Little is known about what the public thinks of tall wood buildings (TWBs), which are structures made primarily from wood that are at least five stories tall. Understanding end-user beliefs can help the industry address public preferences and concerns. An online panel of 502 residents in the Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, metropolitan areas showed that only 19 percent were familiar with TWBs. The largest percentages of respondents believed that, compared with concrete and steel buildings, TWBs are more aesthetically pleasing, create a positive living environment, and use materials that regrow. However, they also believed that TWBs have greater fire risk and need more maintenance. Sizable percentages of respondents said they did not know about various durability, performance, aesthetic, and environmental attributes of TWBs. There were few meaningful differences between respondents who reported being familiar and unfamiliar with TWBs, but those who were familiar evaluated TWBs slightly more positively.
Increasing gender diversity is no longer just the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do. Although there is general literature about gender diversity and the perspectives of females in top management and leadership, there are, however, very few forest sector specific studies. This exploratory study utilizes interviews to better understand how female executives in North America and the Nordic countries of Finland and Sweden perceive the impact of the situation of gender diversity in the forest industry. Respondents also provide career advice for young females entering or considering entry into the industry. Female executives in both regions agree that although the forest sector is still seen as a male-oriented industry, there are signs of increasingly positive attitudes regarding industry and company culture towards the benefits of greater gender diversity; however, the described changes represent an evolution, not revolution. Interestingly, despite the status of Nordic countries as leaders in bridging the gender gap, respondents from this region believe that there is significant progress yet to be made in the forest industry, especially at the entry level. With respect to career development, North American respondents suggested that young females should consider sacrificing their social life and leisure time activities, whereas Nordic respondents instead emphasized personal supports or using exit strategy from an unsupportive company or boss.
Abstract:The extant literature concerned with enhancing competitiveness of forest sector companies has focused on phenomena rather than people who would drive those phenomena. Generally, human resource management research is sparse in the forest sector literature, despite well-documented knowledge that companies succeed more because of their people than because of any other factor. This article brings human resource issues to the core conversation in forest sector competitiveness research. Specifically, we focus on the link between gender diversity in top leadership and firm financial performance and suggest pathways to improve workforce diversity. The timing of our study is fortuitous, as the graying workforce in the sector will create space for a new generation of leaders. Our argument is that diversity issues should be more proactively addressed in forest sector workforce recruitment not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because it has an underlying business case. This is an exploratory study, which is a first step in paving the way for future work on diversity management among forest sector companies. Our findings suggest that more gender diverse top management teams are associated with higher financial performance but that the level of gender diversity in boards of directors has no association with financial performance.Key words: diversity, financial performance, forest industry, gender diversity, human resources management, workforce diversity.Résumé : La littérature existante qui porte sur l'amélioration de la compétitivité des entreprises du secteur forestier traite surtout des phénomènes plutôt que des personnes responsables de ces phénomènes. Même en général, la recherche sur la gestion des ressources humaines est peu abondante dans la littérature qui porte sur le secteur forestier, même s'il est bien connu que le succès des entreprises est davantage dû à leur personnel qu'à n'importe quel autre facteur. Cet article place la question des ressources humaines au centre des préoccupations de la recherche sur la compétitivité dans le secteur forestier. Nous avons spécifiquement mis l'accent sur le lien entre la diversité des genres chez la haute direction et la performance financière de l'entreprise et nous suggérons des façons d'améliorer la diversité de la main-d'oeuvre. Notre étude arrive au bon moment étant donné que le vieillissement de la main-d'oeuvre dans le secteur va ouvrir la porte à une nouvelle génération de dirigeants. Nous croyons que la question de la diversité devrait être abordée de façon plus proactive dans le recrutement de la main-d'oeuvre du secteur forestier, non seulement parce que c'est la bonne chose à faire mais aussi parce qu'il y a un enjeu commercial sous-jacent. Il s'agit d'une étude exploratoire qui constitue un premier pas ouvrant la voie au travail à venir sur la gestion de la diversité dans les entreprises du secteur forestier. Nos résultats indiquent que les équipes de dirigeants les plus diversifiées en termes de genres sont associées à une meilleure p...
Although thermal modification is primarily used to improve wood durability, it also has a tendency to darken lighter colored hardwoods to make them more valuable. This process might also be useful for darkening softwoods, but it will be important to develop colors that customers prefer. One potential species for this application is Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Consumer preferences for differing degrees of thermal modification (i.e. darkening) were assessed using a convenience sampling survey at a Home Show in Eugene, Oregon. Respondents provided demographic information then ranked five thermally modified samples with widely differing degrees of darkening based on their most to least preferred colors. The lightest colored sample was most preferred; however, the darkest sample was the second most preferred. There were no preference differences for samples in between the extremes, suggesting that there is some latitude with regard to color that could be used to differentiate modified Douglas-fir from other products.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.