Ritva Toivonen

Sources of competitive advantage in woodworking firms of Northwest Russia

Purpose – The existing literature emphasizes the strategic choices of core competencies/capabilities based on intangible and tangible resources, and the combination of these as the base for developing firm‐level strategies. However, little is known about the organizational structure, strategic orientation, and future goals of woodworking firms in the East‐European countries in transition. This paper aims to produce information contributing to these information needs regarding Northwest Russia (NWR).Design/methodology/approach – The largest potential increase in both production of and demand for wood products is in Russia, and this paper examines the issue in a case study of 18 small‐ and medium‐sized wood industry companies in NWR using thematic semi‐structured personal interviews.Findings – The results indicate that closeness to the main markets, good logistics connections and access to large markets, i.e. other than raw‐material related factors, are the main perceived sources of competitive advantage am...

Transmission of price changes in sawnwood and sawlog markets of the new and old EU member countries

In the European sawnwood markets, competition is tight between producer countries, with the new EU countries gradually gaining larger market shares. This paper focuses on the pass-through of sawnwood prices to supplier countries’ national roundwood prices. Price-change effects on market shares are known to be large, but not so much is known about the timing and duration of price transmission between competitor countries. Our empirical analysis concerns the exports of four large sawnwood supplier countries in Europe (Finland, Austria, Estonia and the Czech Republic) to German markets, using quarterly panel data for 1995–2003. The transmission process was found to differ between countries, and the relationship was most clearly detectable between Finnish sawlog and sawnwood prices. Results based on seemingly unrelated regression analysis indicated that price transmission exhibits similarities between old (i.e. Austria, Finland) and new EU member countries (Estonia, Czech Republic). Overall developments in both sawnwood and sawlog prices displayed convergence in the study period, which indicates that deepening integration in European markets is also detectable in the forest sector.

Consumer perceptions of environmental and social sustainability of wood products in the Finnish market

Abstract Consumers in todays world can perceive an additional benefit associated with responsible business practices and the sustainability of purchased products. However, in Scandinavian context, there is a lack of knowledge of consumer perceptions toward environmental and social sustainability of wood products. Our data on adult Finnish consumers (private end-users) (N=227) were collected during 2004–2007 as interview exit data from home retail centers selling building materials. The perceived environmental and social sustainability of wood products was investigated using exploratory factor analysis, and the phenomenon was observed to be a two-dimensional construct consisting of “General environmental and social sustainability” and “Specific social sustainability” reflecting strong consumer need for product safety. Logistic regression analysis revealed that the “General” dimension also explains the consumers self-declared willingness to pay for sustainable wood products. The results also indicate that the respondents may be segmented based on their perceptions on product level environmental and social sustainability: the most environmentally and socially conscious group can be profiled by gender (female), older age, and summer cottage ownership.

Integration of roundwood markets in Austria, Finland and Sweden

Abstract The study presents empirical testing of the law of one price (LOP) on the spatial roundwood markets formed by Austria, Finland and Sweden. Using annual delivery prices of pine and spruce sawlogs and pulpwood from 1980 to 1997, high positive correlation was found between prices in the three countries, in particular for pulpwood prices. The LOP seems to hold between Finnish and Swedish roundwood markets. However, clear price co-movement between Austria and the two Nordic countries could not be detected. Overall, the results suggest that roundwood markets in northern Europe form, roughly speaking, single commodity markets, which is one of the European Unions main policy aims. Further integration of the markets can be expected due to the continuous globalization of the forest industry and the deepening economic integration of the EU.

Modelling Birch Pulpwood Imports to Finland

Recent increases in pulpwood imports to Finland have raised an intense debate about their possible effects on the domestic wood markets. Since important institutional and structural changes in the market environment have taken place in the markets during the 1990s, it is important to take these into account in modelling imports. Our results consider three different time periods between 1986 and 1998, and indicate that market mechanisms in Finnish birch pulpwood imports have improved substantially in the latter part of the 1990s. Imports are found to be elastic with respect to changes in pulpwood import price, domestic pulpwood price and pulp export price. Furthermore, imports of birch pulpwood seem to have complemented the domestic market rather than to have been a substitute for it.