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Abstract

With the development of finished houses in China supported by the government, housing developersplay a critical role in the purchase of flooring products. On the other hand, wood flooringmanufacturers know the importance of forest certification for export, but pay less attention to thedomestic market. This study evaluated both housing developers’ and wood flooring manufactures’perceived benefits of forest certification in China, using a survey. For manufacturers, the three mostimportant benefits of adopting forest certification were to “meet foreign customers’ purchasingrequirements,” “support sustainable forestry and protect the environment,” and “meet corporatesocial responsibility goals.” For housing developers, the most important benefits of using certifiedflooring were to “acquire new consumers from domestic market (e.g., green consumer),” “achieveproduct differentiation,” and “brand the house with high-end image.” The largest perception gapbetween the two groups of respondents was with respect to “gain financial aids (e.g., tax and loan).”The findings suggest that there is an increasing demand for forest certified products from housingdevelopers in China, which requires manufacturers to enhance their marketing strategies to meetthe domestic demands for certified flooring.