Title: Is a cooperation of Latvian forest owners a viable strategic choice? Exploring a collaborative competitive advantage

Authors: Andrejs Čirjevskis; Aiga Grasmane

Addresses: University RISEBA of Business, Arts and Technology, Meža iela 3, Rīga, LV-1048, Latvia ' Latvian Forest Owners' Association, Republikas laukums 2-508, Rīga, LV-1981, Latvia

Abstract: Latvia was one of the rare countries in Europe where forest owners' cooperation was not developed. The empirical study aims to investigate internal and external settings (micro-foundations) that underpin the commercial viability of cooperative strategies of the Latvian forest owners. There have been three primary data collection methods in research: interviewing of experts of the Latvian forest industry, administering questionnaires among private forest experts, direct observation, and archival research. Our research result illustrates that the most interested group of forest owners in cooperation is the one that owns 20-50 ha forest and constitutes 26% of the private forest area; thus, it provides a good potential for forest owners' cooperative (FOC) development in Latvia. Research findings show that FOCs have opportunities to build their collaborative competitive advantage through better exploiting their resources and developing new capabilities to capture more economic rent.

Keywords: cooperative strategy; collaborative competitive advantage; forest owners' cooperation; commercial viability; micro-foundations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSCM.2021.117835

International Journal of Strategic Change Management, 2021 Vol.7 No.3, pp.193 - 216

Received: 30 Nov 2018
Accepted: 26 Jul 2019
Published online: 04 Oct 2021 *