Abstract:
The study examines the role of social capital in wood cluster industries in Sunyani
Municipality. Descriptive survey was used for the study. The population of the study
consists of artisans in Sunyani wood cluster, wood suppliers, machine operators, buyers,
sellers of wood products and financial institutions in the Sunnyani wood cluster.
Convenience method of sampling was employed to arrive at a sample size of 200.
Questionnaires were used as data collection instruments for the study. Statistical Package
for Social Science (SPSS) was used to process and analyse the data. Findings from the study
indicated that the wood cluster industry consist of two groups of actors; the core actors and
the supporting actors. The core actors are the artisans and they produce the wood products in
the cluster. The supporting actors are members in the cluster who provide the needed goods
and services to complement the activities of the artisans. The study further showed that the
wood cluster facilitates the activities of the actors in terms of availability of materials, tools
and equipment which resulted in reduction in production cost, improved sales and profit
margins, number of artifacts produce, market price control and access to new market. The
study also reviewed that social capital plays major roles in the wood cluster industry; these
resulted in easy access to information, sharing of ideas and tools among artisans,
networking, social ties and easy access to sub-contract. It is also worthy of note that the
wood cluster industry has a lot of challenges that affect the activities of the actors. These
include access to credit, high interest rate, raw materials, promotion and marketing of wood
products, utilization of wood residue, cost of utilities, lack of interaction between firms and
educational institutions and unavailability of research findings to firms.
Description:
A Dissertation in the Department of CONSRUCTION AND WOOD TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION, Faculty of TECHNICAL EDUCATION, submitted to the school of
Graduate Studies, University of Education, Winneba in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the award of Master of Technology
(Wood) degree.