Applying A’WOT to Forest Industry Investment Strategies: Case Study of a Finnish Company in North America

Abstract

The present study examines a hybrid method, referred to here as the hybrid method A’WOT, for improving the usability of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. A commonly-used decision analysis method, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and its eigenvalue calculation framework are integrated with SWOT analysis. AHP’s connection to SWOT yields analytically-determined priorities for the factors included in SWOT analysis and makes them commensurable. The aim in applying the hybrid method is to improve the quantitative information basis of strategic planning processes. The hybrid method was tested in connection with a Finnish forest industry enterprise’s decision to invest in North America. In the case study, the results were presented in an illustrative way by utilising the quantitative information achieved by the hybrid method. The results indicated that forest-industry investment was reasonable in North America. In addition, the required pairwise comparisons were found to be useful, because they force the decision-maker to think over the weights of the factors and to analyse the situation more precisely and in more depth.