Quantifying internal and external influences on Swedish farmers’ strategic choices and performance outcomes

The Swedish agricultural sector is undergoing a period of rationalization and structural change where farms have become fewer and larger. This has created a number of challenges for the remaining farms in terms of how to survive and prosper in the changing competitive landscape. This compilation thesis investigates how the external environment (competitive intensity), social environment (advisors and family) and internal environment (identity) influences farmers’ strategic choices related to strategic orientation and entrepreneurship as well as outcomes related to performance.Based on a sample of 388 randomly selected farmers, paper I revealed that as perceptions of competitive intensity increase, farmers tend to become more market and Lean production oriented, but not entrepreneurial oriented. Fittingly, those farms that adopted a more market or Lean production orientation experienced better overall performance than those who increased their entrepreneurial orientation.In paper II, a three-group between subject experimental design was conducted on 122 Swedish farm management students in order to investigate the influence of “cultural intolerance” on the advice given to a farmer considering different strategic options to develop their farm. As the subject’s cultural intolerance (as measured through their level of “Jante”) increased, their recommendations towards adopting entrepreneurship decreased.Paper III in this thesis used a survey of 269 Swedish farmers to measure social identity and the level of involvement of family members on the farm in order to predict strategic choices related to financial, social and environmental sustainability goals. Findings reveal that family influences sustainability goals, however this influence is limited to social sustainability goals, but not economic or environmental sustainability goals. The findings can be useful to understand farmer’s social justification to be in business.Finally, the kappa in this thesis employs a post-literature scoping review in order to reflect on the choices made in conceptualizing, operationalizing, and positioning the work in order to develop recommendations for future research

Energigrödor för större fjärrvärmeverk

Detta arbete syftar till att få en bild av hur delar av bioenergimarknaden kan se ut. Vad styr priset och vad är bra att veta om man funderar över att sälja energigrödor eller biobränslen till ett blivande eller befintligt kraftvärmeverk. I den här undersökningen har jag valt att avgränsa mig till halm och flis. Det visar sig att transport och val av hantering är de kritiska punkterna för ekonomin. För halmbalar är transport med lastbil och tåg det lönsammaste alternativet och skiljer sig marginellt vid de olika transportavstånden. Vid avståndet 100 km är kostnaden för transport av halmbalar med lastbil 107 kr/MWh och med tåg 134 kr/MWh. Vid transportavstånd 250 km är kostnaden för de båda alternativen 141 kr/MWh. Den motsvarande kostnaden för flis med lastbil alt. tåg vid transportavstånd 100 km ca 188 kr/MWh medan vid transportavstånd 250 km är kostnaden för flis med tåg 194 kr/MWh och bunt med tåg 234 kr/MWh. D Kartläggning av halm görs av de stora anläggningarna via statistik, i animalietäta områden finns det mindre halm att tillgå eftersom det används som strömedel (se exempel bilaga 5). I detta arbete redovisas exempel på hur ett avtal kan se ut. Vattenhalt är en känslig parameter, och när det gäller halm gör det just att lagringen blir en fråga av vikt, då den bör lagras skyddad. Just halmens volym är något som ofta talar emot den. För att få fart på salixodlingen, krävs tydliga politiska incitament och bättre upphandling för att brukaren skall känna sig trygg med att långsiktigt avsätta åkermark till energigröda. För mindre odlare kan det vara kritiskt att odla upp mark utan långsiktiga avtal eftersom en salixodling består i 20 år. Frågan är även om man med dagens läge och utveckling vågar binda mark under så lång tid. Det förutsätter även att man har tillgång till större arealer eftersom salix skördas vart 6:e år och då det behövs ett flertal fält för att få skörd varje år. I bilaga 3 visas hur NIR-teknik kan användas för bestämning av vattenhalt i biobränsle vid leverans, för att därigenom få direkt information om partiets status. En annan viktig del är att om det ska satsas mer på t.ex. halm och salixflis, måste jordbruksföretagare samlas och se efter hur andra länder gjort. För att agera mot stora aktörer krävs samarbete. I både våra grannländer och i många stater i USA, bildar man bolag som sköter affären mot kraftvärmeverken. Det kan även konstateras att det finns mycket kvar att utforska när det gäller marknad och prissättning för dessa biobränslen. Det tar antagligen minst 10 år innan bilden helt klarnar och dessa bränslen blir etablerade och de fossila bränslena varit under gångna decennierna. Då kanske hampa nått en utveckling som gör den intressant, vi kanske odlar mer energigräs, vi kanske har utvecklat bättre samt effektivare biogasanläggningar och sop- och avfallshantering som kan minska sopbergsproblematiken. Kanske har då biogastekniken utvecklats längst i de delar av världen vi idag betraktar som minst utvecklade. I stället för att skapa avfallsproblem som idag måste lösas i industriländer, kan man då utnyttja avfall från människor och husdjur som en verklig och värdefull resurs för framställning av biogasenergi samt ett ekologiskt gödselmedel för jordbruket.This work continued with that I wanted a picture of how the energy market looks like. What governs the price and what is good to know if one goes in thoughts around selling straw to a proposed or existing combined power and heating plant. It shows itself that transport and choices of handling is the critical points for the economy. Mapping of straw is done of the big plants via statistic, in animal populated areas are less straw to supply (annex 5). In this work, examples of agreement are presented in order to move a view in how it can look like. Water content is a sensitive parameter, and when it comes to straw, just the storage becomes a question importunately, it should be stored safe. The straw's volume is somewhat as often is spoken about. In order to few rate on Salix it is required clear political incentives and better purchasing in order to get the farmer feel himself safer with investing arable land to non-food crop. It applies also to have access to more land, when Salix is harvested approximately each 6th year there for it is needed several fields in order to get harvest each year. For smaller farmers this could be critical to cultivate up land without long-term agreements since Salix consists for 20 years. The question is although one with today's situation and development balances tie land during so long time. In annex 3 it is written about how NIR-technology can help to decide water content in biomass fuel directly at arrival, and to get direct information about the batch's statuses. Another important part is that if it will be invested more on for example straw and Salix, agriculture must be more of an entrepreneur, be collected and to see after how other countries done. In order to act against big units it is required more of cooperation. In many states in EU and in many States in USA, the government helps farmers to start companies that deal with the business against the force heat agencies. It can also be established that there is a lot left to investigate when it comes to biomass, probably it will take another 10 year in order to find the position for renewable energy. Then perhaps hemp a reached development that does it interesting, we perhaps grow more energy grasses, we perhaps has developed better and more effective gas plants - and waste handling that can decrease the growing mountain of garbage. Perhaps, the biogas technology has begun to be used more in the less developed parts of the world, there excrement from people and animals can be used to transform into energy and a cleaner fertilizer for the agriculture

An investigation of decisions that drive socially responsible investment

This research investigates the priorities that have the most the significant influence on the decision-making process for potential investors considering socially responsible investments (SRI). It was found that the individual financial advisor (IFA) has a great impact on an individual investor’s decision-making process, especially today with increased attention towards climate change. Four IFAs from different consultancies in UK were interviewed to understand what happens in the meeting with a client. Results show that the IFA can influence the clients’ choice of funds. It is also evident that clients choosing SRI funds often have a higher level of education. In general socially responsible investors (SRIs) are less willing to trade funds in their existing portfolio due to limited diversity amongst existing funds available. As a result, there is an increasing demand for Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria to be implemented in the screening process; however, this is still in progress. When looking further into the screening process it is reasonable to question whether SRI is an investment for “doing good” or more accurate to be classified simply as a “brand” or “trademark”

Gårdsråd – en väg mot förbättrad lönsamhet?

Ett lantbruksföretags förutsättningar ser lite olika ut beroende av vilken del av världen man väljer att studera. Om vi ser till det svenska lantbruket har det förändrats från en reglerad marknad där kooperations ställning var väldigt stark, för att sedan avregleras och slutligen åter regleras när Sverige blev medlem av den europeiska unionen. Många fick ett klart besked hösten 2007 hur beroende vi är av andra länders skörderesultat. Det har utmynnat i att allt fler ser sig utanför det egna landet för att utbyta erfarenheter och för att få ny input och nya idéer till den egna verksamheten. Gårdsråd innebär att företagaren bildar en samrådsgrupp tillsammans med de rådgivare och/eller andra intressenter kring företaget. Banken kan vara en intressent som är involverad i företaget men kan vara mindre aktiv i gruppen än vad t.ex. rådgivare är mot företaget. Gårdsrådet utformas sedan efter företagets behov. Det kan uttryckas i om företaget vill diversifiera sig, eller om företaget befinner sig i ett expansivt skede. Den här studien omfattar sex intervjuer som utgår från den kvalitativa forskningsmetoden. Jag har besökt och intervjuat svenska lantbruksföretagare och deras syn på gårdsråd. Deras gemensamma nämnare är att de driver intensiva och/eller diversifierade lantbruksföretag. Mitt resultat, min diskussion och analys bygger enbart på deras berättelser. Därför kan det vara lämpligt att komplettera med en kvantitativ studie som kan ge ett bredare perspektiv på hur gårdsråd fungerar generellt. Studien avser att ge en bild av hur ett gårdsråd kan vara sammansatt, varför det bildas, hur det organiseras och om företagaren anser att rådet varit en bidragande del till en ökad lönsamhet i företaget. Metodvalet har varit att i en fallstudie utföra kvalitativa intervjuer hos några företag som bedrivit råd under flera år och därför har en blid av hur det fungerat. Alla intervjuer har genomförts hemma hos företagaren. Resultatet visar att gårdsråden bildas av främst två huvudanledningar. Vid en expansiv fas och om företaget hamnar i ekonomisk obalans. Resultatet visar också en bild av hur det inte alltid är lätt att bli ifrågasatt, men under resans gång förändras inställningen och ifrågasättandet blir en tillgång som leder till utveckling

Farmers that engage in entrepreneurship for the “wrong” reason and the moderating role of cultural intolerance

In the agricultural sector, the Law of Jante—a Scandinavian form of cultural intolerance towards standing out, being different and overachieving (akin to the Tall Poppy Syndrome and The nail that sticks out gets hammered down culture found in other countries)—may play an important role by influencing when entrepreneurship is an acceptable strategic choice to adversity. Based on a three group, between-subjects experiment of 122 Swedish university students studying agricultural and rural management, we tested whether the advice our participants gave to a fictitious farmer to pursue entrepreneurial activity depended on information regarding the farmer's motivation to pursue entrepreneurship (experimental treatments included motivation scenarios based on necessity vs. opportunity driven vs. control). Moreover, we test whether entrepreneurial advice is moderated by the participants own “Jante-ness”. Unexpectedly, we found that our participants did not adapt the entrepreneurship advice they give to the situational context, nor does Jante play a moderating role; instead we found that Jante had a significant and negative main effect on the entrepreneurial advice given. This finding suggests that Jante is still very much alive and may play an important role in explaining relatively low rates of innovation and entrepreneurship in (Swedish) agriculture

The effectiveness of policies promoting sustainable permanent grasslands across five European countries (representing five biogeographic regions): mapping, understanding, and key stakeholder perceptions

The purpose of this report is to identify, map, and evaluate the most relevant European policies seen to influence permanent grassland (PG) management. To accomplish this, an interdisciplinary, crossnational team from the UK, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic, and Sweden reviewed over 50 in-depth policy frameworks. With direction from expert stakeholders and a review of the policy landscape, we identified the most relevant policy instruments influencing PGs across five different biogeographic regions in Europe (Alpine, Atlantic, Boreal, Continental, and Mediterranean). The mapping of each country’s policy mix was guided inter-alia by a ‘cascade framework’ to illustrate the entry points, intermediary actors, mechanisms and pathways through which policies deliver their intended effects on PGs. This entailed an in-depth analysis of publicly available government sources documenting the aims, objectives, targets, monitoring systems, outputs and outcomes of each policy instrument. In total, 24 policies were mapped using 50 different criteria, with 15 of the policies unique to the case study countries. This resulted in an extensive excel database of over 3400 unique cells containing rich qualitative data. The excel data were coded in a consistent manner across the country teams so that they could be compared, synthesized, and used to identify patterns in the policy mix and logic of intervention. We show, for instance, that across Europe, the dominant policy logic uses regulations and incentives to influence farmer adoption of desired landscape compositions. This directly influences, but does not guarantee, the range of ecosystem services (ES) that are possible from the landscape. At the same time, we discovered a lack of policies targeting consumer demand for PG ecosystem services and only a few designed to drive sustainable PG management by directly promoting the value of PGs with beneficiaries. To complement the policy mapping, stakeholders’ assessed the perceived effectiveness of the policy mix in each country. This evaluation included over 50 interviews with key stakeholders across Europe representing government, academia, farmers, and special interests, and covered perceptions of democracy, legitimacy, relevance, efficiency and impact in relation to the effectiveness of policies relevant to the management of PG. Our findings reveal generally positive perceptions of grassland policy effectiveness across Europe, with special interest groups being the least positive and governments the most. The in-depth country case studies reveal striking similarities, as well as differences between countries and stakeholder groups, which are illustrative of the problems, challenges, and barriers confronting policy effectiveness. We conclude this report by offering insights and policy implications. In particular, we suggest that the following four points are taken into consideration to improve the PG policy landscape: 1) Reduce complexity and administrative burden to make policies more understandable and accessible. 2) Require stakeholder involvement when developing strategic plans and assessing policy. 3) Encourage consideration of trade-offs between PG management and ES delivery, by designing policies to explicitly target the interaction between landscape structures and ES (or target them in parallel). 4) Encourage a balance of policy logic, by moving away from targeting farmers with regulation or subsidies to manage the landscape towards targeting consumer demand for ES (through information) and the value of ES (such as direct payments for regulating and cultural services)

Farmers’ strategic responses to competitive intensity and the impact on perceived performance

A large percentage of small- and medium-sized farms have ceased operations in the last 2 decades in part due to their inability to respond to increased competitive intensity. Consequently, the strategic responses farmers adopt to competitive intensity are important to understand as they may influence performance and ultimately their survival. Based on a sample of 388 randomly selected farmers in Sweden and using structural equation modelling, we find that as perceptions of competitive intensity increase, so does their market orientation (MO) and lean production orientation (LPO), but not entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Moreover, we find that farmers who indicate greater (in order of importance) MO and LPO report better overall performance, while increased EO surprisingly contributes negatively to performance. Our findings contribute to the limited body of research on strategic responses to competitive intensity in the agricultural sector and subsequent payoff on farm performance

The effectiveness of policies promoting sustainable permanent grasslands across five European countries (representing five biogeographic regions): Mapping, understanding, and key stakeholder perceptions

The purpose of this report is to identify, map, and evaluate the most relevant European policies seen to influence permanent grassland (PG) management. To accomplish this, an interdisciplinary, crossnational team from the UK, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic, and Sweden reviewed over 50 in-depth policy frameworks. With direction from expert stakeholders and a review of the policy landscape, we identified the most relevant policy instruments influencing PGs across five different biogeographic regions in Europe (Alpine, Atlantic, Boreal, Continental, and Mediterranean). The mapping of each country’s policy mix was guided inter-alia by a ‘cascade framework’ to illustrate the entry points, intermediary actors, mechanisms and pathways through which policies deliver their intended effects on PGs. This entailed an in-depth analysis of publicly available government sources documenting the aims, objectives, targets, monitoring systems, outputs and outcomes of each policy instrument. In total, 24 policies were mapped using 50 different criteria, with 15 of the policies unique to the case study countries. This resulted in an extensive excel database of over 3400 unique cells containing rich qualitative data. The excel data were coded in a consistent manner across the country teams so that they could be compared, synthesized, and used to identify patterns in the policy mix and logic of intervention. We show, for instance, that across Europe, the dominant policy logic uses regulations and incentives to influence farmer adoption of desired landscape compositions. This directly influences, but does not guarantee, the range of ecosystem services (ES) that are possible from the landscape. At the same time, we discovered a lack of policies targeting consumer demand for PG ecosystem services and only a few designed to drive sustainable PG management by directly promoting the value of PGs with beneficiaries. To complement the policy mapping, stakeholders’ assessed the perceived effectiveness of the policy mix in each country. This evaluation included over 50 interviews with key stakeholders across Europe representing government, academia, farmers, and special interests, and covered perceptions of democracy, legitimacy, relevance, efficiency and impact in relation to the effectiveness of policies relevant to the management of PG. Our findings reveal generally positive perceptions of grassland policy effectiveness across Europe, with special interest groups being the least positive and governments the most. The in-depth country case studies reveal striking similarities, as well as differences between countries and stakeholder groups, which are illustrative of the problems, challenges, and barriers confronting policy effectiveness. We conclude this report by offering insights and policy implications. In particular, we suggest that the following four points are taken into consideration to improve the PG policy landscape: 1) Reduce complexity and administrative burden to make policies more understandable and accessible. 2) Require stakeholder involvement when developing strategic plans and assessing policy. 3) Encourage consideration of trade-offs between PG management and ES delivery, by designing policies to explicitly target the interaction between landscape structures and ES (or target them in parallel). 4) Encourage a balance of policy logic, by moving away from targeting farmers with regulation or subsidies to manage the landscape towards targeting consumer demand for ES (through information) and the value of ES (such as direct payments for regulating and cultural services)