Editorial team:
Gerhard Weiss and Alice Ludvig (Austria), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and European Forest Institute, gerhard.weiss@boku.ac.at
Eric Hansen, eric.hansen@oregonstate.edu
Anne Toppinen, anne.toppinen@helsinki.fi
Erlend Nybakk, Erlend.Nybakk@kristiania.no
Keywords
Innovation governance, innovation support, innovation policy, institutional innovation, social innovation, new products development, service innovation, new business models, design thinking, consumer-oriented innovation, open innovation, role of innovation systems and networks, sustainability innovations, bio-economy
ABSTRACT
Thematical scope/issues:
Innovation in the forest sector is a growing research interest since a bit more than one decade (Rametsteiner and Weiss 2006; Weiss et al. 2011). Various types and aspects of innovation have been tackled – ranging from new goods and services to process, marketing and organisational innovations and institutional and policy aspects. Institutional aspects and the question how to support innovativeness in the sector are a growing interest. Consequently, interdisciplinary views and systemic or integrated models of innovation gain importance in researching innovation. There is also the need to integrate recent developments in innovation research from outside forestry into the sector.
There are growing global economic and ecological challenges for the sector and the rising political awareness gives impetus for innovations (Pätäri et al. 2016). From a sectoral perspective, the emergence of bioeconomy as a paradigm and a highly complex policy area acts as a driver for a renewal of the forest sector business and innovations of different are needed in this renewal process (e.g. Winkel 2017).
This special issue therefore focuses on governance aspects, relating to and bridging business and policy levels. It is interested in empirical research from around the globe and from all relevant business fields, including forest management and operations, timber and non-timber products and ecosystem services and all established and emerging new forest-based value chains. It aims to present the newest approaches to innovation and innovation research and aims to look at innovation in the forest sector from multiple perspectives, including broader aspects of innovation such as the role of forest owners, institutions and consumers, international dimensions of innovation, or the role of sustainability as a driver of innovations.
Timeline
Publication of Special Issue call: February 1, 2019
Deadline for submission: April 30, 2019
Envisaged publication of SI: February 2020