Consumer value dimensions for sustainable wood products: results from the Finnish retail sector

Holopainen, Jani; Häyrinen, Liina; Toppinen, Anne

doi:10.1080/02827581.2014.925138

Cited by 28 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Yet, they were aware of consumer needs concerning wooden housing, such as builders of one-family houses (using wood as construction material) as well as increasing pro-environmental attitudes among consumers (Holopainen et al 2014;Luo et al 2017). The respondents had noticed this consumer values shift towards green consumption: "I think these [voices] valuing nature, decreasing consumption are important, I mean sustainable development and consumption, I would say those issues are guiding consumer choices in the future" Field manager, Finland; "The needs of endusers and fulfilling those … I think these environmental, I mean the positive influences of wooden material should communicate better [for consumers]" Research manager, Finland; "Wood has a positive image, those green values, wood as good for the health, those kind of things … greenness is increasing" Technical manager, Finland.…”

Section: Results and Discussion 41 Partner Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainability-Driven New Business Models in Wood Construction Towards 2030

Toppinen

Autio

Sauru

et al. 2018

World Sustainability Series

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In the transition towards a renewable material based bioeconomy in Europe, there is growing interest in wooden multistory construction (WMC) as a sustainable housing solution. In this paper, the changing WMC business, and the involved value networks towards 2030, are analysed based on service business model literature and focusing also on consumer driven models. Methodologically the study uses a three round Delphi process focusing on Finland as a country where national bioeconomy strategy specifically acknowledges wood based construction. Based on our results, supporting bioeconomy strategy with the use of renewable materials and addressing indoor air quality concerns, seem to be primary reasons for the use of wood. This happens instead of enhancing intrinsic motivation towards sustainable bioeconomy as such. Therefore, transforming business models towards sustainability calls for strengthening positive image of wood construction industry especially among largely neglected stakeholder group, residents. In order to achieve business model development, the industry needs to strengthen orchestration of partner networks and capabilities, by including not only new co-creators as a part of actor-to-actor network, but also residents as end-users.

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Section: Results and Discussion 41 Partner Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, studies on consumer's sustainability related choices towards green building have started to gain more ground (e.g. Luo et al 2017;Gold & Rubik 2009;Hoffman & Henn 2008;Holopainen et al 2014;Hoibo et al 2015).…”

Section: Introduction and Purposementioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability-Driven New Business Models in Wood Construction Towards 2030

Toppinen

Autio

Sauru

et al. 2018

World Sustainability Series

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“…The sustainability of material household consumable goods, other than food, remains a less explored topic, in comparison to topics such as energy demand or the so-called high-involvement products. For example, sustainable consumption of forest products is mainly studied for such items whose purchase requires substantial consideration, such as wooden terrace products (Holopainen et al 2014) or furniture, flooring, or other value-added wood products (Kozak et al 2004). However, more mundane forest products such as toilet paper, purchased and used with less effort, have not been widely studied through the sustainability lens.…”

Section: From An Aware Consumer To Taken-for-granted Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutions and Agency in the Sustainability of Day-to-Day Consumption Practices: An Institutional Ethnographic Study

Pekkanen

2020

J Bus Ethics

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Consumption is essentially an institutional action. While both the formal institutional environment and cultural embeddedness shape consumption, individuals may reciprocally amend the institutional setting through consumption choices that challenge the prevalent institutional constraints. This paper reconciles theoretical and conceptual premises from institutional and practice theory literature to study the sustainability of consumption. Using institutional ethnography as a methodological approach, the study explores the pendulum between embeddedness and agency in shaping the sustainability of day-to-day consumption of necessary goods; and further, how the external institutional environment may interact with human behaviour to contribute towards sustainability. The study finds a hierarchy of informal institutions, each level of which interacts differently with external changes. For example, sustainability is found to be more widespread the more it is embedded in practices, and this is a result of overall institutional development beyond regulation and choice editing. The results also highlight the importance of understanding unintentional sustainability in consumption practices.

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“…According to Toivonen [38], in the forest products context consumers may also relate environmental sustainability as an element of product quality, and consumer valuation of different intangible product attributes (such as origin and environmental friendliness) are consistent among various forest products. More specifically, in the case of wooden outdoor decking materials, Holopainen et al [39] found that consumers universally valued product-relevant attributes, such as price and material quality, while intangible product attributes, such as information on sustainability and origin, were valued by only some consumer segments. The study also showed that intangible sustainability-related information dimension was characterized by a variety of issues concerning social and environmental sustainability, legal and domestic origin along with information on health effects, while material dimension loaded with product features including durability, quality, and perceived utility.…”

Section: Building the Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on findings from the literature, and evidence of existing consumer value dimensions in the case of wooden outdoor decking materials [39], we suggest a set of intangible (origin, type of certification) and product-relevant product attributes (material and product price) and different attribute levels to be tested in a DCE survey [40] (Table 1). The material bundle and prices of outdoor decking materials used in our study are from January 2015 and gathered from a single home and building material department store chain based in Finland (e-commerce market place).…”

Section: Building the Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

Forest Certification and Country of Origin: Choice Experiment Analysis of Outdoor Decking Material Selection in E-Commerce Market in Finland

Holopainen

Toppinen

Lähtinen

et al. 2017

Forests

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Abstract:Since the early 1990s, there has been hope that the uptake of certified forest products would ensure more sustainable forest management and also deliver business benefits along the value chain. Our study applies a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) to model an e-commerce purchase in the case of multiple products with various attribute and certification combinations in the Finnish retail outdoor decking material market. We received 2772 responses from 231 participants in an online survey. Applying conditional logit and latent class models, we were able to assess the relative importance of attributes, identify various consumer segments, and simulate various scenarios for communicating the certification and origin of forest products and competing materials. Our results show that the most important attribute for consumer decision-making was the outdoor decking material followed by price, origin, and certification. Some consumer segments showed a habit of only choosing certain materials or domestic products, while paying less attention to other product attributes. Simulations for an e-commerce purchase situation also implied that communications concerning intangible product attributes, such as domestic origin and environmental certifications, could be used in the brand building of the forest sector to gain competitive advantage and increased market shares over other sectors. The results suggest that the conventional and constantly developing e-commerce marketing tools should be harnessed also in forest product and more general environmental marketing.

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Consumer value dimensions for sustainable wood products: results from the Finnish retail sector

Cited by 28 publications

References 17 publications

Sustainability-Driven New Business Models in Wood Construction Towards 2030

Sustainability-Driven New Business Models in Wood Construction Towards 2030

Institutions and Agency in the Sustainability of Day-to-Day Consumption Practices: An Institutional Ethnographic Study

Forest Certification and Country of Origin: Choice Experiment Analysis of Outdoor Decking Material Selection in E-Commerce Market in Finland

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