Kalle Kärhä , Sami Oinas

Satisfaction and company loyalty as expressed by non-industrial private forest owners towards timber procurement organizations in Finland

Kärhä K., Oinas S. (1998). Satisfaction and company loyalty as expressed by non-industrial private forest owners towards timber procurement organizations in Finland. Silva Fennica vol. 32 no. 1 article id 698. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.698

Abstract

The satisfaction and company loyalty as expressed by non-industrial, private forest (NIPF) owners towards timber procurement organizations were clarified via a mail questionnaire. The results denoted that there is a positive correlation between the levels of forest owners’ expectations (EXP) and perceived performance (PERF). In addition, the lower EXP and the higher PERF were, the greater was the overall satisfaction index (SAT). About two thirds of forest owners were characterized by a negative SAT value or then they were dissatisfied with the performance of the procurement organization in their last timber-sales transaction. Furthermore, the results obtained indicated that the SAT index significantly influences the company loyalty expressed by NIPF owners – their willingness to give favourable reports of the company to the others, and their willingness to engage in future timber-sales transactions with the same company. Nonetheless, the SAT index did not affect the market share of a particular company, and this could be partly accounted for by the similar level of performance among the companies and the lack of competition in the timber trade. Finally, the results revealed several dimensions of timber procurement, and some seller segments to which companies could pay more attention to in order to be able to achieve better satisfaction levels and the loyalty of NIPF owners in the future. One approach to successfully addressing these challenges could be the adopting of a satisfaction decision support system (SatDSS).

Keywords
timber trade; company loyalty; decision support system (DSS); non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owner; satisfaction; timber procurement

Received 27 May 1997 Accepted 28 January 1998 Published 31 December 1998

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