SPECIAL ISSUE PAPER North European companies' relation with Russia and China: future outlook on transport flows

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the changes in Swedish and Finnish companies’ traffic flows and evaluate the future prospects. Design/methodology/approach – Research was implemented through web-based questionnaire. Furthermore, numerous second-hand sources were used to gain knowledge. Research was conducted in three parts: first research was executed in 2006, second in 2009 and the third was realized in 2010. Findings – The main findings support previous studies arguing that the traffic between Europe and China will continue to grow in the future. However, contrary to earlier studies, the balance will change from eastbound to westbound traffic. The future prospects to Russian traffic are stated as a slight increase in demand: however, the balance is shifting from eastbound to westbound transport, and it is noted that the transport flows from Russia to Europe might increase in the near future. Research limitations/implications – Empirical data were gathered from two North European countries, Sweden and Finland. To follow the development in the market, and in order to make more general conclusions, research should be extended to include other countries. Furthermore, economic downturn’s influences on traffic flows and its development could be analyzed in a year’s time. Practical implications – The research aggregates data from three surveys and evaluates the companies’ standpoints. The study results could be used to evaluate the companies’ development trends in Finland and Sweden. In addition, the research provides valuable data for the business world, as well as for academia, by adducing the market actors’ outlook. Originality/value – The paper contributes actor-level data to the subject, which previously has been scrutinized mainly via second-hand data and literature analyses.