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development organization to get a better insight into industry specifics. However, first-hand
data that had not been altered by someone else’s perceptions was needed to confirm the
validity of the findings.
The paper employs as a second data source 30 responses from an internet-based survey for
wood industry companies in South-East Finland in 2012. The response rate of the survey
was approximately 12%, and the respondents were mostly from construction companies
(31%), forest industry companies (28%) and architecture, interior design, building
engineering and related consultancy companies (29%). Most of the represented companies
were small (21%) or micro-enterprises (65%), and only 4% were medium sized and 10% big
companies. This also reflects the size distribution of wood construction -related companies
in the region.
Case: wood construction industry in South-East Finland
The forest industry has an important role in the Finnish economy. The strong national forest
cluster has transformed to a bioeconomy cluster and includes also cleantech currently
(FIBIC, 2015). Bioeconomy is promoted with international (European Commission, 2012;
OECD 2009) and national strategies (MEE, 2014). In South-East Finland, systematic regional
development efforts are implemented to boost bioeconomy, circular economy and
bioenergy business, and some international business has already emerged (Nieminen,
2015).
In addition to environmental goals, bioeconomy is promoted because its emergence is
believed to create economic growth and jobs (MEE, 2014). In South-East Finland, the
development efforts towards bioeconomy are also expected to create new business activity
within the region and to reinforce the existing business networks (Nieminen, 2015).
Regional bioeconomies, in other words distributed bio-based economies, are based on local
closed-loop value networks in which waste from one process is raw material for another
(Luoma et al., 2011) in a circular economy that restores products, components and
materials at their highest utility and value (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2013).
Despite the strategies and development efforts, our data indicates that companies are
uneasy about the future for wood construction -related SMEs. The respondents were on the
average more optimistic about the future of the company they represented than the
industry as a whole. The structural change in the forest industry reflects on the companies,
and the recent investments in large bioeconomy-related processes in pulp and paper
industry may have lifted their spirits since the time the data was collected. The ongoing and
prolonged recession and uncertainty in European markets has definitely influenced the
overall atmosphere as well.
Surprisingly, the respondents also stated that the region is lacking a wood industry cluster
that would support their individual needs. This may indicate that the cluster is dominated by
large companies, or wood construction -related topics have been far from the main goals of
the cluster. According to both datasets, wood industry companies were mostly willing to
participate in networks and increase co-operation.
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