Product development in the sawmilling industry - drivers, obstacles and key success factors

Abstract

Although several wood industry experts advocate the need for more product development in the industry, few studies have investigated the actual product development process in this context. This explorative study investigates innovation, specifically product development, in the Swedish and Finnish Nordic pine sawmilling industry. The data consists of interviews with product development managers in 14 sawmilling companies, which were viewed by industry experts to have vast experience of product development. The results reveal that product development has a central role for competitive position and self-image of the companies. The study also identifies drivers and motives that underlie the innovation process, the structure of the product development process, key success factors and obstacles for product development. The results are applicable on industry, company and project-level

Keywords

innovation; product development; strategy; resource-based view; forest industry;

Published in

Scandinavian Forest Economics
2006, pages: 351-361 Title: SCANDINAVIAN FOREST ECONOMICS no. 41, 2006. Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Scandinavian Society of Forest Economics Uppsala, Sweden, 8th-11th May, 2006
Publisher: Scandinavian Society of Forest Economics

Conference

Biennial Meeting of the Scandinavian Society of Forest Economics

SLU Authors

• Stendahl, Matti

  • Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Roos, Anders

  • Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hugosson, Mårten

  • Department of Forest Products, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Social Sciences
Forest Science
Economics and Business


Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/9175