@article{Muilu:157528,
      recid = {157528},
      author = {Muilu, Toivo and Pesola, Tuomo and Snäkin, Juha-Pekka},
      title = {Bioenergy entrepreneurship as a tool for rural development  in Northern Finland},
      journal = {Rural Areas and Development},
      address = {2009},
      number = {740-2016-51069},
      series = {Rural areas and development},
      pages = {14},
      year = {2009},
      abstract = {This paper aims at analyzing business services in  bioenergy investments
and innovations on farms in the  Northern Ostrobothnia region in Finland.
Finance into  research of bioenergy has strongly increased during the  last years
both in Finland and Europe. Primary focus of  this research has been so far on the
technical and economic  problems, like production, processing and  combustion
techniques of biofuels and environmental effects  of bioenergy production. Energy
resources of farms and  their possibilities to act as bioenergy entrepreneurs  has
been paid attention to only lately. Research focusing  on the background factors,
support services and regional  conditions effecting farm level bioenergy  entrepreneurship
has been minor in Finland.
The number of  Finnish farm enterprises is assumed to decrease from 70,000  to
about 50,000 by the year 2013 and the decline is  especially drastic in marginal
rural areas like Northern  Finland. This trend fosters the depopulation of rural
areas  and weakens the well-being there. New business  opportunities are important
in keeping up agricultural  enterprises in business. High hopes have been put
on the  production and use of domestic bioenergy as one of the farm  businesses,
which is at the same time seen as one of the  solutions for reacting to the demands
of climate change. In  here, governmental and other business services have  an
important role, but the Finnish business services are  scattered in numerous organizations.
The research emphasis  is put on local/regional actors, who make fi nal  energy
decisions. Empirically this paper is based on  questioning (150 farmers) and
structural interviews (39  farmers) for farms directed to bioenergy production in
the  province of Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. The data was  collected in 2006 and 2007. Three groups of farmers were  categorized according to their attitudes
to bioenergy  production on their farms: investors, entrepreneurs and  hobbyist.
The results will help to develop future business  services, increase bioenergy use,
and bring in information  about the factors and causalities behind bioenergy  decisions.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/157528},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.157528},
}