Search

Increasing gender diversity is no longer just the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do. Although there is general literature about gender diversity and the perspectives of females in top management and leadership, there are, however, very few forest sector specific studies. This exploratory study utilizes interviews to better understand how female executives in North America and the Nordic countries of Finland and Sweden perceive the impact of the situation of gender diversity in the forest industry. Respondents also provide career advice for young females entering or considering entry into the industry. Female executives in both regions agree that although the forest sector is still seen as a male-oriented industry, there are signs of increasingly positive attitudes regarding industry and company culture towards the benefits of greater gender diversity; however, the described changes represent an evolution, not revolution. Interestingly, despite the status of Nordic countries as leaders in bridging the gender gap, respondents from this region believe that there is significant progress yet to be made in the forest industry, especially at the entry level. With respect to career development, North American respondents suggested that young females should consider sacrificing their social life and leisure time activities, whereas Nordic respondents instead emphasized personal supports or using exit strategy from an unsupportive company or boss.

Cross-sector collaboration has gained attention from researchers in different fields of science in recent years because it represents significant business potential for forest companies to work with sectors possessing a more positive demand outlook, including those facing increasing pressure to detach from oil derivatives. Despite this, there is a lack of research regarding company-level, cross-sector collaboration in the forest-sector literature. This paper seeks to enhance the understanding of the cross-sector collaboration concept in the forest-sector literature and explore alternatives for forest companies to collaborate with other industries, rather than to compete. A systematic literature review is conducted to explore the relevance of cross-sector collaboration in the forest industry. Furthermore, the main drivers, benefits, and challenges of collaboration in the forest industry are identified. Results show that the literature has emphasized the importance of cross-sector collaboration for forest companies, but little empirical work has been done regarding the link between forest companies and other industrial sectors. Cost reduction, competitiveness, and environmental sustainability are among the principal drivers and benefits. Forest business culture, lack of trust, and lack of parameters to evaluate costs and savings generated are key challenges to forest companies implementing cross-sector collaboration.

Recent research in the field of marketing documents a shift from a production–sales orientation to a customer–market–stakeholder orientation. However, there is no systematic investigation of marketing sophistication in firms. This study examines marketing sophistication in the context of private sawmilling companies in the United States using a case study approach. Specifically, marketing culture and marketing strategies in the companies are the focus of the study. Data were collected from 20 firms via personal interviews, website information, and field notes. Findings show that the studied companies do not have a holistic understanding of marketing and a production-oriented mentality still largely presents. An enhanced understanding of marketing would benefit the firms. However, it is also quite clear that many of the studied companies are starting to pursue an outward-looking, market-oriented approach to marketing.

As societies urbanize, a growing proportion of the global population and an increasing number of housing units will be needed in urban areas. High-rise buildings and environmentally friendly, renewable materials must play important roles in sustainable urban development. To achieve this, it is imperative that policy makers, planners, architects, and construction companies understand consumer preferences. We use data from urban dwellers in the Oslo region of Norway to develop an understanding of material preferences in relation to environmental attitudes and knowledge about wood. We emphasise wood compared with other building materials in various applications (structural, exterior, and interior) within urban apartment blocks. We use 503 responses from a web panel. Our findings show that Oslo area consumers tend to prefer materials other than wood in various applications in apartment blocks, especially structural applications. Still, some respondent prefer wood, including some applications in apartment blocks where wood is currently not commonly used. The best target for wood-based urban housing includes younger people who have strong environmental values. As environmental attitudes evolve in society and a greater proportion of consumers search out environmentally friendly product alternatives, the opportunities for wood to gain market share will most likely increase.

The recent economic downturn severely affected the US forest sector from a macroeconomic perspective but little is known about changes in firm-level performance. In this study we investigate the changes in financial, social and environmental performance of forest sector firms during a period that approximately corresponds to the downturn. We also assess industry dynamism and industry’s view about social and environmental responsibility as a competitive tool. We conducted a national survey of wood, furniture, and paper companies. Approximately 60% of our respondents reported a decline in financial performance during the downturn. With respect to social and environmental performance, customer-oriented actions show mixed trends, employee matters remained somewhat unaltered, community engagement significantly decreased, and engagement in environmental activities significantly increased. Respondents view their operating business environment as highly dynamic and difficult and they do not view engagement in social and environmental responsibility activities leading to either financial or nonfinancial benefits.

Innovativeness can help companies differentiate themselves, with the ultimate goal of securing survival and im- proving performance. Modern theories in organizational behavior look at innovation as something that starts with individ- ual creativity but that is also affected by the work environment. Using one broad industry sector, the US forest products industry, this study attempts to integrate into a unifying model the concepts of work climate, innovativeness, and firm per- formance using structural equation modeling. Results support the proposed theoretical model, with some modifications, finding a positive and significant relationship among all factors. Having innovation as a core part of a company's strategy and fostering a climate for innovation positively affects the degree of innovativeness and performance of a company. This is especially true for secondary or value-added wood products manufacturers. A climate for innovation is characterized by high levels of autonomy and encouragement, team cohesion, openness to change and risk taking, and sufficient resources available to people. Lack of a validation sample suggests treating the model as tentative until further testing. Resume´ : L'innovativitepeut aider les entreprises a se demarquer les unes des autres avec comme objectif ultime d'as- surer leur survie et d'ameliorer leur performance. Les theories modernes du comportement organisationnel considerent que l'innovation decoule de la creativitedes individus mais qu'elle est aussi influencee par le milieu de travail. Utilisant un large secteur industriel, l'industrie americaine des produits forestiers, cette etude tente d'integrer dans un modele unifica- teur les concepts de climat de travail, d'innovativiteet de performance de l'entreprise en ayant recours a la modelisation par equation structurelle. Avec quelques modifications, les resultats supportent le modele theorique proposeen mettant en evidence une relation positive et significative entre tous les facteurs. Le fait que l'innovation soit au cœur de la strategie d'une entreprise et que celle-ci entretienne un climat propice al'innovation affectent positivement son degred'innovativite ´ et sa performance. Ceci est particulierement vrai pour les entreprises de seconde transformation du bois ou celles qui fabri- quent des produits avaleur ajoutee. Un climat qui favorise l'innovation est caracterisepar un degreeleved'autonomie et de support, la cohesion d'equipe, l'ouverture face aux changements et la disposition a prendre des risques ainsi que par la disponibilitede ressources suffisantes pour les personnes. L'absence d'echantillon de validation incite a considerer le mod- ele comme provisoire tant qu'il n'aura pas etedavantage teste ´. (Traduit par la Redaction)

Using a mail questionnaire targeted at 500 softwood sawmills in the United States and Canada, firm innovativeness was assessed using three methods: (1) current technology, (2) self-evaluation, and (3) a new scale — the propensity to create and adopt scale. The results of these three methods were then compared to assess the performance of each method. Additionally, the relationship between firm innovativeness and financial performance was examined. Based on responses from 85 sawmills (19% adjusted response rate), the results show that both the self-evaluated and the propensity to create and adopt measures differentiate between mills with high and low levels of innovativeness. The composite of the propensity to create and adopt scale shows higher reliability (Chronbach’s α = 0.97) than the self-evaluated scale (Chronbach’s α = 0.68). Significant relationships between sawmill performance and each of the three measures of innovativeness were seen, with the propensity to create and adopt scale generally having the strongest positive relationships. Current technology was significantly related to sales growth, but not gross profit.

Innovativeness is a concept that has seen extensive study, yet there remain significant gaps in our understanding of the phenomenon. This is especially true when considering views of practitioners as well as specific industry sectors, such as the forest products industry. The qualitative work described here explores the concept of innovativeness from the perspective of forest industry managers. Managers consistently described five aspects of what it means to be an innovative company: (i) new, (ii) creating the ''right'' culture, (iii) managing the market-customer link, (iv) being a leader, and (v )a focus on the future. Similar to past research, managers identified new or improved products, processes, and business sys- tems as areas within which a firm can be innovative. Results also outline challenges that firms face as they attempt to be- come innovative, how they would go about measuring innovativeness, and how they build innovative capacity. Based on these findings, we suggest that firms have significant opportunities to increase innovativeness and, thereby, enhance com- petitiveness. Resume´ : L'innovativiteest un concept qui a fait l'objet d'etudes approfondies mais il y a encore d'importantes lacunes dans notre comprehension du phenomene. Cela est particulierement vrai lorsqu'on considere l'opinion des praticiens ainsi que certains secteurs industriels tels que l'industrie des produits forestiers. Le travail qualitatif decrit ici explore le concept d'innovativitedu point de vue des gestionnaires de l'industrie forestiere. Les gestionnaires decrivent invariablement cinq elements qui caracterisent une compagnie novatrice : nouveaute ´, creer la culture appropriee, gerer la relation entre le mar- cheet les clients, etre un chef de file et etre tournevers le futur. Comme dans les etudes anterieures, les gestionnaires ont identifieles produits ameliores ou nouveaux, les processus et les systemes d'affaires comme des domaines ouune entre- prise peut innover. Les resultats esquissent aussi les defis auxquels les entreprises font face lorsqu'elles cherchent a inn- over, la facon dont elles pourraient mesurer l'innovativiteet comment elles batissent leur capacited'innovation. Sur la base de ces resultats, nous croyons que les entreprises ont de reelles possibilites d'accrooˆtre leur innovativiteet par conse ´- quent d'ameliorer leur competitivite ´. (Traduit par la Redaction)

The extant literature concerned with enhancing competitiveness of forest sector companies has focused on phenomena rather than people who would drive those phenomena. Generally, human resource mana...