West Virginia's forest products industry (FPI) has long been viewed as an important industry to the state. However, there is a lack of recent data regarding the economic contribution of the industry to the state's economy. The housing market collapse of the mid-2000s, subsequent recession, continued increasing global competition, natural gas boom, and other macroeconomic trends have affected the FPI in the state. The continuing evolution of the state economy necessitates a reexamination of the role the FPI plays in the state. Thus, this article examines the historical contribution of the FPI to West Virginia's economy using 2006, 2010, 2015, and 2017 data. Both the direct and total economic contributions of the industry substantially declined from 2006 to 2010. The largest declines were experienced in the secondary solid-wood products and wood furniture sectors. Between 2010 and 2015, the industry's direct and total contributions rose for all measures evaluated. Between 2015 and 2017, all measures of direct and total contributions of the industry also increased but at a much slower pace and remained lower than 2006 levels. The inability of the FPI in the state to return to 2006 levels of direct contributions suggests that long-term industry trends such as the continued offshoring of value-added forest products sectors and increased industry automation are still putting negative pressure on direct industry growth. Additionally, the industry is facing new challenges such as uncertainty about the future availability of the foreign markets and competition for resources from emerging industries.
Understanding the economic value of marine sanctuaries such as the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) is important to justify public and private investments and to provide information to support management activities and understand their role in the nation’s blue economy. Very few studies have employed economic contribution analysis in examining economic value, even though it is more useful in influencing the behaviors of decision makers. This study therefore employs such a methodology to determine the economic importance of tourism and visitor spending in the sanctuary to Monroe County, Florida’s economy. Visitors who came to the area for ocean recreation and tourism spent a total of USD 1.7 billion, which translates to a contribution of 19,688 total jobs, USD 752 million in total labor income, USD 1.2 billion in total value added, and USD 2 billion in total output to the region. With regard to the spending of snorkelers and divers only, total spending is about USD 1.07 billion, contributing about 12,441 total jobs, USD 466 million in total labor income, USD 767 million in total value added, and USD 1.2 billion in total output. Ocean recreation is therefore an important economic driver in the region and efforts should be directed at protecting the diverse and sensitive ecosystem of the sanctuary.
As a result of the rise of the digital market, social media has emerged as one of the most popular marketing tools. Consumers today increasingly rely on social media when shopping, and thus it can influence consumer behavior and purchasing decisions. Similarly, a growing number of wood products companies are using a variety of social media approaches for their marketing efforts as they seek to remain competitive in the digital marketplace. Although previous studies have examined social media use by wood products companies, none have examined social media use by wood products consumers. Wood products companies can design more effective social media marketing efforts if they understand the decision process of potential customers with regards to social media. Thus, a survey was conducted in 2017 to investigate factors affecting social media adoption among wood products consumers in the U.S. in the context of private social media use or business-to-consumers (B2C) context. The results show that social media adoption by consumers is influenced by the ease of use and perceived usefulness of social media, product characteristics, demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income) and situational factors (e.g., community type). Understanding the factors that motivate wood products consumers' social media adoption is important when developing and designing social media marketing strategies that target consumers' needs.
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