Browsing by discipline "Skogsekonomi och marknadsföring"

As we live in a world of limited resources facing multiple global challenges, like climate change, we will need to find new ways to sustainable produce and consume in respect for people today and the next generations to come. While keeping in mind the ecological limitations, the global economy needs to grow in order to ensure the prosperity of the people. The aim of this thesis is to examine, how the European Union Bioeconomy Strategies have influenced the progress of bioeconomy inside the Union as a whole and inside different Member States. The European Union published its first Bioeconomy Strategy back in 2012 and updated it in 2018 in the light of new regulations and discoveries. The aim for these two Strategies was to introduce bioeconomy better to the European Union Member States, and to encourage investments and new research to benefit all bioeconomy sectors while creating sustainable businesses and form a more innovative, resource efficient and competitive society. One of the main accomplishment of the 2012 Strategy was its influence on Member States, of which many started drafting their own Bioeconomy Strategies in correlation to their own strengths and available resources. This thesis will firstly look into the changes within the two European Union Strategies, secondly explore the Spain, Finland and Latvia’s Bioeconomy Strategies in relation to the EU Strategies, and additionally summarize the finding and compare the three Member States in question. Finally some speculations and suggestions are formed from the basis of these comparisons.

The concept of bioeconomy has been harnessed to support societies and their economies to produce value added products from renewable biological resources and to develop circular economy. Such systems require actions from a variety of actors from public and private sectors to consumers. As a heavily forested country Finland’s bioeconomy leans largely on the utilization of forests. Planned pulp and paper industry investments call for end-uses for logs to balance out the wood supply. Both forests and the construction sector are also focal areas in climate change mitigation. Wooden multistorey construction (WMC) and its capability to store carbon has been suggested as a partial solution to the aforementioned issues. The aim of this study is to investigate the relation of WMC and the bioeconomy and the role of end-users in WMC. This explorative study uses qualitative research methods to address its research ques-tions. The data consists of seven focus group interviews conducted in the metropolitan area of Helsinki between September 2017 and February 2019. The interviewed groups, with altogether 26 participants, included an academic expert group, three market actor groups (firm representatives, architects and property managers) and three wooden multistorey resident groups. The residents’ type of housing included rental, owner-occupancy and right-of-occupancy and the buildings were built between 2015 and 2017. Thematization was used for data analysis. Results of the study show that despite Finland’s close-knit relation to its forests and traditions in utiliz-ing wood, WMC is not currently perceived culturally embedded as part of the society nor the construc-tion industry. WMC is still a niche in the country and it also seems more connected to mechanical wood industry than the construction industry. WMC was associated with the bioeconomy by non-resident groups, although experts recognized also potential pitfalls in the current discourse. Percep-tions that were aligned with the general discourse of the bioeconomy are mainly related to material renewability, possibilities to recycle wooden construction material, wood products capabilities to store carbon, and Finland’s relatively abundant forest resources. Despite WMC’s publicly declared role in the bioeconomy programmes, some underlying features make its rationale challenging for consumers, which could turn out to be a hindrance for WMC growth in the future. Generally, experts, firm represent-atives and architects were pro-wood and considered that WMC is still being unjustly stigmatized by various actors. In accordance with previous studies, the interviewed WMC residents were satisfied with their apart-ments and the building as such. A wooden frame does not seem to surpass traditional housing prefer-ences of consumers, but it is perceived as a benefit when choosing housing. Results of this study are much in line with previous findings, which indicate that environmental aspects matter, but not as much as health or other more personal aspects of living. Wood can be sensed in the building and apart-ments, which is perceived positively. However, the prevailing fire safety legislation, which was consid-ered as too strict, constrains the use of wood on visible surfaces in interiors. WMC seems to have an environmentally friendly image among residents, which however calls for better communication.

Sustainable forest management and forest certification is a global issue. They are particularly important in Vietnam where forest covers above 40% of the country’s areas. The thesis aims to anticipate the financial sustainability of PEFC group certification in central Vietnam through a comparison of the costs and benefits of certification, and an analysis of the Acacia value chain. The study sites are in three cooperatives in TTH province. The research approach is qualitative. Data are obtained primarily from observation, group focus discussion and semi-structured interviews with key informants from the management boards of cooperatives, farmers, traders, woodchip factories, furniture processing companies, and experts from governmental organizations and NGOs stretching from the north to the south. Besides, secondary data is collected from scientific journals, documents published and unpublished by the research institutions, and books. Results confirmed the potential of smallholder forestry in securing the sustainable supply of industrial timber and improving the livelihood of farmers by providing a new income stream. However, the contribution of Acacia plantation to the total annual net income is modest, mainly due to small landholdings. The smallholders in Central Vietnam face many bottlenecks preventing them from maximizing benefits from planted forests, including limited access to land, high-quality inputs, capital, advanced silvicultural practices, and fair market. Besides, they bear a high risk of exposure to extreme natural events such as typhoons and floods. These obstacle is also limiting the participation of smallholders in voluntary verification schemes such as forest certification. Engaging in forest certification is proven to create extra revenue for smallholders while reducing pressure on imported certified timber. The total costs of certification are affordable for smallholders if joining together under a single certificate. In Vietnam, forest certification is often associated with the planting of perennial trees for sawlogs and price premiums for certified timber. This scheme is argued inappropriate for smallholders in Central Vietnam, who are often described as high weather-related risks and financial fragility. Under the current situation, forest certification does not create tangible and intangible benefits for middlemen, woodchip factories and local carpenters. Smallholders and furniture processors are the direct beneficiaries. However, the circumstance is predicted to change in the future, resulting in the participation of all actors in the value chain in the forest certification. This study also suggests several interventions for expanding forest certification, starting from recognizing smallholder farmers as a distinctly different category of forest producers whose conditions need to cautiously considered when developing standards for group certification. Secondly, there should be a strong focus on capacity building for the group entity as well as raising awareness for members of group certification. Thirdly, linking smallholders with private sectors are not only attracting more investment but also widening market access for farmers. Additionally, it must be mentioned the importance of secure tenure, clear guidelines for implementing SFM and forest certification, incentive policy and cost-sharing mechanism on insurance and certification.

Growing exploitation of natural capital has raised a concern towards Earth’s capability to provide equal benefits for all in the future. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals addressed this issue and set the framework for private and public operators to implement and develop more sustainable solutions. Circular economy and bioeconomy have been presented as models to foster the economy along with sustainability transitions. However, the models have been criticized for taking overall sustainability for granted. As a result, the merged concept, circular bioeconomy, has been introduced to address such sustainability gap. The circular bioeconomy concept implies a more efficient resource management of bio-based renewable resources by combining the concept of circular economy and bioeconomy in strategic management level. These new concept demands both new technological innovations and new business model innovation. This study explores similar and dissimilar patterns in the way Finnish SME propose, create and deliver value through circular bioeconomy business models. The study examines the relation of new concept to sustainability as well. The study was based on qualitative research, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight company managers or owners. The data were categorized into business model components and sustainable business model archetypes. The results revealed that sustainability-oriented business model archetypes vary across the examined companies. Dominant ideas are substituting fossil-based materials and energy with bio-based one, and practices enabled by new technology such as production eco-efficiency. More radical principles were missing, for instance prolonging the material cycle before incineration or solutions to reduce consumer consumption. While environmental value was well covered in the business models of companies, contribution to social value was taken for granted as a narrow outcome of economic and environmental values. As this study concerned the micro level perspective, for further studies would be beneficial to examine the meso and macro level transformation to get a more holistic view on business environment, where companies with circular bio-product innovations operate to reveal implementation barriers for the circular bioeconomy.

Gender diversity in the workforce describes the equal representation of men and women in terms of ratio. Raising importance of the concept due to changing societal norms has allowed researchers to explore the mostly positive effect gender diversity, especially in leadership level, has on a company’s performance. Despite all the benefits, women in the forest-based sector are still underrepresented. This study aims to understand the underlying reasons for female underrepresentation in the forestry sector and to identify solutions to improve the situation. The study explored the barriers and enablers that hindered or supported female career development in the forestry industry and investigated possible solutions in light of sector’s future goals. In-depth elite interviewing was selected as the method of data collection. Ten interviews with senior level female leaders of seven forestry companies in Finland and Sweden were conducted face-to-face or over the phone. The qualitative content analysis of data identified most common barriers faced by women in their careers: a) discrimination, exclusion, and stereotyping due to masculine company culture, b) balancing work and family due to inflexible working hours and lack of remote work possibilities. Moreover, it recognised the importance of competence development and support systems as the enabling aspects of women careers in the industry. In addition to further understanding gender effect in the forestry sector, the study allowed to look into the future of the sector through the eyes of female leaders. The findings of the study are in line with previous research that identified the career advancement barriers and enablers in other industries. However, culture-specific issues posing a challenge to female career development and promoting exclusion, such as sauna and hunting traditions, were identified. Additionally, the importance of a personal support system was highlighted in the study. The critical role of the forestry sector and the bioeconomy in the sustainable global future was recognised by all study participants. The ability of forestry companies to adapt to future needs and to become a part of modern society will require them to rethink old concepts, modernise the image and allow for a more diverse company culture to foster in all organisational levels.

In this study the financial returns related to smallholders’ return on investments in Eucalyptus globulus (Labill.) were analyzed for the Kentai sub-watershed in the Tana-Beles Watershed Monitoring and Evaluation project in Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. This was accomplished by reviewing the inputs used in activities carried out by smallholders. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to analyze the inputs and outputs realized by different household investment choices. The Net Present Value (NPV), Equivalent Annual Income (EAI), Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR), and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of investments were estimated. The NPVs ranged between -65,750 Br/ha (-2,670 €/ha) and 1,389,920 Br/ha (56,350 €/ha) over a 30-year period at interest rates of 10, 20 and 30%. The EAIs corresponded with the NPVs, and were used in comparison with agricultural crops. In almost all cases EAI of E. globulus exceeded that of other crops. BCRs varied from 0.13 to 118 at an interest rate of 10%. The maximum IRR achieved was 383% and the minimum was ?4%. The average IRR was 60%. Additionally, the financial returns for revenue from sales, cost savings from household consumption and reinvestment were analyzed in five scenarios. Reinvestment in rental homes proved the most lucrative return, followed by use of poles for home construction, for fuelwood consumption, and, finally, only for sale. Additional use of wood at home or reinvestment of earnings was more profitable than only selling poles on the local market. The study found that most households have profitable financial returns from investment in E. globulus. Those households with negative returns may plant for non-monetary benefits or carry out non-profit maximizing behaviour due to personal, cultural, or other reasons not captured in this analysis. It is believed that continued adoption of E. globulus will plateau in the near future. This study suggests a number of measures that could be implemented to increase returns and reduce costs including: co-operative development, recognition of smallholder plantations by government, and tenure security improvements.

The aim of this thesis was to study how different forest management regimes suits for forest recreation. The second aim was to study whether there is voluntary willingness to pay for forest structure transition from a even-aged structure to a uneven-aged structure in a municipality-owned forest. In addition, factors which affects the willingness-to-pay were under study. The preferred forest structure was examined by contingent valuation method. In the scenario of the survey, a case was presented where a mature forest stand could be transformed into a better suiting recreational environment. Different forest stands were illustrated by photographs and they were asked to be evaluated how they would suit for recreation. If the respondent preferred the uneven-aged structure over even-aged structure, then the willingness to pay for transformation from even-aged to uneven-aged forest structure was enquired. The survey was completed by 67 persons in Helsinki. Factors which affect the willingness-to-pay were studied with logistic regression models. In addition, a distribution of the willingness-to-pay among response alternatives was studied with the logistic regression models. The uneven-aged forest management was preferred as a recreational environment by 40 respondents. Results relating to recreational habits were in line with earlier studies. Earlier studies were compared to the findings in this study relating to landscape preferences and the obtained results matched well studies conducted before. The average willingness-to-pay, calculated from the data, was €19.75 and the median willingness-to-pay was €10. 40% of the respondents chose to answer zero for willingness-to-pay. Age and income were the only background variables which were significant at 10% significance level.

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli arvioida liimapuun ja massiivipuulevyn markkinoiden tulevaa kehitystä Australiassa ja selvittää liimapuun ja massiivipuulevyn Australian markkinoihin vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Lisäksi tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää australialaisten liimapuuta ja massiivipuulevyä käyttävien rakennusalan yrittäjien ja asiantuntijoiden suhtautumista eurooppalaiseen liimapuuhun ja massiivipuulevyyn. Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin helmikuussa 2018 teemahaastatteluina. Teemahaastattelun runko oli muodostettu Juslinin ja Hansenin tietoympäristömallin pohjalta. Haastateltavina oli yhteensä kuusitoista australialaista rakennusyrittäjää ja rakennusalan asiantuntijaa. Litteroitu haastatteluaineisto analysoitiin nostamalla esiin eri teemoja, joita tarkasteltiin tutkimuksen teoreettisen viitekehyksen pohjalta. Esiin nousevat teemat olivat kasvava kysyntä, riittämätön kotimaan tarjonta, muun makroympäristön tekijät, kilpailevat materiaalit, jakelun toimivuus ja asiakkaiden mieltymykset. Tutkimusten tulosten mukaan liimapuun ja massiivipuulevyn kysyntä tulee kasvamaan Australiassa. Kasvua tukee rakentamisen noususuhdanne erityisesti Melbournessa ja Sydneyssä. Muutokset rakentamissäädöksissä, kasvava kiinnostus puurakentamista ja ympäristöystävällisiä, kestävän kehityksen periaatteita noudattavia rakennusmateriaaleja kohtaan tulee vaikuttamaan liimapuun ja massiivipuulevyn kysyntään. Arkkitehtien ja insinöörien puurakentamiseen liittyvillä asenteilla sekä kilpailevien materiaalien tarjonnalla on vaikutus liimapuun ja massiivipuulevyn kysyntään.

This study investigates the marketing of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). It develops an understanding of aviation stakeholders’ perspective on marketing planning in the process of commercializing SAF. Many studies have been assessing the relationship between biofuel and marketing, however, the research on sustainable aviation fuel marketing is nonexistent. Marketing is a critical factor that needs to be explored to understand and develop the SAF commercialization process. The fact that SAF is under early stage of commercialization and has not been widely adopted by the aviation industry, makes this study especially interesting and relevant. The sample consist of six semi-structured interviews with aviation stakeholders and develops insights on the perspectives towards SAF and marketing of the fuel. The results are analyzed together with a theoretical framework that incorporates a remodeled 4C’s of the marketing mix (customer solutions, consumer costs, convenience, communication) that is complemented with channels and content messages. In conclusion, due to the inadequate knowledge and deployment of SAF, marketing planning at this stage is difficult. However, it is recognized that creating awareness plays an important role and therefore, SAF should be marketed through several different channels, with specific and targeted content messages. Marketers should work within the passenger interface in order to approach customers through various channels with targeted content messages throughout the passenger journey.

Modern time is full of information. In business world an organization which is capable of harnessing and categorizing information is often successful. To take control over information requires systematic information gathering, modifying, elimination and finally acting accordingly. In comparison to earlier decades the problem today is not the lack of information. Actually it is quite the opposite- there is a huge amount of information available. The difficult part is to find the proper information out of the mass and deliver it for the right purpose at the right time. The general purpose of this study is to analyze the United Nations (UN) coordinated databases FAO and UNECE. These databases were investigated by the Internet in order to find how much information there is for marketing planning purposes. The frame of reference was split in half so that the focus of the analysis lays on the Macro-environment. The other part of the study consists of a content analysis for examining UNECE/FAO paper booklets “Forest Products Annual Market Review”. The key idea was to analyze what kind of differencies in the context there exist during a ten-year time period between 2005-2104. The products investigated were wood-based products. Several interesting implications emerged and one of them was the great impact of construction industry. The world’s economic situation affects to the building industry and that affects to the consumption of the wood products. Also the climbing usage of the bioenergy is notable and the trend towards further processed products is highly recognizable.