Stendahl, Matti
- Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
In a changing business landscape, where globalization and new customer requirements create new business opportunities, some Swedish sawmills have taken over the production of components from their industrial customers. In the light of the emerging network-centric perspective on business, sawmill managers’ perceptions about component customers’ operational requirements, customer interaction processes, and their sawmills’ offerings is researched and discussed in this paper. A multiple-case study design, based on face-to-face interviews with Swedish sawmill managers and on various forms of secondary data, produced comprehensive information about sawmills’ interaction processes with component purchasing customers. Thematic data coding facilitated the assessment of the research information in relation to the conceptual and empirical findings of previous research.The findings of the study indicate that more process-orientation in housing-, joinery- and furniture-manufacturing implies an opportunity for sawmills to make service-based offerings including not only physical goods, but also administrative services, logistics and expert advice. The results of the study confirm the network-centric perspective on business where value is created through the interaction between firms. However, noteworthy barriers in form of process-, culture-, as well as socially related factors at customer firms must be considered.
Published in
Wood Material Science and Engineering
2013, volume: 8, number: 4, pages: 253-270
SLU Authors
Mccluskey, Denise
- Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
UKÄ Subject classification
Business Administration
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17480272.2013.834965
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/51205