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.

This study examines the relationships between firm financial performance and a) the climate for innovation and b) innovation strategy in the wood products industry. The focus is on the moderator effects of firm size, country of operation, and industry sector. Using a sample of 460 responses from chief executive officers and top managers of Norwegian and US firms, we conducted a regression analysis to probe for interaction effects. The sample included primary and secondary manufacturers of various sizes. Consistent with previous studies, we found a positive impact for both a climate for innovation and an innovation strategy on firm performance. In terms of moderation, only one interaction was found to be significant, representing a moderator effect of industry size on the climate-performance relationship. Further testing showed that secondary, large manufacturers exhibited a weaker, yet still positive, relationship between climate for innovation and performance. This low level of significant interactions suggests stability of the relationship among the main factors depicted in the model, with important implications for managers and future research. These findings indicate that a positive climate for innovation and a management committed to innovation through an innovation strategy have a positive effect on the bottom line of wood products firms. This effect holds true regardless of industry, size, or country, so most firms can benefit from the implementation of these pro-innovation practices.

A fast-growing global population, increasing urbanization, and an increasing flow of people with different building cultural backgrounds bring material use in the housing sector into focus. The aim of this study is to identify material preferences in the building environment in cities and to determine if the building cultural background impacts those preferences. The data in this study consisted of responses from two groups of dwellers in Norway, including immigrants from countries where wood is an uncommon building material and native Norwegians from a building culture where wood is common. We found that the most preferred materials were often the same as the most common materials currently used in city buildings. Only small differences were found between the two groups of dwellers that were studied. Most differences were related to concerns about material choice in general and where individuals wanted to live. Respondents who preferred city living preferred commonly used city materials, such as concrete and steel. For cladding materials, stone/bricks were the most preferred. However, stained or painted wood was one of the most preferred, even though it is not commonly used in city buildings.