Identifying The Relevance Of Family Forest Wood Product Origin And Environmental Certification For Oregon Consumers And Specifiers And Industrial Customers

The wood products industry is influenced heavily by family ownership along the entire value chain. Although family ownership affects each link of the wood products value chain, there has been little research into the importance of products originating from family forestland. Specific attributes of products, such as origin or environmental certification, have been considered part of a business's marketing strategies. This study evaluates the relevance of family forest wood product origin and environmental certification for Oregon consumers who participated in this study and Oregon specifiers and industrial customers. Data was collected from consumers, and specifiers and industrial customers in Oregon. Conjoint analysis was employed with softwood lumber as the product and price, wood origin, and environmental certification as the features. Results from this analysis for consumers show that wood origin is the most important factor followed by price and environmental certification. However, for specifiers and industrial customers, price is the most important factor followed by environmental certification and wood origin. "Family" is seen as the most preferred wood origin level for both buyer groups in the study.