Category :
Research article
article id 10503,
category
Research article
Highlights:
Consumers in the Nordic region are similar in their housing value expectations and prejudices against building with wood; Physical properties of houses seem to be less important as constituents of housing value for the consumers compared to intangible factors related to lifestyles and milieus; Urban consumers are the most prejudiced against wood building, and thus supply of homes meeting their value expectations is of a critical importance for sustainable urbanization.
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So far, consumer housing values have not been addressed as factors affecting the market diffusion potential of multi-storey wood building (MSWB). To fill the void, this study addresses different types of consumer housing values in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden (i.e., Nordic region), and whether they affect the likelihood of prejudices against building with wood in the housing markets. The data collected in 2018 from 2191 consumers in the Nordic region were analyzed with exploratory factor analysis and logistic binary regression analysis. According to the results, consumers’ perceptions on ecological sustainability, material usage and urban lifestyle were similar in all countries, while country-specific differences were detected for perceptions on aesthetics and natural milieus. In all countries, appreciating urban lifestyle and living in attractive neighborhoods with good reputation increased the likelihood of prejudices against wood building, while appreciation of aesthetics and natural milieus decreased the likelihood of prejudices. In strengthening the demand for MSWB and sustainable urbanization through actions in businesses (e.g., branding) and via public policy support (e.g., land zoning), few messages derive from the results. In all, abreast with the already existing knowledge on the supply side factors (e.g., wood building innovations), more customized information is needed on the consumer-driven issues affecting the demand potential of MSWB in the housing markets. This would enable, e.g., both enhancing the supply of wooden homes for consumers appreciating urban lifestyle and neighborhoods and fortifying positive image of wood among consumers especially appreciating good architecture and pleasant environmental milieus.
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Lähtinen,
Vaasan yliopisto/Seinäjoen yliopistokeskus
E-mail:
katja.lahtinen@luke.fi
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Häyrinen,
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Bioeconomy and Environment Unit, P.O. Box 2, FI-00790 Helsinki, Finland
E-mail:
liina.hayrinen@luke.fi
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Roos,
Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), Department of Forest Economics, Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
anders.roos@slu.se
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Toppinen,
University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences/Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), P.O. Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
E-mail:
anne.toppinen@helsinki.fi
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Aguilar Cabezas,
Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), Department of Forest Economics, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden
E-mail:
francisco.aguilar@slu.se
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Thorsen,
University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Rolighedsvej 23, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C, DenmarkBo Jellesmark Thorsen
E-mail:
bjt@ifro.ku.dk
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Hujala,
University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Faculty of Science and Forestry, School of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 111, 80101 FI-Joensuu, Finland
E-mail:
teppo.hujala@uef.fi
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Nyrud,
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway
E-mail:
anders.qvale.nyrud@nmbu.no
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Hoen,
Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Ås, Norway
E-mail:
hans.hoen@nmbu.no
article id 126,
category
Research article
Anders Roos,
Lotta Woxblom,
Denise McCluskey.
(2010).
The influence of architects and structural engineers on timber in construction – perceptions and roles.
Silva Fennica
vol.
44
no.
5
article id 126.
https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.126
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This study considers structural engineers’ and architects’ perceptions of structural timber in multi-story construction contexts. Qualitative approaches – interviews and focus groups – were used to investigate attitudes, perceived norms, and perceived factors that hamper or facilitate the prescription of wood use in construction. Wood was perceived as an appropriate building material. Architects’, and even more so engineers’, perceptions of negative aspects of wood focused on decay, instability and sound transmission. Although wood-based construction was seen as a required professional skill, it was not expected to improve one’s professional status. Positive aspects of wood in construction included its strength, environmental friendliness, simple handling and appropriateness for use in conjunction with industrial methods, whereas knowledge gaps and weak support from the wood industry have reduced the use of wood among structural engineers and architects. Both professions perceived their influence on material selection to be weak. They sensed that most of the influence over material selection rested with developers and contractors. The paper contains suggestions on how to make these two professions more influential advocates for wood in construction.
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Roos,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Products, P.O. Box 7008, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
anders.roos@sprod.slu.se
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Woxblom,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Products, P.O. Box 7008, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
lw@nn.se
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McCluskey,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Products, P.O. Box 7008, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
dm@nn.se
article id 239,
category
Research article
Matti Stendahl,
Anders Roos.
(2008).
Antecedents and barriers to product innovation – a comparison between innovating and non-innovating strategic business units in the wood industry.
Silva Fennica
vol.
42
no.
4
article id 239.
https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.239
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Increased competitive pressure from low-cost economies and substituting materials has raised the need for new strategies focusing on product differentiation in the Nordic wood industry. With the aim to identify factors that can facilitate increased product innovation activity, this study compared organizational characteristics and perceived barriers to product development among innovating and non-innovating strategic business units (SBUs) in the Swedish and Finnish wood industry. Multivariate analysis of data from a cross-sectional sample of 110 SBUs suggested that organizational size and educational level among white-collar workers are significant antecedents of product innovation activity. Furthermore, the difficulty of giving practical priority to development work in the everyday stress was identified as the most important perceived barrier to product development among managers in both innovating and non-innovating SBUs. A low competence level among the personnel and a low need to innovate was perceived to be the second most important barriers to product development among managers in, respectively, innovating and non-innovating SBUs. Practitioners who wish to increase product innovation activity in the wood industry are advised to promote an increased educational level in wood industry companies. They are further encouraged to seek ways to reduce the perceived barriers to product innovation identified in this study.
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Stendahl,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Products, P.O. Box 7008, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
matti.stendahl@sprod.slu.se
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Roos,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Products, P.O. Box 7008, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
ar@nn.se
article id 623,
category
Research article
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Adding value to lumber by processing it after sawing and standard drying is one means for the sawmilling industry to increase market shares in competition with other materials, e.g. glass, steel, concrete, aluminium, and plastics. In this study the adoption patterns of value-adding processes used in Swedish softwood sawmills were analysed based on production data from 1995. About 90% of the sawmills applied a value-adding process after initial sawing and drying, and 72% of the sawmills applied two or more processes. The total share of processed sawnwood was about 40%. Important dimensions of value-adding processes are: extra drying and production of blanks for doors/windows and for furniture; surface-treatment, mainly planing, which is sometimes associated with preservation and painting; length trimming and pallet production; extra drying and production of edge-glued panels and laminated beams; and stress grading and production of building components. The association of different value-adding dimensions with location, ownership and production characteristics were investigated. The total share of value-added production were higher for private sawmills than for mills owned by forest companies or by forest owners’ associations, and it was higher for mills in southern Sweden than for sawmills in other parts of the country. Value-added share does not clearly correlate with mill size or with the dominating tree species being sawn.
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Roos,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Management and Products, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
anders.roos@sh.slu.se
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Flinkman,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Management and Products, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
mf@nn.se
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Jäppinen,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Management and Products, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
aj@nn.se
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Warensjö,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Management and Products, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
mw@nn.se
Category :
Review article
article id 10609,
category
Review article
Jaakko Jussila,
Emil Nagy,
Katja Lähtinen,
Elias Hurmekoski,
Liina Häyrinen,
Cecilia Mark-Herbert,
Anders Roos,
Ritva Toivonen,
Anne Toppinen.
(2022).
Wooden multi-storey construction market development – systematic literature review within a global scope with insights on the Nordic region.
Silva Fennica
vol.
56
no.
1
article id 10609.
https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.10609
Highlights:
Enabling factors for WMC market diffusion include benefits from cost-efficiency gains from prefabrication and industrialization and perceived sustainability benefits; Inexperience of using wood, and path dependencies to use concrete and steel in multi-storey building are the key barriers for mainstreaming WMC market development; More research is needed on the development in the wood construction value-chains to challenge the dominant concrete-based construction regime in the housing markets.
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Climate change sets high pressures on the construction industry to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Due to the carbon storage properties and potential to use renewable resources efficiently, wooden multi-storey construction (WMC) is an interesting alternative for the construction industry to enhance sustainable development combined with the aesthetic and well-being benefits of wood perceived among many consumers. For forest industry firms, industrial wood construction is a possibility to seek for business opportunities and bring socio-economic benefits for local economies. Despite positive drivers, WMC still remains a niche even in the forest-rich countries.The purpose of our study is to add understanding on the WMC market development by conducting a systematic literature analysis on international peer-reviewed studies from the past 20 years. Our special focus is on the role of WMC in the housing markets studied from the perspectives of the demand, supply and local governance factors. As specific aims, we 1) synthesize the key barriers and enabling factors for the WMC market growth; 2) identify the actors addressed in the existing studies connected to the WMC market development, and 3) summarize research methods and analytical approaches used in the previous studies. As a systematic method to make literature searches in Web of Science and Scopus for years 2000–2020, we employed PRISMA guidelines. By using pre-determined keywords, our searches resulted in a sample of 696 articles, of which 42 full articles were after selection procedure included in-depth content analysis. Our results showed cost-efficiency gains from industrialized prefabrication and perceived sustainability benefits by consumers and architects enabled a WMC market diffusion. The lack of experiences on the WMC, and path dependencies to use concrete and steel continue to be key barriers for increased WMC. Although our research scope was the global WMC market development, most of the literature concerned the Nordic region. The key actors covered in the literature were businesses (e.g., contractors, manufacturers and architects) involved in the wood construction value-chains, while residents and actors in the local governance were seldomly addressed. Currently, case studies, the use of qualitative data sets and focus on the Nordic region dominate the literature. This hinders the generalizability of findings in different regional contexts. In the future, more research is needed on how sustainability-driven wood construction value-chains are successfully shaping up in different geographical regions, and how they could challenge the dominant concrete-based construction regime.
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Jussila,
University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 4, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
E-mail:
jaakko@jussila.fi
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Nagy,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Economics, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
emil.nagy@slu.se
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Lähtinen,
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Bioeconomy and environment, P.O. Box 2, FI-00791 Helsinki, Finland
E-mail:
katja.lahtinen@luke.fi
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Hurmekoski,
University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 4, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
E-mail:
elias.hurmekoski@helsinki.fi
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Häyrinen,
Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Bioeconomy and environment, P.O. Box 2, FI-00791 Helsinki, Finland
E-mail:
liina.hayrinen@luke.fi
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Mark-Herbert,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Economics, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
cecilia.mark-herbert@slu.se
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Roos,
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Economics, P.O. Box 7060, SE-750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
E-mail:
anders.roos@slu.se
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Toivonen,
University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 4, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
E-mail:
ritva.toivonen@helsinki.fi
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Toppinen,
University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 4, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
E-mail:
anne.toppinen@helsinki.fi