IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i4p2265-d751195.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Farmers Conceive and Cope with Megatrends: The Case of Finnish Dairy Farmers

Author

Listed:
  • Susanna Lahnamäki-Kivelä

    (Department of Economics and Management, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland)

  • Tuomas Kuhmonen

    (Finland Futures Research Centre, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland)

Abstract

Megatrends (urbanization, digitalization, globalization, climate change, etc.) are mainstream developments that affect most economic activities. These megatrends have varying incidences and impacts on individual entrepreneurs and enterprises, also in farming sector. A farmer can either ignore or try to adapt to or benefit from megatrends. This reaction depends on many things: individuals’ futures orientation, management practices, business strategy, sunk costs, the life cycle and type of business, for example. The study explores the association between eight common megatrends and business strategies among a sample of Finnish dairy producers. The analysis is based on survey data from the year 2019 ( n = 135) collected among a major Finnish dairy industry co-operative’s contract producers. The respondents evaluated the expected impact of the megatrends on their own business within the next 10 years with 5-point Likert-type scale (−2 … +2). K-means cluster analysis was utilized to uncover a few basic settings in the association between megatrends and farmers behaviours. After trying out several numbers of clusters, a distinctive three cluster solution was found. Additionally, cluster member profiles were framed with farmers’ Likert -scale responses. The analysis indicates that dairy farmers differ in their observation of megatrends. The results confirm that some of the farmers more or less ignore the common megatrends, whereas some other farmers adapt to or benefit from the common megatrends. Supporting farmers’ futures consciousness will strengthen their capacities of coping in the changing business environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Susanna Lahnamäki-Kivelä & Tuomas Kuhmonen, 2022. "How Farmers Conceive and Cope with Megatrends: The Case of Finnish Dairy Farmers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-16, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2265-:d:751195
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2265/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2265/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Victoria Westbrooke & Peter Nuthall, 2017. "Why small farms persist? The influence of farmers’ characteristics on farm growth and development. The case of smaller dairy farmers in NZ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 61(4), pages 663-684, October.
    2. Westbrooke, Victoria & Nuthall, Peter, 2017. "Why small farms persist? The influence of farmers’ characteristics on farm growth and development. The case of smaller dairy farmers in NZ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 61(4), October.
    3. McBride, William D. & Johnson, James D., 2006. "Defining and Characterizing Approaches to Farm Management," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 38(1), pages 1-13, April.
    4. Hansson, Helena, 2007. "Strategy factors as drivers and restraints on dairy farm performance: Evidence from Sweden," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 726-737, June.
    5. Daniel Tisch & Jeremy Galbreath, 2018. "Building organizational resilience through sensemaking: The case of climate change and extreme weather events," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1197-1208, December.
    6. Sarpong, David & Eyres, Eve & Batsakis, Georgios, 2019. "Narrating the future: A distentive capability approach to strategic foresight," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 105-114.
    7. Ondersteijn, C.J.M. & Giesen, G.W.J. & Huirne, R.B.M., 2006. "Perceived environmental uncertainty in Dutch dairy farming: The effect of external farm context on strategic choice," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 88(2-3), pages 205-226, June.
    8. Pouru, Laura & Dufva, Mikko & Niinisalo, Tarja, 2019. "Creating organisational futures knowledge in Finnish companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 84-91.
    9. Andrew Barnes & Luiza Toma, 2012. "A typology of dairy farmer perceptions towards climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 507-522, May.
    10. Walenty Poczta & Joanna Średzińska & Maciej Chenczke, 2020. "Economic Situation of Dairy Farms in Identified Clusters of European Union Countries," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, March.
    11. Scott Bradford & Robert Z. Lawrence, 2004. "Has Globalization Gone Far Enough: The Costs of Fragmented Markets," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 349, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aomar Ibourk & Karim El Aynaoui, 2023. "Agricultural Cooperatives’ Sustainability and the Relevance of Start-Up Support Programs: Evidence from Cooperatives’ Level in Morocco," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-14, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luo, Yangyuyu & Bano, Sayeeda, 2020. "Modelling New Zealand dairy products: evidence on export survival and duration," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(3), July.
    2. Andrzej Magruk, 2021. "Analysis of Uncertainties and Levels of Foreknowledge in Relation to Major Features of Emerging Technologies—The Context of Foresight Research for the Fourth Industrial Revolution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-16, September.
    3. Amar Oukil & Slim Zekri, 2021. "Investigating farming efficiency through a two stage analytical approach: Application to the agricultural sector in Northern Oman," Papers 2104.10943, arXiv.org.
    4. Abele Kuipers & Agata Malak-Rawlikowska & Aldona Stalgienė & Anita Ule & Marija Klopčič, 2021. "European Dairy Farmers’ Perceptions and Responses towards Development Strategies in Years of Turbulent Market and Policy Changes," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-24, March.
    5. Vlontzos, G. & Pardalos, P.M., 2017. "Assess and prognosticate green house gas emissions from agricultural production of EU countries, by implementing, DEA Window analysis and artificial neural networks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 155-162.
    6. Anupama Shantharaju & Md Aminul Islam & Jarrod M. Kath & Shahbaz Mushtaq & Arun Muniyappa & Lila Singh-Peterson, 2024. "Understanding Constraints and Enablers of Climate Risk Management Strategies: Evidence from Smallholder Dairy Farmers in Regional South India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-19, February.
    7. Robert Z. Lawrence, 2008. "International Organisations: The Challenge of Aligning Mission, Means and Legitimacy," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(11), pages 1455-1470, November.
    8. Burns, J.G. & Glenk, K. & Eory, V. & Simm, G. & Wall, E., 2021. "Preferences of European dairy stakeholders in breeding for resilient and efficient cattle: a Best-Worst Scaling approach," 95th Annual Conference, March 29-30, 2021, Warwick, UK (Hybrid) 311092, Agricultural Economics Society - AES.
    9. J. Arbuckle & Linda Prokopy & Tonya Haigh & Jon Hobbs & Tricia Knoot & Cody Knutson & Adam Loy & Amber Mase & Jean McGuire & Lois Morton & John Tyndall & Melissa Widhalm, 2013. "Climate change beliefs, concerns, and attitudes toward adaptation and mitigation among farmers in the Midwestern United States," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 117(4), pages 943-950, April.
    10. Soo Yuen Chong & Jung Hur, 2007. "Overlapping Free Trade Agreements of Singapore-USA-Japan : A Computational Analysis," Trade Working Papers 21931, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    11. Lukáš Čechura & Zdeňka Žáková Kroupová & Irena Benešová, 2021. "Productivity and Efficiency in European Milk Production: Can We Observe the Effects of Abolishing Milk Quotas?," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-21, August.
    12. Jorge Rivera & Viviane Clement, 2019. "Business adaptation to climate change: American ski resorts and warmer temperatures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(7), pages 1285-1301, November.
    13. Jeremy Galbreath & Daniel Tisch, 2022. "Sustainable development in the wine industry: The impact of the natural environment and gender‐diverse leadership," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1869-1881, December.
    14. Hanna Heino, 2021. "Knowledge creation and mobility in and through futures workshops," Futures & Foresight Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(1), March.
    15. Paul Welfens & Tony Irawan, 2014. "Transatlantic trade and investment partnership: sectoral and macroeconomic perspectives for Germany, the EU and the US," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 293-328, September.
    16. Simonovska, Ina & Waugh, Michael E., 2014. "The elasticity of trade: Estimates and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 34-50.
    17. Patrick Minford, 2006. "Measuring the Economic Costs and Benefits of the EU," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 509-524, December.
    18. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min & Lin, Bruce J.Y., 2013. "A survey of DEA applications," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 893-902.
    19. Andrew P. Barnes & Amanda Lucas & Gregory Maio, 2016. "Quantifying ambivalence towards sustainable intensification: an exploration of the UK public’s values," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(3), pages 609-619, June.
    20. Clemens, Michael A. & Montenegro, Claudio E. & Pritchett, Lant, 2008. "The place premium : wage differences for identical workers across the US border," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4671, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2265-:d:751195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.