Potential Mechanisms for Co-operation between Transportation Entrepreneurs and Customers: A Case Study of Regional Entrepreneurship in Finland

The objectives of this study were to investigate how to increase co-operation in the regional entrepreneurship approach of wood transportation and facilitate the ongoing outsourcing of wood-procurement responsibilities in the Finnish forest industry. We examined co-operation between transportation entrepreneurs (suppliers) and between suppliers and the forest industry (customers). A questionnaire was sent to wood transportation entrepreneurs working in the wood-procurement network of the customers. The entrepreneurs felt that the most interesting form of consortium between suppliers, which would let them respond better to outsourcing, would be the formation of a joint venture responsible for sales and marketing of their services. Such a company would develop an overall contract with each customer, and then each shareholder in the joint venture would sign their own contracts with the venture to share the work. All transactions would be based on invoicing instead of the current salary-based approach. However, entrepreneurs did not believe that their profitability would increase by expanding their responsibilities in the current entrepreneurial environment. If the aim of co-operation is to outsource the wood transportation function, decision-makers in the Finnish forest industry should modify the current environment so that larger, more organized consortia of wood suppliers would become more profitable than they presently are in the regional entrepreneurship approach.