Kari Mikko Vesala

Developing the entrepreneurial skills of farmers; some myths explored

Purpose – Entrepreneurship is currently at the focus of much theoretical, practical and political interest. In Europe, agriculture has faced dramatic pressures for restructuring, and facilitation of the entrepreneurial skills of farmers and stronger entrepreneurial orientation in the rural areas have been hailed as possible solutions for the emerging problems. The aim of this paper is to use this nexus of agriculture and entrepreneurship as an illustrative example, through which the nature of entrepreneurial skills and the elements underpinning their adoption can be examined.Design/methodology/approach – The task is carried out by reflecting theoretically on the concept of entrepreneurial skills and on their embedded nature, before demonstrating the usefulness of the concept as a tool in understanding the case of an enterprising Finnish farmer, active both in conventional farming and in diversified business.Findings – The theoretical and case study analyses reveal that the concept of entrepreneurial skill...

The split entrepreneurial identity of the farmer

Purpose – This research shows that entrepreneurship is currently at the focus of much theoretical, practical and political interest. In Europe, agriculture has faced increasing pressures for restructuring: facilitation of marketing and entrepreneurial skills of farmers and a stronger entrepreneurial orientation have been suggested as a possible solution for the emerging problems. The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of entrepreneurial capability of farmers to diversify. The central focus of this article is on the entrepreneurial identity of portfolio farmers in Finland and the extent to which the differences between portfolio farmers, other farmers, and non‐farm rural businesses can be explained.Design/methodology/approach – The subjects of the study were rural small‐business owner‐managers and farmers in Finland. The authors carried out a survey of random samples from three populations, each representing a broad cross‐section of relevant industries, including a sample of non‐farm rural ent...

Are Alternative Food Systems Socially Sustainable? A Case Study from Finland

This paper explores the importance of alternative food systems in delivering social sustainability to local communities. The perceptions of local and organic food systems actors regarding equity (or fairness) between the actors and viability of the local communities are examined to analyze social sustainability in Juva, Finland. The findings lend conditional support to the positive relationship between localized food systems and actors within these systems feeling empowered and influential, while also supporting other research emphasizing the limitations of farmer influence on vertical distributional channels, irrespective of production methods (i.e., organic or conventional).

The strategic farmer: a cheese producer with cold feet?

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to explore the strategy of an enterprising farmer. The background problematic is that in Europe, agriculture has faced dramatic pressures for restructuring, and facilitation of the strategic skills of farmers and a stronger entrepreneurial orientation have been suggested as a possible solution for the emerging problems. We use an illustrative case to show how strategy formation and implementation may require different skills, competencies and attitudes.Design, methodology and approach – A case study is used to examine the issues of strategy formation and implementation. Whilst the findings from the case may not be generalisable, our analysis provides an opportunity to conceptually reflect on the issues. These issues may have wider implications beyond the research site.Findings – The theoretical and case study analyses reveal that the concept of entrepreneurial strategy is ambiguous. Yet, if proper care is taken to distinguish the concept from, and relate it to, the...

Activating farmers: Uses of entrepreneurship discourse in the rhetoric of policy implementers

Research on entrepreneurship as a policy discourse has focused mostly on relations between the discourse and targets of the policy, that is, actors intended to become entrepreneurial or entrepreneurs, while the role of policy implementers has received much less attention. The present study examines the ‘rationality’ of entrepreneurship policies by analyzing how actors in charge of the grassroots level policy implementation in the farming context use entrepreneurship discourse and argue for the communicative and interactive viability of their mission. The analysis of stances and positioning in interview talk reveals that policy implementers are active discourse users who, on the one hand, are able to reflect on the dilemmas and problems inherent in their task but, on the other hand, use their rhetorical agency to maintain and defend their mission as promoters of entrepreneurship policy and to save and support their own face as experts. As a result, the implementation emerges as a delicately managed interaction process.

SME policy implementation as a relational challenge

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between actors, who implement the small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policy, and entrepreneurs, who are the targets of the policy, by focusing on the question who is serving whose interests. The paper presents a case study conducted in one of the sub-regions in Finland. The data include individual interviews with 10 policy implementers and 19 small business entrepreneurs and two group discussions. The data are approached from the perspectives of discourse analysis and positioning theory. The results are further interpreted in terms of agent–principal relations. The results indicate that one relational challenge faced in the implementation of the SME policy is the proxy agency, in which both policy implementers and entrepreneurs position themselves as the principal and the other party as their agent. The proxy agency can be viewed as an interactional pitfall caused by the incompatible discourses of entrepreneurs and policy actors and the actor positions constructed with these discourses. Besides addressing the relational problems enabled by certain individual discourses, the paper also demonstrates how there is also a need to address the potential conflict that stems from the collision between discourses.

Rural development as a frame analytic challenge for religious communities: The case of rural parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland

English In many parts of the European countryside religious communities are facing serious challenges caused by changing social structures. This is also the case with the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran parishes that are in many ways affected by migration from the countryside to city areas. This development has increased pressures on the Church and its parishes to take a stand in favour of rural development policies and to contribute to the attempts to maintain and enhance the viability of rural areas. This kind of involvement is by no means self-evident because the Church has traditionally occupied a neutral and guarded position in relation to political questions. In this article the authors examine how the congregational employees deal with this potential tension and view the role of parishes, on one hand, as rural actors, and, on the other, as religious actors. French À travers toute l’Europe, les communautés religieuses rurales font face à d’importants défis dus à l’évolution constante des structures sociales. L’église évangélique luthérienne de Finlande n’échappe pas à ces défis qui émanent des flux migratoires des campagnes vers les centres urbains. Ce mouvement migratoire a intensifié les pressions sur l’église et sur ses paroisses afin d’instaurer des règles de développement rural et ainsi contribuer à maintenir et à améliorer la viabilité des zones rurales. L’engagement de l’église n’est en aucun cas trivial car de tout temps l’église a voulu maintenir une relation neutre et protégée par rapport aux questions politiques. Dans cet article, les auteurs examinent comment les congrégations réagissent à ces pressions et tensions, puis établissent le role des paroisses comme acteurs au sein des zones rurales, dans un premier temps, et comme acteurs religieux, dans un second temps.

Relationships between pig welfare, productivity and farmer disposition

The aim of this study was, firstly, to investigate the connection between on-farm assessed welfare scores and production parameters for sows, and secondly, to examine how farmers perceive the connection between their disposition, animal welfare and productivity. We assessed environmental and management preconditions on animal welfare and interviewed farmers on 30 Finnish farms. We studied the relationship between welfare and production using correlation and regression analyses. The theory of planned behaviour served as an articulation of farmer disposition when studying farmer perceptions. Concerning the production data, better welfare scores from the ‘health and stockmanship’ category during lactation were correlated with shorter reproduction cycle and fewer stillborn piglets and it also explained some of the variation in the number of piglets per year and the length of the farrowing interval. The farmers agreed that the productivity parameters and the principles of assessing welfare used in this study were relevant. A majority of farmers considered that animal welfare affects productivity and that there are associations between farmer attitudes, animal welfare and productivity. There were no statistical relationships between farmer perceptions and animal welfare; yet on the farms of farmers with positive perceptions of attitudes to animal welfare and productivity there were slightly lower piglet mortality rates and lower stillbirth rates than on the farms with farmers holding less positive views. We conclude that actions to improve animal welfare also have an economic impact as they enhance sow production. Good stockmanship and healthier animals result in more piglets born and a shorter reproduction cycle.

Impact of personal values and personality on motivational factors for farmers to work with farm animal welfare: a case of Swedish dairy farmers

In this study, we sought to explain why dairy farmers give importance to various use and non-use values of animal welfare. In particular, we examined how the farmers could be segmented according to the relative importance they give to various use and non-use values in animal welfare and whether this segmentation could be explained by farmers’ personal values and personality traits. Based on a latent class analysis using best-worst scaling data on 123 Swedish dairy farmers, three segments of farmers were found: animalcentred, human-centred and business-orientated. These groups were related to measures of farmers’ personal values and personality traits in a point-biserial correlation and a hierarchal multinomial logistic regression analysis. The results suggest that the segmentation is related to personal values, but not to personality traits. This finding is important from a policy perspective, because the existence of different segments of farmers who are motivated by different values in animal welfare indicates a need to approach different farmers in different ways if policy is to succeed in improving animal welfare. It also indicates a possibility to influence the segments to improve animal welfare by measures that are sensitive to value dynamics of the farmers.

The Societal Role of Evangelical Lutheran Parishes in Rural Finland

Abstract Since the 1980s rural policies have emphasized the importance of public, private and voluntary sector partnerships. Although actors from all sectors are encouraged to join rural development work, the participation of religious communities has been a controversial issue. This article focuses on the role of religious communities in rural development policy in Finland: how the representatives of the Evangelical-Lutheran parishes and other rural actors see the role of the Church and parishes in secular rural development work. The study is based on qualitative interview data gathered from four Finnish rural parishes, combining qualitative attitude approach and frame analysis. The results indicate that, although reservations were also presented, the participation of parishes in rural development work was often considered desirable and feasible, both by the parish representatives and other local actors. This positive attitude, however, appeared to depend on flexibility in how the religious frame and the frame of rural development were evaluated, used and reconciled. The complexities of framing and reframing of parish participation in rural development reflect the more general challenge for the Church to maintain and renew its role and position in secularizing society.