Trust-creating Social Networks in Forest Owners' Choice of Trading Partners

Abstract

This study investigates the role of social networks when producers choose between selling their commodities to a co-operative firm or an investor-owned firm. The empirical basis is personal interviews with ten forest owners, five co-operative suppliers and five IOF suppliers. The findings indicate that forest owners influence each other as to choice of buyer, and that the social influences are stronger among co-operative suppliers than among suppliers to investor-owned buyers. The influences from the forest owners’ parents are very strong. Most remarkable is that the buying firms’ representatives have extremely much influence

Keywords

Forestry co-operative; social influence

Published in

Journal of co-operative studies
2010, volume: 43, number: 2, pages: 17-28
Publisher: Society for Co-operative Studies

SLU Authors

• Nilsson, Jerker

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    
  • Department of People and Society, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Social Sciences
Forest Science
Economics and Business

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/36246