Modest and humble and on-track - that's the Finnish entrepreneur for you

Doctoral thesis argues that Finnish family entrepreneurs value free time, while for their American counterparts money is everything

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By Heli Saavalainen
     
      Honesty, hard work, and the family are important values for entrepreneurs, both in Finland and the United States. Running a family business calls for putting in long hours, and the line between free time and work becomes obscured.
      But there are also differences between the two cultures: where an American family entrepreneur is self-confident and has his fingers in many pies, his Finnish counterpart is modest and humble, and tends to stick to what he or she knows best.
      The entrepreneurial identities also differ clearly in attitudes towards time and money, says Master of Economic Sciences Anne Laakkonen in her doctoral thesis, which examines the formation of entrepreneurial identity through interviews of family businesses in Finland as well in Louisiana in the USA.
     
For an American entrepreneur, time is not an essential value in itself.
      “Time means money, which is very much a value. Entrepreneurship supports the accumulation of wealth, but in such a way that no amount of dollars is ever enough”, Laakkonen explains.
      “Money is made for the simple reason that it enables the making of even more money. In the Louisiana business culture this is how it is done.”
      In Finland, on the other hand, talking about money is inappropriate, some how vulgar. The entrepreneurs prefer instead to use terms like income, profits, and well-being.
      Money is not considered the ultimate goal of one’s work, but a mere tool for obtaining free time.
      “For the Finns time in and of itself is a value, and free time spent with the family - the free time that is earned through work - is seen as precious”, Laakkonen says.
      In the United States, the reverse is closer to the truth: entrepreneurs spend time to earn more money.
      “They do not want to retire and they do not regard free time as a reward for hard endeavour. This is a completely alien notion to them.”
     
According to Laakkonen, the Louisiana business types are so-called portfolio entrepreneurs, who, in addition to the company that is based on their core competences, also have several other businesses on the go.
      For example, a father and son who are trained lawyers run not just a legal practice but also a pest control company and real estate investments.
      A father and daughter, who consider themselves morticians, have not just a funeral home but also oil & gas and warehouse businesses, plus a fast food chain.
      “Often people like that do not have formal education in anything like all of the fields they specialise in, but their style of doing business has been inherited from previous generations.”
      What characterises the American entrepreneurial identity is strong self-confidence and immeasurable belief in one’s own abilities.
      “Without fear they are ready to expand their business into any field”, Laakkonen charges.
     
The Finns, in turn, stick to their own field, acquire education in it and develop their competence from the point of view of just one business activity.
      In their value system, modesty is emphasised. The business activities are not something one brags about.
      “What also emerged was the strong sense of responsibility that the Finnish entrepreneurs feel towards their employees”, Laakkonen says.
     
In the Finnish context, some intergenerational differences were also found. Among younger entrepreneurs. the company is no longer the most important thing in the world.
      “Especially the younger generation wants to make a separation between work and free time. Spending time with the family and children is very important.”
      Overall, the parental role is emphasised.
      “Many older entrepreneurs fret that in their time they did not spend enough time with their children. The younger generation sees it as a loss that in their parents’ lives the company came first, before the children.”
     
     
Anne Laakkonen's doctoral thesis Construction of the entrepreneurial identity in the family business context. A cross-cultural study was examined at the University of Jyväskylä's School of Business and Economics on January 10th.
     
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 16.1.2012


Links:
  Anne Laakkonen: Construction of the entrepreneurial identity in the family business context. a cross-cultural study (abstract in Finnish and English)

HELI SAAVALAINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
heli.saavalainen@hs.fi