1 BUILDING A COLLABORATIVE NETWORK FOR SMOOTH MARKET PENETRATION FOR FINNISH BIO-ENERGY COMPANIES IN AFRICA

As the world now is fighting against global warming, one way Finnish bioenergy firms can help Africa to fight this climate change is the transfer of technology. However, how do they go into the market as one of the global giants in clean energy technology? Research proved that many Finnish firms are willing to go into the market but the external forces in the market are challenging for the firms. To help Finnish bioenergy companies to carve themselves a niche on the market, as a result of this study a network for smooth market pentration for these companies was planned and built.The companies associated with this thesis were MHG Systems Oy and Feedstock Optimum.The network linked MHG/FSO to reliable partners in Ghana.These partners will help them to work out strategies to be competitive in the market. This is because Africa is a price sensitive market and individual approach discourages initiative.Therefore for any business to succeed, collaborative approach is found to be the appropriate tool. The result of this thesis was achieved through a qualitative research method. This includes interviews, case study and secondary data analysis. This method was utilized to enable in-depth investigation and explanation of the subject. The respondents were chosen fro