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Research article2010Peer reviewedOpen access

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

Enander, John; Melin, Andras; Nilsson, Jerker

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