Oregon's forest product industry continues to be the nation's number one
producer of wood products. The forest products industry contributes significantly
to Oregon's economy. Changes in timber supply, land use policy, technology,
and product demand create significant impacts on the region. The activities of
the wood products industry translate into...
The wood-based building products industry has experienced significant turbulence over the past several decades as a function of multiple forces including among others globalization, product and process innovation, and shifting customer and consumer interest and demands. Collectively, these changes have challenged the historical tenets which have defined industry strategy and...
During the last five years, interest in productivity-based group incentive plans for mill operations in the forest products industry has increased. In a 1983 monograph in this series titled "Company /Employee Gainsharing Programs," Michael B. McKay anticipated this trend. In that monograph, he defined "gainsharing" as a "group incentive plan."...
The development of a market for currently non-merchantable forest material, such as harvest residues of tops and limbs of trees or small diameter trees, has been suggested as a possible win-win solution that could: (i) provide a financial incentive to help motivate treatments to reduce wildfire risk or restore forest...
Export-oriented illegal logging has been recognized as a major global problem in environmental, social, and economic terms. It has been argued that export-oriented illegal logging does not benefit the community or government that should be benefited by its own natural resources. The emergence of policy initiatives targeting illegal logging could...
This study considered regional forest policies for sequestering carbon in existing
forests in western Oregon. A model of log markets in western Oregon was employed to
examine the impacts of forest policy changes on future carbon stock, harvests, and
management activities. A carbon tax program, as a mitigation option for...
In recent years, economic, social, technological, and environmental changes have all imposed challenges on forest-based communities. This has revived interest in studying these communities to understand their ability to tackle these challenges. This study is built around a case study of an industrial forest-based community and aims at characterizing the...
Small landowners in the state of Oregon find it difficult to be competitive with larger companies to provide traditional forest products to consumers. Additionally, many landowners hope to be profitable from their land, but are not necessarily interested in or have the capability to harvest large tracts of timber. Specialty...
To address aggressive global competition, retain customers and increase revenue, firms are required to pursue New Product Development (NPD) projects. Ventures of this nature are risky and fail often. Numerous factors influence the survival of a project. In this research, 16 factors have been identified and selected as indicators of...
This dissertation addresses issues concerning the behavior of firms, which has significant effects on performance. In the first study, we empirically investigate the effect of the reduction in number of firms on price competition in the U.S. macro-brewing industry. The number of macro brewing firms decreased from 766 in 1935...
These changes aren’t characteristic of only large
companies. Entrepreneurs and small companies are seeing
the same kinds of changes. Yet, most companies have not made
the internal changes needed to address and more effectively
embrace these important changes.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as companies acting in accordance with societal demands. In recent years, CSR has gradually become a leading issue in business. Heightened corporate attention to CSR has not been entirely voluntary. Many companies awoke to it only after being surprised by public response to...
This dissertation addresses three topics on information economics. Generally, information is not perfect or costless as classical economics assumes. Thus, a consumer searches information at his cost or a seller provides information at his cost. First, chapter 2 presents a theoretical model where a consumer searches for local brand information....
The objective of this monograph is to illustrate how the elements of an investment analysis are brought together to form a basis for sound decisions on new plant investments. These elements include financial analysis, raw material analysis, and market analysis.
The financial analysis consists of determining the initial investment required...
With growing concerns on environment impact of industrial product development, the product developers are seeking better solutions to achieve desired environmental benign requirements by the regulators and customers besides economic growth. During the last decade, some of the most successful product development companies (such as HP) have established their own...
You can enhance your sales success significantly by better
understanding your own personality and style of selling
as well as the personality and buying styles of your customers.
This understanding can provide you with strategies for
approaching, and selling to, different buyer types.
The study of highlead logging operations through the use of
statistical models is investigated, and their potential use for estimating
and control of operations examined.
During the preliminary phases of the study 16 work elements
and 26 influencing variables are identified and measurement criteria
developed for each. A coding system...
Old-growth forests provide an important resource in terms of both
timber and non-timber values. Northwest Oregon represents an area
where this resource is scarce and options for preserving old-growth
habitat are limited. This study identifies the old-growth resource on
public lands within the area, suggests a range of preservation
alternatives...
The objective of this study was to measure the consequences of alternative
forest management intensification programs. These consequences
include future harvest levels, silvicultural labor and capital
requirements, and the income and employment generated directly and indirectly.
The system utilizes the Timber Resource Economic Estimation
System (TREES) model, a harvest scheduling...
A descriptive model of community stability is developed which
can be used to gauge the achievement of community stability in
federal sustained yield units. Community stability is defined which
provides the framework on which the model was created.
The achievement of the four goals of the 1944 Sustained Yield
Act...
To abstract the fundamental market structures of stumpage sold from the Siuslaw National Forest, a three-equation structural model with different assumptions on private cut was empirically derived. Under the private cut price-fixed assumption, the structural model can be simplified as a single-equation model with stumpage price as dependent variable and...
A dynamic programming algorithm (MS PATH) was used to develop a stand level optimization model, FPS Optimizer. The model incorporates a late-seral constraint on the profit maximizing objective function utilizing a four-descriptor structural index as a proxy. This index, the 'Old-Growth Index', rates the late-seral structural quality of a given...
An analytical algorithm to formulate a sparser set of adjacency constraints than the conventional algorithm is proposed. Utilizing matrix algebra applied to an adjacency matrix, constraints are systematically and efficiently derived by the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm is proved to provide a true set of adjacency constraints in the...
Globally the forest harvesting industry is becoming increasingly mechanized. Driving this trend is the desire to increase productivity and reduce cost, as well as to improve labor-related issues. With mechanization comes an in-forest platform for the introduction of state-of-the-art communication and measurement technologies, and powerful on-board computers. These systems have...
Business is a social institution and society has always designated a role for
business which has been undergoing changes with changing societal values and
paradigms. Thus while business has always had some responsibilities, the modern
connotation of the words corporate social responsibility commonly refers to business
assuming responsibilities in economic,...
For many resource-based communities throughout Oregon the timber
industry plays an important role. In many of these areas, federal
land holdings comprise a large proportion of the area's land holdings.
Management decisions regarding resource use on the National Forest
lands can have a major influence on the stability of local...
An analysis of the economics of multiple use forest
planning is presented. At the forest level itself it is
demonstrated the use of duality information provided by
linear programming to price nonmarket commodities
allocations and to establish an accounting system in
multiple use forest management. The use of post-optimal
activity...
County-level net migration and employment growth rates associated with the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) are examined. The NWFP area encompasses federal land in 53 Oregon, Washington and California counties; 20 counties adjacent to NWFP counties are also included in the sample. The NWFP was enacted in December of 1993, however,...
In this thesis I examine the question: can allowing a wildfire to burn this year result in a net positive economic gain? To answer this question I created 2,500 multiple sets of paired scenarios (called a fire of interest) which consist of ignitions, vegetation growth, and timber harvest over the...
Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the U.S. have exhibited an upward trend over time similar to that observed for GDP and personal income. While conventional wisdom suggests that economic growth leads to more driving and thus higher VMT, it is theoretically possible that the causation could also be the other...
An economic analysis and optimization of forest biomass processing and transportation at the operational level is presented. Renewable sources of energy have captured the interest of public and private institutions to develop cost-effective supply chains to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The production of energy from forest harvest residues constitutes...
The objective of this study is to complete life cycle inventories (LCI) for laminated veneer lumber (LVL) and composite I-joist (I-joist) production in the two main forest products producing regions in the U.S., the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and Southeast (SE). LVL and I-joists are composite wood building materials that are...
Three data sets were examined to determine the costs with and without
constrained forest management practices. Two adjacent sites in the Coast Range of
Oregon were studied. One of the units was broadcast burned while the adjacent site was
left unburned. The stands were projected for growth and yield in...
This dissertation investigates the effect of endogenous and exogenous events on firm behavior and performance. These are fundamental questions in economics. The contribution of this study is threefold. First, it provides estimates of the impact of mergers on railroad efficiency, which has important antitrust implications. Second, it provides new estimates...
This dissertation consists of three essays on private landowners' response to incentives for carbon sequestration in forests. The first essay examines private landowner response to incentives for carbon sequestration through various combinations of intermediate management practices. The second essay focuses on agricultural landowners' willingness to participate in an incentive program...
The objectives for the use of the Oregon State
University college forest include providing both facilities
for research and teaching, and providing funding through
timber harvest. The older age-classes of the forest are
valuable for attaining both objectives. The opportunities
and costs of removing acreage in the older age classes...
Harvesting productivity rates and costs were determined for three
silvicultural treatments used in commercial ground-based thinning of
young stands to achieve timber management objectives and enhance
wildlife habitat. Treatment definitions were based on residual trees
per acre (tpa) after thinning. The treatments were light thin (115
residual tpa), light thin...