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China is a leading country in the production, consumption and exports of value-added wood products. Despite this fact, the sources of competitiveness and the existing strategies in the Chinese wood products companies have not been profoundly studied in an international context. The purpose of this paper is to fill these gaps by exploring managerial perceptions of these issues.

The theoretical ingredients originating from the value chain theory, functional upgrading, the dynamic capability perspective and the natural resource-based view were combined to explore the shift of business functions and sources of the firm-level competitiveness in the Chinese wood products companies. In the empirical part, data from qualitative semi-structured interviews made with 28 managers of seven companies in China based on the case study method were used.

Our results indicate a transition from non-branded manufacturing to original equipment manufacturing to original brand manufacturing business model. With this strategic transformation, the amount of resources and the relative importance of intangible resources increased and the nature of tangible resources also changed.

Chinese companies tend to shift from low-value-added to high-value-added products production. Our results are not only informative about the current situation of the Chinese wood products companies, but also can be used as a background for assessing the impact of China’s increasing competitiveness on the future international wood products market.

The dynamic capability perspective was incorporated in a new empirical approach to study the strategic management of woodworking industries, and our results provide new information on the importance of intangible resources for firm competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the content and determinants of voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures within chief executive officer (CEO) letters and social media tools.

Published CEO letters and the presence of global pulp and paper manufacturing companies in the social media in 2012 are analysed in this study using content analysis. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis is used to investigate the impact played by headquarter location, firm size and lagged profitability as a measure of slack resources on the quality of CSR disclosure.

Company size and slack resources were found to increase the quality of traditional sustainability communication, whereas company size was the only significant factor explaining communication quality in social media usage. Environmental issues were the most common disclosure topic, accompanied by community issues. A curvilinear association was interestingly found between slack resources and communication quality.

The sample frame was selected from the 100 largest pulp and paper companies globally, and for better generalization, future research should aim at also analyzing data from small and medium enterprises and from other industries.

Findings of the paper are useful for firm self-evaluation and benchmarking of disclosure activities by other businesses across the pulp and paper industry.

Slack company resources improve communication quality and the effective utilization of multiple channels.

This paper incorporates the framework of the new ISO 26000 standard in CSR implementation and illustrates the growing importance of social media in communicating CSR.

The purpose of this paper is to identify links between the components involved in ecodesign orientations (EDOs) and the integration of ecological criteria into Scandinavian wooden furniture industries. The purpose of identifying these links is to recognize possibilities and gaps in wooden furniture product development and branding opportunities to deepen customer engagement with the Scandinavian country-of-origin (COO) brand.

The application of ecodesign in Scandinavian wooden furniture industries was studied using survey data gathered from Nordic wood furniture designers. Factor analysis was used to identify the general types of Scandinavian design styles (SDSs) and EDOs implemented in the Scandinavian wooden furniture industry. The SDS and EDO impacts on the integration of ecological design criteria were modelled using logistic regression analysis.

The integration of ecological criteria by Nordic designers influences both the perspectives on material and process optimization and the end use of wooden furniture as well as the recycling of these products. In contrast, our results showed no statistical evidence of connections between different SDS types and the integration of ecological criteria in design. Recognition of special needs of customers valuing both high Scandinavian design and EDO could provide strategic opportunities for wooden furniture industries to recognize new global market potential and enhance their competitiveness.

Developing business opportunities for wooden furniture marketed under the Scandinavian COO brand, and forming a better understanding of customer expectations on the ecological information related to different wooden furniture SDS types, is needed. This would support developing new ecodesign strategies across the whole industry and enhancing value proposition of Scandinavian wooden furniture within different customer groups.

Research findings on the intersection of industrial brand design and ecodesign are still scarce, especially with a special focus on strategic management and sustainability marketing of companies. The results of our study provide entirely new insights on the topic especially in the context of Scandinavian wooden furniture industry.

The existing literature emphasizes the strategic choices of core competencies/capabilities based on intangible and tangible resources, and the combination of these as the base for developing firm‐level strategies. However, little is known about the organizational structure, strategic orientation, and future goals of woodworking firms in the East‐European countries in transition. This paper aims to produce information contributing to these information needs regarding Northwest Russia (NWR).

The largest potential increase in both production of and demand for wood products is in Russia, and this paper examines the issue in a case study of 18 small‐ and medium‐sized wood industry companies in NWR using thematic semi‐structured personal interviews.

The results indicate that closeness to the main markets, good logistics connections and access to large markets, i.e. other than raw‐material related factors, are the main perceived sources of competitive advantage among the Northwest Russian woodworking firms. Intangible resources are valued over tangible assets in case companies.

The companies target to shifting their production from commodity products, towards more specialized products and focusing on increasing the exports to the European Union. This is likely to intensify competition in the international markets for wood products in the future.

The paper provides new information about forest industry small and medium‐sized wood industry enterprises and their current business environment in NWR.

In this article, we situate organizational cynicism at the nexus of the related constructs of burnout, stress, and antisocial behavior. We expand Dean, Brandes, and Dharwadkar's (1998) notion of behavioral cynicism to include cynical humor and cynical criticism. We also propose that cynical behavior has important, non-linear effects on employee work performance. Finally, we suggest that cynical behavior may act as a coping mechanism for employees and that such behavior moderates the stress–performance relationship.

This study aims to understand New Zealand sheep farmers’ readiness toward sustainability transition by assessing their intentions of transition and adoption of sustainability tools, with information collection considered to mediate the intention–adoption relationship.

Based on the data collected from a survey of New Zealand sheep farmers in 2021, the empirical analysis was developed to investigate farmers’ perceptions of and attitudes toward readiness to move toward a sustainability transition. Structural equation modeling associated with principal component analysis was used to empirically test the theory of planned behavior constructs.

The results show that pressure from the public and the sheep industry, and the perceived controls of transition drive the intention of sustainability transition; farmers with higher intention of sustainability transition are found to be more likely to adopt sustainability tools. However, there is an attitude–behavior gap, wherein positive attitudes toward sustainability transition may not lead to a higher likelihood of adopting sustainability tools. There is no evidence of the mediating role of information collection on the intention–adoption relationship, while a positive effect was found in information collection on the adoption of sustainability tools.

The empirical evidence indicates that policymakers need to help increase the awareness of sustainable production and help farmers overcome barriers to achieving sustainable production by finding ways to turn intentions into adoption.

Being the first attempt to empirically assess farmers’ readiness toward sustainability transition, the study fills the gap of limited understanding of the link between sustainability transition intention and sustainable tools adoption in sustainability transition.

The purpose of the present study is to examine how perceived employability relates to job exhaustion, psychological symptoms and self‐rated job performance in involuntary and voluntary temporary employees compared to permanent employees.

The study is based on a cross‐sectional design using a sample of university teachers and researchers (n=1,014) from two Finnish universities. Of the sample, 40 percent (n=408) are permanent employees, 49 percent (n=495) involuntary and 11 percent (n=111) voluntary temporary employees. Most respondents (54 percent) have education above a Master's degree, the average age is 43 years, and 58 percent are women.

The results of general linear model analyses show that perceived employability promotes favorable outcomes among all respondents. However, the negative relationship between perceived employability and job exhaustion and psychological symptoms is stronger among voluntary than among involuntary temporary employees.

The study indicates that although perceived employability seems to be important to all employees, involuntary temporary employees benefit least from high perceived employability in terms of individual well‐being.