Flexibility in Investments: Exploratory Survey on How Finnish Companies Deal with Flexibility in Capital Budgeting

Flexibility is an important issue when investments are being planned and valued. How flexibility inherent in investments is utilised and exploited is, therefore, of great importance to the accuracy of the plans and the valuation. This paper describes an exploratory survey, done with leading Finnish companies, exploring the use of Real Option Valuation (ROV), and the methods that Finnish corporations use to take flexibility into consideration, when planning and valuing investments. We found that real options exist in Finnish investments, but there are very few companies that have an established methodology of identifying, categorizing, or valuing them. We also found that Finnish managers have mixed views about the value of flexibility in investments. Very few Finnish managers seem to be aware of research done in the field, but most seem to have an intuitive understanding of how different variables affect the value of flexibility in an investment.flexibility; real options; capital budgeting

Flight activity of the ambrosia beetles Trypodendron laaeve and Trypodendron lineatum in relation to temperature in southern Sweden

The aim of this study was to investigate the flight activity and abundance of the ambrosia beetle, Trypodendron lineatum Olivier 1795 (Col., Scolytinae) in southern Sweden after storm-fellings in Jan 2005 (Gudrun) and Jan 2007 (Per), that blew down 75 and 12 million m3 of wood, respectively. We also wanted to relate the flight activity to temperature and weather conditions. Unexpectedly, we found the hitherto poorly known species Trypodendron laeve Eggers 1939 (synonyms: Trypodendron proximum Niijima 1909; mistaken for Trypodendron piceum Strand 1946) in our traps. T. laeve has been largely overlooked in the literature, and until recently the distribution of T. leave has been poorly known in Fennoscandia (Kvamme 1986; Martikainen 2000; Lindelöw 2010)

Distribution of pine shoot beetle attacks within the crown of Scots pine

The seasonal and spatial distribution of pine shoot beetle attacks was studied at Simonstorp in southern Sweden. Scots pine of 15-46 years age and 4-14 m height were felled during the period 1972-1974. Samples of attacked shoots were also collected from standing pines of about 2-3 m height. In 1974, attacks were also counted and labelled individually on preselected pines throughout the growing season. The results indicate a seasonal change in the age distribution of attacked shoots. The average diameter of damaged shoots was about 4.5 mm, ranging from 2 to 6 mm. The spatial distribution of attacks coincided with the distribution of suitable sized shoots, but the attack pattern was modified by the density of attacks per tree. Multiple attacks were frequently observed which indicated a relative shortage of suitable shoots, especially in upper whorls. More than 50 % of all current shoots were affected in upper whorls, whereas a far smaller proportion of the shoots was damaged in lower whorl

Tukkikärsäkäsaikuisten runsaus ja esiintyminen avohakkuualoilla päätehakkuun jälkeisinä vuosina.

12 graphs, 2 tables56 ref. Summaries (En, Fi

Insects in burned forests - forest protection and faunal conservation (preliminary results)

The beetle colonization of fire-damaged trees was studied in seven reserves, which were established in burned forests in south and central Sweden, following extensive forest fires in the summer of 1992. In the spring of 1993, burned pine trees displayed a large range in fire damage from virtually undamaged ones to trees killed by the fire. Spruces were more sensitive than pine, and few fire-damaged spruces had some green foliage left. The pine shoot beetle, Tomicus piniperda (Linnaeus) was the main colonizer of pine trees, occurring at all sites, but altogether in only one-third of the trees. On spruce, two bark beetles were common: Polygraphus poligraphus (Linnaeus) was found on nearly all sites and altogether on half of the trees, followed in abundance by Pityogenes chalcographus (Linnaeus). These common species were accompaniedby an assembly of bark and longhorn beetles, commonly occurring on fresh conifer timber. Most of the beetle species clearly preferred the dead or dying trees. However, the species mentioned above as well as Arhopalus rusticus (Linnaeus) also attacked trees with more than half of the foliage left. Three fire-favoured species were observed: Oxypteris (Melanophila) acuminata (Degeer), Sericoda (Agonum) quadripunctata (Degeer) and Pterostichus quadrifoveolatus (Letzner). Line surveys indicated little bark beetle dispersal from the burned areas into surrounding forests. Further studies are needed as the primary colonization of the burned trees was obviously not completed during this first year after the fire