Consumer preferences and willingness to pay for character-marked cabinets from Alaska birch.

Abstract

Alaska birch lumber has a higher occurrence of defects (knots, bark pockets, flecks, spalting, etc.) when compared to competing hardwoods. These defects are a disadvantage when birch lumber is graded under standard National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA) grading rules. This paper examines whether defects and other character markings found in birch lumber may be an advantage for certain applications. Contingent valuation techniques are used to determine the willingness of consumers to pay a price premium for kitchen cabinet doors made from Alaska birch lumber containing a variety of character features. Results show that consumers prefer cabinet doors with knots and color variation, and that in general, doors with more character marks are pre-ferred to those with less. In addition, consumers were willing to pay price premiums of between $13 and $43 for their favorite door. Further, results indicated that women tend to prefer cabinet doors with fewer or no character marks, while men prefer doors with higher levels of these features.

Citation

Donovan, Geof; Nicholls, David. 2003. Consumer preferences and willingness to pay for character-marked cabinets from Alaska birch. Forest Products. 53(11/12): 27-32