations to report their initiatives and performance on such issues, especially corporations in the environmentally sensitive sectors. In order to investigate the current state of reporting on biodiversity and ecosystem services in the forest sector, a content analysis was implemented based on the Global Reporting Initiatives (the G3.1 version) environmental performance indicators for analyzing sustainability-related reports of thirteen globally operating forest companies in this study. The focus of the content analysis was on initiatives and environmental performance regarding five key threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services: the threat of habitat loss and degradation, the threat of over exploitation and unsustainable use, the threat of climate change, the threat of pollution and nutrient load and the threat of invasive alien species. The results indicate that reporting variations exist in terms of geographical locations and content-specific characteristics. In general, environmental subcategories of products and services, emission/effluents and biodiversity are the most reported. Regarding the five key threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, the threat of over exploitation and unattainable use is the most comprehensively reported while the threat of invasive alien species is the least reported. Based on the GRI sector supplements in other environmentally friendly sectors, industrial features of the forest sector and inter-linking issues detected between/among three sustainability dimensions, tentative suggestions and indicators are proposed for the forest sector supplement from biodiversity and ecosystem services perspective. Biodiversity and ecosystem services will probably be a subject of mandatory reporting with the assistance of a transparent and rigid reporting system. Inter-linking issues between/among sustainability dimensions and stakeholder involvement in environmental issues will be cornerstones in integrated reporting in the future.
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(2009)The phenomenal globalization of business is the main incentive for the study of business ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). With an increase in transnational trade over the past decades, an understanding of acceptable business practices across cultural boundaries is particularly important. Public concern for global issues such as climate change, raw material procurement, human rights, labor policies and corporate governance has significantly increased. Business corporations are obligated to operate as members of communities, organization as such is not allowed to exist if it does not gain acceptance and support from those in its environment. Furthermore, CSR can be seen as a competitive advantage – one dimension of corporate reputation and image. As future managers and consumers the current students are shaping the construct of corporate responsibilities. The future of CSR depends much on the attitudes of coming generations. The purpose of this study was to investigate how and to what extent the personal values and perceptions of CSR differ among Chinese, Finnish and American students. The theoretical frame of reference suggests that perceptions of CSR are affected by background variables – gender, nationality and study major – both directly and through personal values. The nature of the study was quantitative and the sample consisted of altogether 1547 students from Finland, China and USA. The data has been gathered using questionnaires. The results of the study support previous findings of significant cultural and gender related differences in personal values and perceptions of CSR. Generally, female respondents and students majoring in forest ecology and environmental sciences possessed softer values and accepted or supported NGOs’ activity and governmental regulation in business life. The Chinese represented harder and more masculine values, whereas the American respondents emphasized soft values and stakeholder welfare. Overall, the Chinese data was the most homogenous, whereas the difference between genders was the most significant in Finland. Further research would be needed to find out if and how the values and perceptions are evolving over time. It remains to be seen, whether the ongoing globalization will decrease cultural differences in values and CSR orientation.
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(2010)Most of the Finnish commercial forest area is certified according to the PEFC Finland forest certification system. However, PEFC-certification is quite poorly renowned in the international markets of forest industry products. Also the acceptance of the PEFC-certification system is poor among the ENGOs. This study examines the expectations, experiences and the level of contentment related to PEFC-certification in the member organisations of the Finnish Forest Industries Federation. With this study, the Finnish Forest Industries Federation receives information about the situation of its member organisations in the environmentally-conscious markets. The study also reveals what kind of an effect PEFC-certification has on the success of these companies. The research methods of the study are qualitative. The material of the research was acquired by conducting thematic interviews. The theory of the study is based on the concepts of experienced service quality. In this study, PEFC-certification is examined as a service, the customers of which are Finnish forest industry companies. The theoretical framework of the study is a model of expectations, experiences and satisfaction by Rope & Pöllänen. The results show that the companies interviewed are fairly content with PEFC-certification. Nonetheless, there is some dissatisfaction, especially in the largest companies due to the poor acceptance of the PEFC-certification in the international markets and among the ENGOs. Certification has been acquired for the companies mainly because forest certification has been recognized to be a major trend in the forest industries. PEFC-certification has also been used as a means of responding to the claims of the environmentally conscious markets for the companies interviewed. The companies are satisfied with the fact that PEFC-certification has enabled them to maintain their marketshare. However, many of the interviewees point out the fact that PEFC-certification cannot provide them with a genuine competitive asset in the markets where FSC-certification is considered as the most reliable. Only few of the companies interviewed carry out communication efforts related to forest certification. Communication about PEFC-certification is considered to be superfluous because it doesn´t create a chance for differentatiation for a company. Improvement of the image and acceptance of PEFC-certification was wished for in many of the companies interviewed, especially in the largest ones.
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(2009)Suomen sahateollisuus elää pitkästä ja hienosta historiastaan huolimatta vuonna 2009 vaikeaa aikaa. Maailman-talouden taantumaan johdosta vientivetoinen teollisuus joutuu leikkaamaan tuotantoaan huippuvuosiin verrattuna lähes puolella. Sahatavaran kysyntä on romahtanut uudisrakentamisen pysähdyttyä kuin seinään. Lisäksi tilannetta on hankaloittanut sahatavaran ylituotanto muualla Euroopassa ja Itä-Euroopan maiden sahateollisuuden kasvu. Kotimaassa tuontipuun hinnat karkasivat liian korkeiksi Venäjän asettamien puun tuontitullien myötä, jonka johdosta myös muun metsäteollisuuden rakennemuutos on saanut uutta vauhtia. Selluteollisuuden siirtyessä kiihtyvällä tahdilla halvempien kuituraaka-aineiden lähteille ja vanhojen tehtaiden sulkeutuessa myös kotimaisen puukaupan tasapaino on järkkynyt. Perinteisen sahateollisuuden tulevaisuus näyttää synkältä, jonka vuoksi sen tulevaisuutta on päätettyä tutkia mm. tässä työssä. Painotus on ollut sahateollisuuden kysynnän ja asiakasrakenteen tulevaisuuden skenaarioissa. Tutkimusta lähdettiin toteuttamaan kvalitatiivisena työnä, jonka primaaridata hankittiin asiantuntijateemahaastatteluin joissa asiantuntijoina toimivat sahateollisuudessa tai alaan liittyvissä työtehtävissä toimivat henkilöt. Tutkimuksen teoreettisena viite-kehyksenä toimi Nordin (2005) sahateollisuuden arvoketjusta muokattu kehys, johon yhdistettiin PESTEK-analyysi. Nordin arvoketjun valittujen osien tutkiminen PESTEK-analyysillä ja teemahaastatteluilla synnyttivät kolme sahateollisuuden skenaarioita vuoteen 2020 asti. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin myös sovellettua delfoi-menetelmää muun muassa hankkimalla skenaarioiden dataa kahdessa vaiheessa. Ensin asiantuntijahaastatteluin ja myöhemmin skenaarioista saatiin palautetta Helsingin yliopiston, Metsäntutkimuslaitoksen ja Euroopan metsäinstituutin järjestämässä skenaariotyöpajassa. Useamman menetelmän käyttämisellä eli triangulaatiolla pyrittiin parantamaan tutkimuksen validiteettia. Tutkimuksen tuloksena syntyi sekä sahateollisuuden nykytilan kuvaus, että sahateollisuuden kolme tulevaisuuden skenaariota. Nykytilan kuvaus tarvittiin, jotta tiedettäisiin lähtökohta skenaarioille. Skenaariot kuvaavat sahateollisuuden kolmea erilaista tulevaisuutta riippuen sen toimijoiden oletetuista toimintamalleista lähtötilanteessa ja matkalla kohti vuotta 2020. Ensimmäisessä skenaariossa sahateollisuuden kehittyminen rajoittuu kovaan hintakilpailuun perustuotteissa ja toiminta on vahvasti markkinoiden syklisyyden armoilla. Toisessa skenaariossa osa sahateollisuuden toimijoista on lähtenyt kehittämään yhteistyötä puunjalostusteollisuuden kanssa vertikaalisen integraation voimin. Tuotteet ovat pitkälle jalostettuja ja markkinat pääosin kotimaassa ja lähialueilla. Kolmannessa ja viimeisessä skenaariossa sahateollisuus hakee ketteryyttä toimintaansa horisontaalisella integraatiolla bioenergiaklusterin kanssa. Tuotannossa jalosteet ovat aiempaa suuremmassa roolissa perustuotteiden rinnalla ja monialaosaamisella taistellaan markkinoiden syklisyyttä vastaan. Vaikeasta tilanteesta huolimatta suomalaisella sahateollisuudella on mahdollisuudet selvitä, mutta se voi vaatia yksittäisten yritysten kohdalla perusteellisia muutoksia liiketoimintamalleihin ja ajattelutapoihin.
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(2013)Illegal logging has become one of the most prominent issues in the last few decades. It causes environmental damage, lost in government revenue from timber production as well as promotes negative social issues such as corruption, conflict, etc. Various efforts such as enhance forest law enforcement, logs banned, public procurement policies, etc., have been propose by both consuming and producing countries. FLEGT Action Plan introduced by European Union in 2003 is the Union attempts to minimise illegal logging by exclude illegal timber product from EU’s market together with enhance and support the law enforcement as well as governance in producing countries. The purpose of this study is to provide useful information concerning operators’ perception of FLEGT issues. The main question of the study is: “What are the EU timber operators’ perceptions concerning FLEGT and EUTR?” Quantitative method is applied to the study. Data for the study is obtain through various channels, including online survey, distribution of questionnaire in conference and calling session. The result shows that operators are aware of negative effects of illegal logging and they believe that company needs to have good environmental image. Operators also support strict policy measure to be implemented in order to prevent illegal timber trade. However, they are reluctant to cope with the constraints cause by these policies. Operators acknowledge the benefit FLEGT Action Plan and EUTR create such as improve forest governance for producing countries, preventing illegal timber entering EU market. However, they still have doubt on the ability to prevent illegal logging of FLEGT Action Plan as well as the benefit EUTR able to offer both operators and the supplying countries. Furthermore, the result of this study also shows that the operators might have negative attitude toward EUTR since their perceived sacrifice on EUTR is dominated over the perceived benefits. This negative attitude can be caused by the incomprehension on FLEGT issues. The operators might gain positive attitude toward FLEGT issues once they truly understand the long term goal of FLEGT Action Plan. Finally, it is important to have an effective communication strategy which would help operators comprehend FLEGT issues so they would be able to have appropriate perception toward FLEGT Action Plan in general and EUTR in particular.
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(2015)The wood products industry has a significant impact on the natural environment and surrounding society by utilizing natural resources in its operations. After receiving criticism from stakeholders, forest companies have increasingly paid attention to economic and social features together with environmental performance. When covering sustainability communication in forest products industry, previous studies have mainly been focusing on sustainability reporting. After spread of digitalization the importance of sustainability-related online communication has increased, especially among forest companies and associations. This study addresses the sustainability-related online communication in the wood products industry, since it has not been studied extensively yet. The purpose of the study is to examine on corporate and sectoral levels how companies and associations communicate with their stakeholders online and what are the current topics of sustainability-related online communication in the forest products industry in Finland. Empirical data was collected by carrying out the qualitative content analysis inductively and deductively based on forest companies’ and associations’ websites. Both methods were utilized to ensure discover of topical sustainability issues from data. According to the findings, sustainability communication of forest companies and associations still bases on environmental factors. However, the share of social factors such as stakeholder engagement is growing. Although, majority of forest companies and associations have applied various social media channels to communicate with their stakeholders, the evaluation of the communication effectiveness of these channels is difficult and requires further research. In the end, to achieve mutual benefit companies need to engage and involve their stakeholders in decision-making process on company’s sustainability issues through social media or other online platforms.
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(2015)Since 1980s the major global forest industry enterprises have been renounced their forest holdings in Northern- America and sold them for the public and private institutions as well as for the private investors. Since 1990s until 2010s corresponding renouncement have been distinguished also in Europe. Especially because of the quarterly reporting the trend between major global forest industry enterprises have been towards renouncing fixed capital in desire to satisfy the needs of investors. In the beginning of the millennium the global forest products companies have been transposing manufacturing into emerging markets. The predicted growth opportunities and demand expectations in regard to forest based products are cut out for induce the global forest industry enterprises to invest in forest holdings in emerging markets. The increasing competition of bare land in emerging markets has been a major driver to switch the strategy of global forest industry enterprises back into vertical integration in lieu of buying the raw material from the markets. This Master’s Thesis takes a look at the relationship between timberland ownership (vertical integration) and financial performance of a forest industry enterprise. In addition this thesis aspires to substantiate whether there exists a relationship between timberland ownership and the geographical location of operations of a global forest industry enterprise. The material covers review of literature, the theories of industrial economics, annual reports of forest industry enterprises and the survey of TOP 100 global forest, paper and packaging industries. (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2007; 2012). Statistical hypothesis test and descriptive statistics are utilized to analyze the results received from the annual reports and the surveys of TOP 100 global forest paper and packaging industries. Conclusions regarding the relationship between timberland ownership and financial performance are drawn from the results received. In addition the results produce information on the current state of the timberland holdings between the TOP 100 major global forest industry enterprises. Quantitative data behind this study has been collected from years 2007 and 2012. The findings of this study verifies the trend towards timberland ownership between major forest industry enterprises. Regarding on the results attained from the statistical test there exists a positive correlation between timberland ownership and financial performance. In the future especially the prices of raw material, prices of bare land and prices of end- product will continue to play a crucial role for the profitability of global forest industry enterprises. Finally, it is interesting to see in the future how the green economics will shape the Forest Industry and what kind of an impact it will have for the profitability and forest ownership of global forest industry enterprises.
Now showing items 21-31 of 31