Search results

This paper aims to discuss some of the findings of an ongoing “Green & Smart Furniture” (GSF) research project. It actually focuses on third-age consumers’ behavior and interest in purchasing smart and eco-friendly wooden furniture, providing some critical implications for the successful design and production of GSF products in the framework of innovation and differentiation.

The methodology is based on empirical data gathered from consumer research across Greece. The target group for “smart and eco furniture”, under the context of the present research, has to do with the third age, following the claims of many researchers that market orientation is essential for innovation success.

The present research promotes the development of innovation for furniture manufacturing industries, opening a new pathway in confronting the difficulties and strong competition. Firms should redesign their strategy, focusing on differentiation by including innovative products in their portfolio with high added value.

The present research is a prototype for the Greek and European furniture market, one designed to answer certain relevant questions regarding the drivers of innovation for the specific sector and the specific target group.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the viability of the ecological furniture niche markets in Greece and Cyprus. More specifically, the authors investigate the current demand on ecological furniture, business strategy and planning in introducing eco-furniture products in Greek and Cypriot market. Finally, particular emphasis lays on the analysis of the barriers regarding decision making of Greek and Cypriot enterprises in order to incorporate ecological furniture into their current activities.

Based on three distinguished hypotheses, the study seeks to draw attention to the critical factors which will impact decision making on such products development within the severe crisis. Using a prototype questionnaire, specifically structured for the aim of the research, the authors collected data from 36 Greek furniture enterprises, 25 Cypriot ones and 24 sectoral experts and relevant institutes in Greece and Cyprus. The questionnaires were selected in 2012, which were further elaborated and statistically analyzed with SPSS ver 17.0 after they were tested for their content and construct validity, managing to verify the hypotheses.

The study reveals an increasing sensitivity for environmental issues and an effort to combine it with the emergent green markets. Green strategies can lead to significant competitive advantages for Greek and Cypriot furniture firms, especially after the recovery of the long-lasting recession. Furniture manufacturers believe that environmental issues are tightly related to consumer behaviors and social image, expose a real interest for the environment and consider green strategies as a major way to differentiate. The firms of the sample focus on raw material and processes adapted to suit environmental requirements. On the other hand, these issues constitute major barriers to apply such strategies together with business risk and the lack of knowledge regarding the requirements of environmental sustainability.

The research bears certain limitations such as the sample size and the fact that results are based mainly on perceptions of entrepreneurs/managers. Thus, there are certain questions on objectivity and generalizability. Furthermore, the market aspect is examined through the lens of the entrepreneurs and experts and not the consumers themselves.

The present research explores the why and how furniture companies turn green constituting a useful basis to encourage close collaborations of companies to academia, design and research centers introducing eco-friendly practices and relevant innovations. It contributes to the field of sustainable entrepreneurship and the micro-level understanding of micro- and small companies’ reaction to this phenomenon focussing on the furniture industry. It can act as a catalyst toward the development of extensive networking among the furniture sector in both countries, which assists the diffusion of information as well as of a pertinent culture on eco-products and the development of new business models in the sector.

A major contribution is that it can constitute a useful basis for policy makers at governmental and institutional level in both Greece and Cyprus to propose solutions to critical issues such as sector survival, crisis – survival, unemployment, along with environmental care and awareness. It can further encourage close collaborations of companies to academia, design and research centers for the sustainable development of the sector through eco-friendly practices and relevant innovations.

The research is the first to question the significance of eco-conscious strategies for furniture firms at national level in Greece and Cyprus. It seems that it has indirectly contributed to eco-furniture culture development, since it has caused a fruitful brainstorming among sectoral entrepreneurs and offers solutions to the existing “cul-de-sac.”

The study aims to analyse the wood and furniture innovation system in the region of Thessaly, Greece, and the recording and benchmarking of innovative activity of enterprises in order to detect best practices applied, and to propose ways of increasing efficiency through improvement of the use of innovation inputs.

Following the systemic approach, an empirical study registers the economic dimension of innovation in the enterprises of the sector in the region. The data collection is based on the Oslo manual. Based on data envelopment analysis, a benchmarking analysis of wood and furniture firms was applied by measuring the efficiency of both innovation inputs and the sector's innovation system.

Efforts have to be made to import innovation into the production process by means of investment in technological equipment. Generally, an increase in innovation performance incurs an increase in sales. The efficiency of the innovation system is evaluated as adequate when the majority of firms apply innovation inputs satisfactorily. However, there is additional margin for improvement regarding R&D, staff training and the diffusion of innovation. The analysis of the innovation system at the sector level in the region may lead to a better innovation‐oriented policy and decision making.

The study provides useful data concerning innovation in the sector, and the efficiency analysis proposes a benchmarking tool in order to set margins for business operation improvement.

Industries struggle to strengthen their competitiveness in global markets. The findings show the absence of a strategy in the wood and furniture sector with regard to innovation, and utilization of the relative expenditures.

The present study expands on previous research and knowledge, offering a profound analysis of the effects and improvement of innovative activity in the wood and furniture sector. It is a prototype research paper in Greece in relation to innovative activity in this sector.

The purpose of this paper is to study the possibility of promoting certified timber coming from sustainable managed forests, in order to support Greek enterprises and the institutions of the Greek timber sector involved to apply effective green marketing methods and policies.

Based on a prototype questionnaire, specifically structured for the aim of the research, 55 responses were collected from Greek timber enterprises in April 2009. The questionnaires were processed and analyzed with the statistical program SPSS of ver17.0, using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The main purpose was the investigation of knowledge, use and promotion of certified timber that emanates from forests under sustainable management, thus planning the green marketing.

The Greek enterprises of the timber sector expressed a great interest in the protection of forests all over the world, ranging from illegal loggings to their rational management. At the same time, in their overwhelming majority, they strongly support the certification of the sustainable management of Greek forests. These enterprises believe that the movement of green buildings has also reached Greece, albeit at a slow pace, and forecast that green consumers are prone to offer an additional percentage of about 6 per cent on price, in order to buy certified timber products. Companies trust to a high degree most institutions of higher education (universities and technological institutions) for the promotion of certified timber products and propose their publicity through newspapers and magazines, as well as through internet portals of close contact. Finally, the paper discusses reflections and forecasts on the growth of this new market of timber.

The results offer precious knowledge on the market of certified timber and its future developments in the following five years, which can assist both enterprises and the institutions involved in strategy forming and decision making, in order to gain an important share of the market of green consumers. The paper also proposes effective green marketing applications.

This is the first research on green marketing and the promotion of certified products of timber in the Greek market, while similar work is very limited even at an international level.