Ritva Toivonen

Adjunct professor, research coordinator on bio-economy, forest economics and marketing, University of Helsinki

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 aesth...

Climate change places great pressure on the construction sector to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions and to create solutions that perform well in changing weather conditions. In the urbanizing world, wood construction has been identified as one of the opportunities for mitigating these emissions. Our study explores citizen opinions on wood usag...

The forest sector can play a major role in the transformation to a sustainable bioeconomy, driven by climate change, population growth, and accelerated urbanization. However, in most contexts, the industrial wood construction markets, as a promising field for sustainable bioeconomy, are still at a niche level. The analysis in this study concerns th...

The rising interest in wooden multistory buildings (WMSB) has led to multiple studies investigating how construction professionals perceive different structural frame materials. These investigations, however, exclude viewpoints from public employees (i.e., civil servants), who are central to driving the implementation of WMSB. This study is part of...

The development and acceleration of Wooden Multi-storey Construction (WMC) as a set of innovative building technologies has gained political support and attracted public interest in Finland, as in some other forest-rich European countries. The market share of WMC, however, remains low. The technological innovation system (TIS) around WMC in Finland...

Consumer acceptance of new bio-based products plays a key role in the envisioned transition towards a forest-based bioeconomy. Multi-storey wooden buildings (MSWB) exemplify a modern, bio-based business opportunity for enacting low-carbon urban housing. However, there is limited knowledge about the differing perceptions consumers hold regarding woo...

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 th...

Intermediaries can potentially help reduce institutional lock-ins that slow down sustainability transitions by influencing policy processes, because of their connectedness and often high level of legitimacy. In this paper, we analysed intermediaries seeking to accelerate the diffusion of wooden multi-storey construction (WMC) in Finland, their role...

Acknowledgement We are grateful to the following funding bodies; Academy of Finland (ORBIT project, 307480) and Finnish Innovation Agency Tekes (Grant 642/31/2016). We wish to thank the informants that participated in the data collection, and M.Sc. Juho Pöyhönen for his excellent research assistance. 2 Collaboration and shared logic for creating va...

In the urbanizing society faced with the climate change challenge, wood has major potential as a low-carbon and renewable construction material. Yet, Wooden Multi-storey Construction (WMC) remains a niche even in countries with rich forest resources. This paper compares the institutional and policy setting and assesses the WMC growth prospects in A...

As the construction sector continues to be associated with highly energy-intensive practices leading to excessive carbon emissions, governments in many countries are promoting a shift towards greener building practices, like the use of wood in multistory construction (WMC). Meanwhile, local-government actors (e.g., municipalities) often act as impo...

The rise of wooden multistory construction (WMC) in the Nordic countries has turned out to be the most evident construction-related new business opportunity in the emerging bioeconomy. Based on earlier literature, the future growth prospects for the rise of WMC are rooted in the concerns regarding environmental issues, as witnessed in a plethora of...

Consumers in today's world can perceive an additional benefit associated with responsible business practices and the sustainability of purchased products. However, in Scandinavian context, there is a lack of knowledge of consumer perceptions toward environmental and social sustainability of wood products. Our data on adult Finnish consumers (privat...

Product quality as perceived by consumers is studied with the use of empirical survey data on wooden flooring/panelling materials and on wooden furniture markets in Finland. The results indicate that consumers’ quality perceptions are consistent for the two product categories. Perceived product quality may be understood as a hierarchical structur...

Pellervon taloudellisen tutkimuslaitoksen työpapereita

Since 2000, the consumption of bioenergy in the European Union has grown, along with a concurrent growth in the trade of biomass for energy purposes (though traded volumes still remain small). Bioenergy production and trade will likely continue to increase into the future, driven by climate change concerns, emissions reduction targets, increasing c...

The research analyzes product quality from a customer perspective in the case of the wood products industry. Of specific interest is to understand better how environmental quality is perceived from a customer perspective. The empirical material used comprises four data-sets from Finland, Germany and the UK, collected during 1992 2004. The methods c...

EU targets and regulations regarding energy production and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions have been tightening in the 2000s. In Finland the targets are planned to be achieved mainly by increasing the use of biomass. Wood already accounts for a marked proportion of Finnish energy production, but additional reserves are still available. En...

Purpose – The existing literature emphasizes the strategic choices of core competencies/capabilities based on intangible and tangible resources, and the combination of these as the base for developing firm-level strategies. However, little is known about the organizational structure, strategic orientation, and future goals of woodworking firms in t...

In the European sawnwood markets, competition is tight between producer countries, with the new EU countries gradually gaining larger market shares. This paper focuses on the pass-through of sawnwood prices to supplier countries’ national roundwood prices. Price-change effects on market shares are known to be large, but not so much is known about t...

This paper investigates forest ownership objectives and the need for information among Estonian and Finnish private forest owners based on two surveys. The motivation for the analysis is the fragmenting private forest ownership in Europe. The broad lines of ownership objectives are found to be similar in both countries, and can be described under t...

2005. The competitive position of the Nordic wood industry in Germany – intangible quality dimensions. Silva Fennica 39(2): 277–287 This study examines the importance of various intangible product quality dimensions as perceived by wood-trading retailer and wholesaler companies in Germany. Using perceived importance and perceived performance, the s...

The growing wood industry in the Baltic sea area is discussed. Forestry and wood products industry in Finland, Swedan, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Germany and north-west part of the Russian Federation form the core of the forest sector in the Baltic Sea Area. Structure of wood and wood products markets in North Eastern Europe is going through signific...

This study examines quality dimensions of wood products, and compares wood and other construction materials with respect to those dimensions. Interviews conducted during 2000–2001 provide data from German companies or business units trading construction materials. Quality dimensions were analysed using factor analysis. Even though similarities can...

The study presents empirical testing of the law of one price (LOP) on the spatial roundwood markets formed by Austria, Finland and Sweden. Using annual delivery prices of pine and spruce sawlogs and pulpwood from 1980 to 1997, high positive correlation was found between prices in the three countries, in particular for pulpwood prices. The LOP seems...

In this study, price transmission from forest product export markets to roundwood markets is analysed in the three largest exporting countries of the EU (Finland, Sweden and Austria) and the two largest destination markets (the UK and Germany). The results confirm that roundwood price development is tied to the price development in forest product m...

Recent increases in pulpwood imports to Finland have raised an intense debate about their possible effects on the domestic wood markets. Since important institutional and structural changes in the market environment have taken place in the markets during the 1990s, it is important to take these into account in modelling imports. Our results conside...

Information technology (IT) may provide considerable benefits in marketing. However, successful use of IT requires the integration of marketing planning and IT planning. This presumes that: 1) the use of IT is guided by Information Systems Strategy; and 2) this strategy is reflected in the established information systems. In the Finnish forest indu...

This paper focuses on short rotation willows as a potential renewable energy source in Finland. The aim of the study was to evaluate the profitability of willow cultivation for energy production in Finland. The specific objective was to analyze the effects of selected cultivation costs, land rent, interest rate and subventions on the profitability...

Roundwood market integration of Finland is analysed by four wood assortments and four regions both in the short- and long-run. Using Johansen's multivariate cointegration tests and monthly stumpage prices for 1985-86, tests indicated full long-run market integration only in the case of pine sawlogs. Causation between regional wood prices mainly ori...

Finding new markets is particularly important to Finland's mechanical forest industry because of the oversupply of sawnwood and wood-based panels in Europe. China's rapid economic growth and its huge population make it an attractive export destination. The Finnish Forest Research Institute and the Pellervo Economic Research Institute (PTT) have com...

Helsinki, kesäkuu 2001 ISBN 952-5299-40-6 ISSN 1455-4623 *Pellervon taloudellinen tutkimuslaitos esittää lämpimät kiitokset tutkimusta kommentoineelle tutkimuspäällikkö Seppo Tuomelle (Työtehoseura) sekä tutkimusta rahoittaneelle Maaseutupo-litiikan yhteistyöryhmälle.

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