The promise of increased industry competitiveness through innovation has driven interest in innovation by industry managers, policy makers and academicians. Forest sector researchers have produced a strong body of work in recent years. This article provides a review of work originating in North America during the period 2000–2013. The review includes 28 journal articles focused on the forest sector in the U.S. and Canada. Seven important themes from the literature are identified and discussed: defining innovation and innovativeness; measuring innovativeness; factors influencing innovativeness; new product development; climate/culture; innovation systems; and innovativeness and firm performance. The positive culture and climate within a company has a clear connection to improved innovativeness and firm performance. Generally, findings describing the culture of the forest sector show a conservative group that fails to sufficiently invest in innovativeness and innovation. Culture change presents a significant opportunity within the industry to strive toward the improved development of new products, processes and business systems to reap the rewards of improved performance. The implications for managers and researchers are outlined.

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 systems as areas within which a firm can be innovative. Results also outline challenges that firms face as they attempt to become 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 competitiveness.

Purpose – From the standpoint of the future of corporate social responsibility, students' perceptions are an important research proposition. Several studies have been conducted to examine this phenomenon, yet sector-specific studies are rather scant. The primary purpose of this work is to examine students' perceptions regarding social responsibility in the context of the US forest products industry. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 257 graduate and upper level undergraduate students from Oregon State University and University of Montana, pursuing different academic majors, were surveyed to examine the differences in their perceptions of the US forest products industry's success in fulfilling its corporate social responsibilities. Findings – Results suggest that business and forest ecology/environmental science students were least satisfied with industry fulfilling its economic responsibilities. Regarding fulfillment of socio-environmental responsibilities, forest ecology/environmental science students were significantly less satisfied than any other study major. Additionally, a comparison between male and female students suggested that males and females have a similar level of satisfaction regarding industry fulfilling its economic responsibilities. However, males were found to be more satisfied with industry fulfilling its socio-environmental responsibilities than females. Research limitations/implications – Students for the study were not selected randomly and as such the results of the study can, at best, be considered indicative. Study findings have implications for academic curriculum designers as well as for industry policy makers. Originality/value – This is the first attempt to examine students' perceptions about the social responsibility success of the US forest products industry.