J. Ashley Selby , Leena Petäjistö

Small sawmills as enterprises: a behavioural investigation of development potential

Selby J. A., Petäjistö L. (1992). Small sawmills as enterprises: a behavioural investigation of development potential. Acta Forestalia Fennica no. 228 article id 7674. https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7674

Abstract

The investigation examines the development potential of small sawmills in rural Finland. Development is defined with qualitative bias, given small sawmills’ limited possibilities for large-scale investments. Potential is defined in terms of the behavioural limitations to development. The investigation assumes that small sawmill entrepreneurial behaviour is essentially satisficing, and that the concept of bounded rationality is applicable. The empirical material concerns a random sample of 399 sawmills from all regions in Finland collected in connection with the 1990 small sawmill inventory.

Three sets of enterprise/entrepreneurial attributes are constructed using principal component analyses: i) entrepreneurial skills & organization, ii) small sawmill outlets, and iii) information attributes. Development potential is measured by employing discriminant analyses to test these attributes against four a priori sawmill classifications: i) sawmill production structure, ii) entrepreneurial development intentions, ii) sawmill operating environments, and iv) sawmilling as a livelihood. Each of these analyses contributes to an understanding of the entrepreneur-enterprise dialectic.

Based on the use of Pred’s behavioural matrix, small sawmill entrepreneurs’ quantity & quality of information and their ability to use information are examined with respect to sawmill typologies. In this way, the entrepreneur-enterprise dialectic is given a third dimension, that of the entrepreneurs’ partial space. The analysis is therefore able to examine development potential from the standpoint of an entrepreneur-enterprise-environment (partial space) trialectic.

The PDF includes a summary in Finnish.

Keywords
information; bounded rationality; behavioural matrix; development potential; entrepreneurial partial space; human geography; phenomenological existentialism; small sawmills; entrepreneurship

Published in 1992

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Available at https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7674 | Download PDF