Perheyrittäjyyden arjen kulttuuri : kolmen sukupolven sahatoimintaa

Abstract

This study focuses on the entrepreneurial longevity of a family business by observing an old sawmill. The activities within the firm are influenced by the change in the Finnish Society during the 20th century and the decline of the village community. The challenge for surviving at the periphery and maintaining operations in a single family over generations is cultural knowledge. Ethnographic approach through thick descriptions provides a chance to follow the change in everyday customs and interpret its meanings, and these are evaluated using critical methodology. The interdisciplinary theoretical foundation and approach combines the disciplines of economy and anthropology. The family business theories are divided into systems of entrepreneurship, family and ownership, which are followed as themes in this study. The data was collected during a ten-year period and it brought up questions, 1) how does the firm develop its activities in profit-making and competition, 2) how is cultural capital used to strengthen the entrepreneurship and 3) what are the beliefs behind these actions? The answers are divided into two system models: first, the adaptive and autonomous cultural niche is a model of the family business that is an open system, and rhizome relationship that remains active as long as communication is valid between the system and its environment. In this open-ended system dialogue the firm is seen as an intermediator and the entrepreneur as a discoverer. These metaphors describe the alertness and creative synthesis of information as part of entrepreneurship that are behind the embedded awareness of new profit opportunities. The philosophical and ontological point of view in this study is in a pragmatistic creation of knowledge, which is the basis for the second model of values and beliefs in the family business. The continuity and basic values are described as a process of mythologising, which make the fundamental principles of profit seeking and utilitarian tendencies meaningful objectives of entrepreneurship. Myths are the means that make the living world rational and sustainable and they open the way to self-development from a narrow local actor into an international Nordic wood supplier. The entrepreneurial knowledge is the heritage that the family leaves to the next generation in everyday practices and gives the volatility to choose entrepreneurship in the future. Thus, the family business entrepreneurship is defined as alertness in an uncertain open-ended market, where the firm is an initiating intermediator with the capability to synthesise information to costs and profits.

Raili Törmäkangas osoittaa väitöskirjassaan, että perheyrityksen jatkuvuus on yhteydessä perheen halukkuuteen jakaa arjen toimintaa, oppia aktiivisesti uusia liiketoiminnan muotoja ja antaa perintönä seuraavalle sukupolvelle yrittäjyysmyönteinen elämänasenne. Sadan vuoden aikana kehittynyt perheyritys yltää yli sukupolvien ja sen elinkaaren vaiheita on vaikea arvioida epävarmassa globaalissa yritysympäristössä. Perheyrityksessä tarvitaankin kyvykkyyttä syntetisoida tietoa sekä nykyisen että menneen avulla, jotta tulevaisuus voidaan käyttää liiketoiminnan hyödyksi. Seuraavan kymmenen vuoden kuluessa noin kolmannes yrittäjistä luopuu yritystoiminnasta ikääntymisen seurauksena. Tämä merkitsee noin 70 000 – 80 000 luopuvaa yrittäjää Suomessa ja noin 610 000 yrittäjää Euroopassa. Törmäkangas tarkasteli tutkimuksessaan yritystä, jossa luopuminen ei ole merkinnyt yrityksen lopettamista, vaan yritystä on kehitetty uusien olosuhteiden vaatimalla tavalla. Sijaintipaikkakunnalle se on merkinnyt taloudellista vireyttä ja paikallisten resurssien hyödyntämistä kestävällä tavalla. Tämä on tärkeää alueelliselta näkökulmalta katsoen, koska uusia yrityksiä ei juuri perusteta taantuville alueille.