Consumers’ perceptions on the properties of wood affecting their willingness to live in and prejudices against houses made of timber

ABSTRACT

Multi-storey wood building (MSWB) provides options to enhance sustainable development. Despite this, no comprehension exists on how consumer perceptions differ regarding (1) willingness to live in modern houses made of timber or (2) prejudices against living in houses made of wood, although they play important role in marked demand of MSWB. In this research, views of consumers on the benefits of wood from technological, ecological, social and economic perspectives are being studied. The material of the study is based on data gathered in June–July 2018 by a postal survey sent for 1000 people living in Finland with a response rate of 25.6%. According to the factor analysis results, there are two main consumer categories based on their perceptions on sustainability benefits of wood, i.e. the ones favouring ecological and physio-technological benefits of wood and the ones favouring aesthetic and well-being benefits of wood. Additionally, according to binary regression analysis results, they differ from each other in their willingness to live in wooden houses and in their prejudices against the appropriateness of wood as a structural material. The results emphasize the need for deepening the understanding of the sustainability issues affecting the acceptability of wood among different types of consumers.

KEYWORDS:

• Multivariate methods
• market diffusion
• business development
• wood building
• marketing and management
• communication

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the stakeholders who contributed the questionnaire preparation, and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful for the funding provided by The Ministry of the Environment (Finland) Wood Building Programme [Project number DNRO YM372/612/2017].