Licentiatseminarium i skogsindustriella produktionssystem: Fredrik Lindblad

Titel: Market structure and economic status for firms producing wooden single-family houses in Sweden
Ämne: Skogsindustriella produktionssystem
Fakultet: Fakulteten för teknik
Datum: Torsdagen den 19 januari 2017 kl 10.00
Plats: Sal N1017, hus N, Växjö
Opponent: Professor Per Hilletofth, Jönköping University
Examinator: Professor Marie Johansson, Institutionen för byggteknik, Linnéuniversitetet
Handledare: Professor Bengt Magnusson, Institutionen för byggteknik, Linnéuniversitetet; lektor Tobias Schauerte, Institutionen för maskinteknik, Linnéuniversitetet; lektor Tomas Nord, Linköpings universitet
Ordförande: Professor Johan Bergh, Institutionen för skog och träteknik, Linnéuniversitetet

Abstract

The gradually changing behavior of the population, towards urbanization, led to an increased shortage of available housing. This development has resulted in a serious issue in Sweden, where too few firms are providing solutions for multi-family houses in wood. Potential firms that could fill this increasing demand are those in the single-family house industry. Yet, these firms might face considerable problems with productivity, predominately derived from increasing production costs and inadequate production development.

Developing these firms is associated with long-term investments, which is investigated by evaluating the industry structure for sellers, highlighting the financial and market situation within their industry. These factors are growing in importance due to the current market concentration, where more firms are required to focus on product development driven by the demand to prefabricate wooden elements, volumes or modules in an industrialized way.

This thesis studies Swedish firms producing wooden single-family houses, with the aim to investigate their possibilities to enter the wooden multi-family house industry in Sweden.

Investigations will be conducted by applying Altman's Z' value, risk position model, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, the Herfindahl- Hirschman number equivalent, productivity ratio model for profitability and finally a model measuring market Concentration Ratio.

Results show that the industry tends towards perfect competition with too many firms involved, i.e. firms mainly have to compete by prices. Further, firms are grouped into three zones; risk, grey or safe zone. The levels within these zones show a reduction of firms in the red zone over time. Related to the current risks, many firms have promising positions to invest in product development towards wooden multi-family houses, in addition to their current products, even though firm productivity has declined during the studied time frame. The results show that the investigated firms have good possibilities gaining a competitive advantage by diversifying into the growing wooden multi-family house industry.