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The purpose of this paper is to understand better the formation of an industry and the movement toward agglomeration by examining the development of the furniture manufacturing industry of Western North Carolina and Virginia.

In this general review, the initiation and growth of the furniture industry is traced, applying the theory of agglomeration and noting isomorphic tendencies and the primacy of the search for legitimacy among constituents.

The paper finds first of all, the pioneering efforts of Thomas Wrenn in High Point brought the industry to the region. An initial wave of furniture manufacturers followed closely behind Wrenn as the industry gained legitimacy and status in North Carolina. Important elements in building the industry included the establishment of the Southern Furniture Manufacturers Association and the Southern Furniture Market in High Point. A second wave of furniture producers arrived on the scene after the First World War. This group benefited from cooperative actions of the survivors of the first wave and brought the Western North Carolina and Virginia area to the forefront of the furniture manufacturing industry in the USA. Finally, the paper comments on the current state of the industry in relation to the threat of foreign competition.

The furniture industry is not alone in the need to understand the impact of globalization. Practitioners and researchers alike should be aware of the costs to stakeholder groups, such as employees and local communities.

This study aims to create a system dynamics simulation model to forecast the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) if some decision-making is executed to reduce the negative of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In particular, this study will focus on SMEs that belong to the furniture industry because the furniture industry is one of the leading industries in Indonesia.

The study develops a system dynamics-based model by using three subsystems, i.e. the “production subsystem,” “demand and revenue subsystem” and “raw material (or wood supply) subsystem.”

The best scenario is the third scenario which increases the capacity to the normal situation and government subsidy during and after the pandemic. This scenario gives the best performance for industry revenue and gross domestic product (GDP). However, for the government, the most significant expenditure occurs in the third scenario. This seems a trade-off for the government whether to save the wooden-based furniture industry by encouraging the industry to continue operating during the pandemic accompanied by high subsidies or limiting the activities of the wooden-based furniture industry to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by providing low subsidies.

First, this study does not try to combine the system dynamics (SD) methodology with the other method or use a multi-methodology since SD has several limitations and the other method may have several advantages compared to SD. Second, the models used in this study do not consider the decline in forest area and quality. Third, the demand for wooden-based furniture is obtained from historical data on domestic and foreign sales and fourth, the model does not include the government budget as a constraint to make any subsidy to help the SMEs.

This study provides essential insights into implementing the policies in the world pandemic situation when SMEs face lockdown policy.

The study revealed that relevant policy scenarios could be built after simulating and analyzing each scenario's effect on SMEs' performance during the pandemic.

This study will enrich the previous study on the impact of the pandemic on SMEs and the dynamic system modeling on SMEs. The previous study discussed the pandemic's impact on SME performance and the impact's analysis in isolation from the dynamic nature of SME owners' decisions or government policy. In this study, the impact generated from the pandemic situation could be different depending on the decision and policies taken by managers from SMEs and the government.

The purpose of this paper is to implement the combined approach of Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and system dynamic (SD) for examining the impacts of several elements on the implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices in the furniture industry concerning the amount of wood waste resulted and the demand of wood materials.

The paper develops an SD-based model by using four approaches, i.e., “demand of furniture”, “raw material”, “revenue of furniture industry” and “the implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices”.

The simulation results have shown that the best conditions occur in the fourth scenario or a combined scenario. This scenario can guarantee a decrease in need of wood and discarded wood waste due to the use of wood waste for raw material by some industries. This scenario can thus increase the share of wood waste used as raw materials.

The first limitation of this study is on the calculation of the amount of wood, which has used the data of wood products obtained from the Central Java Provincial Agency of the Environment and Forestry. This calculation has not taken into account the forest area degradation. Second, the demand for furniture has been converted from the historical data of domestic and foreign sales. Third, the model used in this study has not considered the decrease of the production cost and the increase of the profit gained by the wooden furniture small- and medium-sized enterprises that use the wood waste as part of their raw material.

This research provides essential insights into the context of implementing the policies to increase the implementation of GSCM practices.

This research can make a difference in two aspects. First, it has tested policies, not in isolation. It has simultaneously tested various combinations of policies because the furniture industry can be seen as a system with complex relationships among the elements. Second, this study can broaden scientific insights related to the use of the DEMATEL method in the SD methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how firms achieve competitiveness by implementing design-driven innovation.

This paper is a detailed longitudinal analysis of the design innovation underpinning the Norwegian furniture industry. Using a data set spanning 40 years (1976-2015) of design patents by both Norwegian firms and inventors, the authors map the coinventor connectivity of the design-innovation clusters of Norway, both within the country and with foreign locations.

Using network analysis, the authors find that most of the rise of co-inventor connectivity within Norwegian furniture industry’s design innovation is occurring within the country. More surprisingly, the leading firms and star inventors are less likely to collaborate internationally, i.e. they are characterized by greater innovative “lock-in”.

The exploration of all the potential reasons for the “lock-in” in design innovation of the Norwegian furniture industry is beyond the scope of this paper. A particularly interesting avenue for future research would be to compare the coinventor connectivity of traditional sectors like furniture with more high technology sectors within Norway.

By assessing a detailed and historical context of the evolution of Norwegian furniture industry, the paper provides a fairly comprehensive study of design innovation as a source of firms’ competitiveness, which has been rarely explored. The authors suggest that innovative “lock-in” may be more likely to arise in the traditional sectors of an economy and the forces may be particularly strong for those firms and individuals that have the highest domestic connectedness and status.

The purpose of this paper is to report on how foresight methods are being used to address a “wicked problem” for the global furniture industry: “What are we going to do in the furniture industry in high cost countries (HCC) to maintain our future competitiveness with respect to the competition coming from low cost countries?”

This study explores one sectorial initiative, CEFFOR® (Furniture Foresight Centre, headquarters in Valencia, Spain), that attempts to mitigate the negative impact of globalisation on the competitiveness of the furniture industry in HCCs, by creating a vision of a preferable future through the use of a set of qualitative foresight tools (structural analysis, morphological analysis/field anomaly relaxation, and cross impact analysis) involving a worldwide expert panel.

This paper examines the set‐up phase of the CEFFOR initiative, and describes the main elements of the morphological space developed to profile possible future configurations of the global furniture industry. Future papers will report on further model development and the subsequent take‐up of this work.

The approach used could be adapted to a variety of other industrial sectors. While this study examines a traditional industrial sector, there is no conceptual limitation on its use in other sectors, although such adaptation should clearly remain alert to the unique aspects of any industry.

The novelty of this initiative is the application of a normative foresight approach in a traditional industrial sector in order to generate a shared vision of a sustainable future, and to integrate this foresight approach with an existing business intelligence system.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how human and social capital assist in the development of clustered and non‐clustered firms in the wooden furniture industry in Sri Lanka. The study resulted in three major findings: the most experienced and educated entrepreneurs played an important role to secure their market introducing brand name for the product; human capital acquired through formal education and experience is highly significant for the performance of clustered firms than that of non‐clustered firms; and irrespective of clustered or non‐clustered, performance of the firms in the wooden furniture industry in Sri Lanka is significantly relying on social capital.

Both cross‐sectional and time series data of 96 active firms related to the wooden furniture industry in Sri Lanka are used in this study. The data were collected through questionnaires which were distributed by visiting wooden furniture firms in Sri Lanka in the year 2010. To test the hypotheses, two dependent variables, namely, brand name dummy and the size of the firm (in value added revenue) were used.

The number of years of schooling of the managers and their operational experience within their own business have a positive and highly significant effect on the introduction of a brand name for the products in both type of wooden furniture firms (clustered and non‐clustered). Formal education and prior work experience as managers are more significant in the case of clustered wooden furniture firms than non‐clustered firms.

The author visited these firms personally and interviewed the managers. From this, the author tried to see how both human and social capital contribute to the firms' performance. According to the author's knowledge, this type of study has never been done before in Sri Lanka.

The purpose of this paper is to address financial decision support for marketers and provide suggestions for improvement potentials.

The context is the Norwegian furniture and fishing industries. The samples consisted of 118 respondents, 69 from the fishing industry and 49 from the furniture industry, with an average response rate of 33 per cent. Respondents reported on six groups of marketing costs, gave an overall evaluation of their existing and potential management accounting systems and of the systems' existing and potential decision support in nine marketing decision areas.

Marketing costs represented 8.9 per cent of total revenues in the fishing industry and 16.2 per cent in the furniture industry. The difference can be attributed to items that resulted in revenue reductions and promotional costs. Both industries showed significant potential for improvements in management accounting systems. Priorities regarding the nine decision support areas differed between the two industries. Additionally, priorities in the fishing industry seemed to differ regarding time horizons (short‐ versus long‐term).

While the discussion was based on a survey representing 55 per cent of the total turnover for the fishing industry and 40 per cent for the furniture industry, the findings cannot be considered valid in other contexts. Thus other studies are welcomed.

The findings suggest a need to be fairly familiar with business contexts when preparing a management accounting system. Therefore marketers should become involved and make substantial contributions when any system is developed. At a minimum, marketers should ensure that necessary decision‐relevant information is made easily available.

Few studies have focused on the cost and profitability aspects of marketing.

To demonstrate the linkage between Porter's cluster theory and supply chain management, and provide evidence of their potential joint positive impact on competitiveness and firm performance.

The paper examines the linkage between cluster theory and supply chain management using data from a case study of the Amish furniture industry in Homes County, Ohio, USA.

Using the Amish furniture industry and a representative furniture firm as examples, the paper shows the positive impact of operating within an integrated supply chain in a geographically concentrated cluster.

Use of a single case study approach limits the generalizability of the findings; the paper recommends further study of linkages in other industries and locations.

The study suggests that firms build competitive advantage by initially focusing primarily on local resources when selecting supply chain partners, rather than looking only for low cost advantage through distant sourcing.

This paper adds to the literature on business linkages by proposing an expanded definition of clusters as geographical concentrations of competing supply networks.

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.

First, this study aims to examine the level of implementation of lean manufacturing (LM) practices by the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the wooden furniture industry in Jepara. Second is to examine the impact of LM practices on operational performance (OP) and business performance (BP). Third is to examine the impact of LM practices on BP with OP as a mediating and moderating variable. OP is the quantifiable aspect of the process of an organisation, such as production cycle time, reliability and inventory turnover, whereas BP is usually related to the responsibility of the firms to their shareholders and has the goal of profit maximization.

This study used primary data collected through an offline questionnaire. The questionnaire was intended to identify the extent of the implementation of LM practices and the level of OP and BP achieved by SMEs. The LM practices consist of 6 dimensions with 26 indicators; OP, 4 dimensions with 11 indicators; and BP, 3 dimensions with 9 indicators. The data obtained from the questionnaire were processed via partial least squares (PLS) regression using the SmartPLS software. PLS is generally used to assess the extent to which LM practices predict values in OP and BP.

A total of 100 questionnaires were administered, of which 81% were properly filled, completed and returned. The result of the study confirms that LM practices should be applied collectively and comprehensively as each practice is interdependent. Moreover, it confirms that these practices have a direct effect on OP and BP and that OP can drive broader BP measures. Finally, the result confirms that these practices can improve BP indirectly with OP as a mediator variable. While the empirical evidence in this study supported the role of OP as a mediating variable between the implementation of LM practices and OB, it did not support the role of OP as a moderating variable.

First, it is arguable that LM practices, OP and BP are only measured by the Likert scale, which would likely create bias and inconsistency from the owners or managers of SMEs in expressing the level of LM practices and performances achieved by the SMEs in the wooden furniture industry. Future research may help establish qualitative approaches to better measure the LM practices as well as the OP and BP through observation and probing. Second, this study was limited geographically (limited to only the SMEs in the wooden furniture industry in Jepara and did not cover all regions in Central Java as well as in Indonesia). Therefore, a wider geographical area could be considered, including the other regions in Indonesia which also produce wooden furniture.

This study practically contributes to the LM body of knowledge by identifying the relationships among the LM practices, OP and BP in SMEs. Understanding these relationships will help the owner or managers of SMEs make better decisions in achieving the OP and BP. The owner or managers of SMEs who implement the LM practices individually may experience disappointing performance results as these practices should be applied collectively and comprehensively.

The LM practices may help the owners or managers of the SMEs to be competitive and achieve the optimum result.

This is the first known study that adopts the PLS framework to examine how OP measurement affects the relationship between the LM practices and BP in the case of the SMEs in Indonesia.