Browsing by Subject "online-communication"

The wood products industry has a significant impact on the natural environment and surrounding society by utilizing natural resources in its operations. After receiving criticism from stakeholders, forest companies have increasingly paid attention to economic and social features together with environmental performance. When covering sustainability communication in forest products industry, previous studies have mainly been focusing on sustainability reporting. After spread of digitalization the importance of sustainability-related online communication has increased, especially among forest companies and associations. This study addresses the sustainability-related online communication in the wood products industry, since it has not been studied extensively yet. The purpose of the study is to examine on corporate and sectoral levels how companies and associations communicate with their stakeholders online and what are the current topics of sustainability-related online communication in the forest products industry in Finland. Empirical data was collected by carrying out the qualitative content analysis inductively and deductively based on forest companies’ and associations’ websites. Both methods were utilized to ensure discover of topical sustainability issues from data. According to the findings, sustainability communication of forest companies and associations still bases on environmental factors. However, the share of social factors such as stakeholder engagement is growing. Although, majority of forest companies and associations have applied various social media channels to communicate with their stakeholders, the evaluation of the communication effectiveness of these channels is difficult and requires further research. In the end, to achieve mutual benefit companies need to engage and involve their stakeholders in decision-making process on company’s sustainability issues through social media or other online platforms.