Wood as a renewable construction material presents positive human health, well-being and sustainability-related features. Several studies have indicated its lower carbon footprint compared to the main alternative construction materials and its physiological and psychological characteristics have positive impacts on human health. The objective of this study is to investigate how young adults perceive the health, well-being and sustainability impacts of wooden interior materials. The findings from the four focus groups indicate that generally the image of wooden materials is positive although some concerns were identified. Further, wood as an interior material is perceived to have mainly positive psychological impacts on human health and well-being. From a sustainability perspective, participants recognized both negative and positive impacts of wooden materials mainly relating to environmental sustainability. Findings also revealed that although participants appreciate health and sustainability in the contexts of housing and particularly interior materials, still the materials' appearance and the financial situation of young participants' households dictate their criteria for choosing housing. The study results suggest that positive health impacts of wood, as well as its broader sustainability impacts, should be better acknowledged and promoted more broadly in society. This could result in greater appreciation towards wood and wooden materials among consumers.
Highlights• Network-based business models are not yet common in the wood products industry.• Further research is suggested on network-based co-operation to vitalize industry. AbstractThe use of network-based business models has been brought up as a means of creating com-petitive edge in the tightening global competition. In practice, adopting network-based models has not yet become common in the wood products industry. The objective of this study is to gain better understanding of types of network-based business models using a case study of two small and medium-sized wood industry companies in Finland (for a sake of anonymity named as A and B). The network of company A is found to consist of mostly of established actors with a new-in-themarket value creation system, whereas network for company B is more stable and has an established value system aiming at growth and incremental innovations. Both networks had experienced difficulties in finding partners and lacked some strategic resources. Via this example we wish to stimulate further research interest on the sources of network-based competitive advantage in the traditional wood product industry in a need of renewal of business models.
While the behavior and objectives of non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners have been studied extensively, studies that systematically test the underlying measurement model are lacking in forest economic literature. Our paper reports the results obtained from a recent large-scale survey conducted in Finland in 2011 (n = 557). Results indicate a novel way to systematically analyze the objectives of forest ownership by testing the validity of the developed measurement scale using the structural equations modeling technique. From an exploratory factor analysis of 22 items measuring forest owner objectives, a four-dimensional structure is identified in the background objectives of NIPF owners. These dimensions are labeled as recreation and leisure time, sense of economic security, nature conservation and aesthetics, and timber sales income objective. Having undergone a confirmatory testing process, results from the four-dimensional model support the validity of the developed 16-item measurement model. Based on these findings, we argue that the logical NIPF owner objective structure in Finland consists of experiential forest value, as perceived in current and future time contexts, as well as of current and future economic objectives. As the theoretical structure divides forest owner objectives into the evaluation of the present objectives, supplemented with a psychological evaluation of the future objectives, a novel classification of NIPF owner objectives is suggested.Résumé : Bien que le comportement et les objectifs des propriétaires de forêts privées non industrielles (FPNI) aient été examinés en profondeur, la littérature en économie forestière compte peu d'études où le modèle de mesure utilisé a été systématiquement testé. Notre article rapporte les résultats d'un vaste sondage (n = 557) mené en Finlande en 2011. Ces résultats découlent d'une nouvelle façon de considérer de façon méthodique les objectifs de la propriété forestière en testant la validité de l'échelle de mesure qui a été développée à l'aide de la modélisation par équations structurelles. Les objectifs des propriétaires de FPNI ont été structurés autour de quatre thèmes principaux à partir d'une analyse factorielle exploratoire comptant 22 éléments et qui mesurait les objectifs de ces propriétaires forestiers. Ces thèmes sont : les loisirs et les activités récréatives, le sentiment de sécurité économique, l'esthétique et la conservation de la nature ainsi que les revenus tirés de la vente du bois. Ayant subi un test de confirmation, les résultats structurés selon ces quatre thèmes supportent la validité du modèle de mesure à 16 éléments qui a été développé. S'appuyant sur ces résultats, nous soutenons que la logique qui sous-tend les objectifs des propriétaires de FPNI en Finlande découle de valeurs forestières expérientielles différentiées dans le temps, comme c'est le cas pour les valeurs économiques où les valeurs courantes diffèrent des valeurs futures. Comme le modèle théorique distingue les objectifs des propriétaires forestiers selon le...
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