IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/entthe/v38y2014i1p185-207.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Biohit: A Global, Family–Owned Company Embarking on a New Phase

Author

Listed:
  • Tanja Kontinen

Abstract

This case concerns Biohit, a family–owned biotechnology company established in Finland in 1988, selling liquid handling and diagnostics products in the global market. The case also describes the entrepreneurial career of Biohit's CEO Osmo Suovaniemi, since the company is mainly based on the know–how that Osmo gained as owner–manager of his two earlier companies, Labsystems and Eflab, during the 1970s and 1980s. Hence, this case describes the prior and initial phases of Biohit, examining also its commitment to innovation and its management practices. The case ends with the situation as of March 2010 and includes the reflections of Biohit's managers on the future of the company. At this point, Osmo was intending to hand over his executive position to someone from outside the family, on the grounds that none of his three sons was able or willing to take up the position. However, he planned to continue as owner, inventor, and full–time board member of Biohit. The managers of Biohit had high hopes of making a breakthrough with diagnostics products that had been under intensive development over a long period.

Suggested Citation

  • Tanja Kontinen, 2014. "Biohit: A Global, Family–Owned Company Embarking on a New Phase," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(1), pages 185-207, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:entthe:v:38:y:2014:i:1:p:185-207
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6520.2011.00488.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2011.00488.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2011.00488.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ozgen, Eren & Baron, Robert A., 2007. "Social sources of information in opportunity recognition: Effects of mentors, industry networks, and professional forums," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 174-192, March.
    2. Israel M. Kirzner, 1997. "Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 60-85, March.
    3. Scott Shane, 2000. "Prior Knowledge and the Discovery of Entrepreneurial Opportunities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 448-469, August.
    4. Wiklund, Johan & Shepherd, Dean, 2005. "Entrepreneurial orientation and small business performance: a configurational approach," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 71-91, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Erik Lundmark & Anna Krzeminska & Dean A. Shepherd, 2019. "Images of Entrepreneurship: Exploring Root Metaphors and Expanding Upon Them," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(1), pages 138-170, January.
    2. Ping Chen, 2023. "The Effect of Value Creation on Startups Performance in the Digital Environment: Evidence from Chinese Digital Startups," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-18, February.
    3. J. Michael Haynie & Dean A. Shepherd & Jeffery S. McMullen, 2009. "An Opportunity for Me? The Role of Resources in Opportunity Evaluation Decisions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 337-361, May.
    4. Susan Ramezanpour & Seyran Amiriyan & Ali Naghi Mosleh Shirazy, 2014. "Investigation of the Relationship between Entrepreneurial Opportunity Recognition and Entrepreneurial Capitals," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(5), pages 598-613, May.
    5. Svante Andersson & Natasha Evers, 2015. "International opportunity recognition in international new ventures—a dynamic managerial capabilities perspective," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 260-276, September.
    6. Joy Olabisi & Eileen Kwesiga & Norma Juma & Zhi Tang, 2019. "Stakeholder Transformation Process: The Journey of an Indigenous Community," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 1-21, September.
    7. Nerine Mary George & Vinit Parida & Tom Lahti & Joakim Wincent, 2016. "A systematic literature review of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition: insights on influencing factors," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 309-350, June.
    8. Mariano Nieto & Nuria González-Álvarez, 2016. "Social capital effects on the discovery and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 507-530, June.
    9. Holger Patzelt & Dean A. Shepherd, 2011. "Recognizing Opportunities for Sustainable Development," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 35(4), pages 631-652, July.
    10. Zaefarian, Reza & Eng, Teck-Yong & Tasavori, Misagh, 2016. "An exploratory study of international opportunity identification among family firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 333-345.
    11. Antonio Rafael Ramos-Rodriguez & Jose Aurelio Medina-Garrido & Jose Daniel Lorenzo-Gomez & Jose Ruiz-Navarro, 2024. "What you know or who you know? The role of intellectual and social capital in opportunity recognition," Papers 2401.17448, arXiv.org.
    12. Emiel L. Eijdenberg & Kathrin Borner, 2017. "The Performance Of Subsistence Entrepreneurs In Tanzania’S Informal Economy," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(01), pages 1-22, March.
    13. Asante, Eric Adom & Affum-Osei, Emmanuel, 2019. "Entrepreneurship as a career choice: The impact of locus of control on aspiring entrepreneurs' opportunity recognition," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 227-235.
    14. Enrico Santarelli & Hien Tran, 2013. "The interplay of human and social capital in shaping entrepreneurial performance: the case of Vietnam," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 435-458, February.
    15. Chaoyun Liang, 2019. "How Entrepreneur Personality Affects Agrirural Entrepreneurial Alertness," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 15(1), pages 147-170.
    16. D’Angelo, Alfredo & Presutti, Manuela, 2019. "SMEs international growth: The moderating role of experience on entrepreneurial and learning orientations," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 613-624.
    17. Valliere, Dave, 2013. "Towards a schematic theory of entrepreneurial alertness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 430-442.
    18. Ajay Agrawal & Joshua S. Gans & Scott Stern, 2021. "Enabling Entrepreneurial Choice," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5510-5524, September.
    19. repec:dau:papers:123456789/8470 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Linda Edelman & Helena Yli–Renko, 2010. "The Impact of Environment and Entrepreneurial Perceptions on Venture-Creation Efforts: Bridging the Discovery and Creation Views of Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(5), pages 833-856, September.
    21. Landström, Hans & Harirchi, Gouya & Åström, Fredrik, 2012. "Entrepreneurship: Exploring the knowledge base," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 1154-1181.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:entthe:v:38:y:2014:i:1:p:185-207. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.