Anu Laakkonen, Katri Rusanen, Teppo Hujala, Mika Gabrielsson, Jouni Pykäläinen. (2023). Implications of the sustainability transition on the industry value creation logic – case of Finnish pulp and paper industry. Silva Fennica vol. 57 no. 3 article id 23024. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.23024

Keywords: forest industry; business transformation; circular bioeconomy; sustainable business

Highlights: Global change drivers are inducing a sustainability transition to a circular bioeconomy; Established industries need to reconfigure their value creation logic; A document analysis investigated pulp and paper industry’s communicated value creation logic; An interdisciplinary approach helps to understand a changing business environment; Recognition of a socio-economic-technological-environmental system is needed.

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Global economic, social and environmental change drivers have tremendous effects on the dynamic and nested business environment calling for a sustainability transition to a circular bioeconomy. The transition will pressurise established industries to alter their value creation logic to consider sustainability holistically. The study follows a case study research strategy and investigates how an established Finnish pulp and paper industry reconfigures its communicated value creation logic. The findings of a qualitative document analysis suggest that the pulp and paper industry has started to explore new sustainable path-breaking innovations and create a common development agenda, which has resulted in incremental adaptations in the value creation logic. However, the industry’s narrative of already being sustainable has hampered the reconfiguration and stabilisation of the adapted value creation logic. From a theoretical perspective, adopting an interdisciplinary and systemic perspective is necessary to understand the changing business environment. From a managerial perspective, cross-sectoral collaboration and including perspectives of different actors can help in creating a holistically sustainable value creation logic.

Laakkonen, School of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland; Department of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 27, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6384-7773 E-mail: anu.laakkonen@uef.fi
Rusanen, School of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1705-5561 E-mail: katri.rusanen@uef.fi
Hujala, School of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7905-7602 E-mail: teppo.hujala@uef.fi
Gabrielsson, Department of Marketing, Hanken School of Economics, P.O. Box 479, FI-00101, Helsinki, Finland; UEF Business School, Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 1627, FI-70211 Kuopio, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0633-6918 E-mail: mika.gabrielsson@uef.fi
Pykäläinen, School of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science, Forestry and Technology, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: jouni.pykalainen@uef.fi

article id 10599, category Research article

Anu Laakkonen, Teppo Hujala, Jouni Pykäläinen. (2022). Defining the systemic development of the Finnish pulp and paper industry’s business network. Silva Fennica vol. 56 no. 2 article id 10599. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.10599

Keywords: forest cluster; competence; Actors-Resources-Activities framework; coopetition; historical pathways

Highlights: Systemic view helps to understand the phenomena reshaping business field networks; Forest sector companies operate in complex, dynamic, and international environment; Actors-Resources-Activities framework -based analysis of Finnish pulp and paper industry’s network development; The role of actors, resources, and activities have varied between different phases; Network structure altered due to radical changes in the operating environment.

Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

Companies operate in a nested and complex system where global challenges shape their environments and put pressure on business activities. Systemic understanding of the past and ongoing changes within a national industry help to analyze the global influences and identify phenomena that reshape business collaborations. To address this issue in the case of a forest sector, this study constructs a systemic picture of the historical development of the Finnish pulp and paper industry’s business network and analyzes it qualitatively through the Actors-Resources-Activities framework. Books discussing the history of the Finnish forest industry were used as secondary data, which were analyzed with a theory-based content analysis method. The analysis revealed four development phases during which the network has evolved from rather simple one emphasizing cooperation organizations (1st) to a more complex one with stronger roles of the state and individual influencers (2nd), and then emphasizing export and advocacy associations (3rd), before returning to be rather simple, based around three large multinationals and the EU playing an important role (4th). The industry is concerned about securing its key resources, with varying foci. Research and technological innovation activities play an important role together with cooperative interactions. Overall, actors favor a business-as-usual strategy, which is overruled only by a radical change in the operating environment, leading to notable changes in the network. Thus, a suggestion for all actors within the forest sector is that actively detecting and interpreting change signals in the whole environment can help actors in pursuing sustainable activities.

Laakkonen, School of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6384-7773 E-mail: anu.laakkonen@uef.fi
Hujala, School of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7905-7602 E-mail: teppo.hujala@uef.fi
Pykäläinen, School of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science and Forestry, University of Eastern Finland, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: jouni.pykalainen@uef.fi

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