Abstract
New innovations are called for to renew the European forest sector into bioeconomy. However, little research exists on how the industry innovativeness is publicly perceived. Using data collected with an online questionnaire in four European countries, we investigate perceptions related to forest sector innovations on 13 current and new bioeconomy-related products and services. Altogether, 218 valid responses were received in 2015, and the data were analysed using descriptive statistics, performance-importance analysis, and Gartner’s innovation hype cycle. Based on our results, the respondents were in the strongest agreement that the forest sector has since the year 2000 has produced innovations related to wood building systems, construction materials, and wood composites. In the next 15 years, they foresaw a decline in innovations related to biofuels and paper products. The European forest sector also has future potential in wood construction, which is likely related to international policy targets related to carbon mitigation and capture. The observed variation in perceptions among the respondents on forest sector innovativeness calls for strengthening industry R&D, as well as by improving societal awareness of ongoing innovation projects by developing better communication.
Highlights
A creative destruction is expected to take place in the forest sector with many products maturing and factors for competitiveness changing [1]
To contribute to the scarce literature on forest bioeconomy from an innovations perspective, we aim to investigate perceptions in four European Union member countries related to forest sector innovation and innovativeness
The majority of the respondents originate from four forestry rich European countries namely, Austria, Finland, Germany, and Slovenia
Summary
A creative destruction is expected to take place in the forest sector with many products maturing and factors for competitiveness changing [1]. New innovations are clearly needed to renew the traditional wood, pulp, and paper industry sector into bioeconomy. According to the definition of the European Commission [2], bioeconomy constitutes “ . The European commission blueprint [3] underlines the importance of stimulating sectoral transition with radical innovations, structural adaptation, and increasing efficiency in material and energy use towards zero-waste production to allow sustainable market growth both. The bioeconomy era offers many opportunities for holistic development of the forest sector through the intelligent use of biomass, as well as through developing innovations related to the entire spectrum of forest ecosystem services [4]
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