Strategic change in the forest industry towards the biorefining business

• We explore the forest industry's change towards the biorefining business
• Conservative organizational culture and lack of financing create barriers to change
• The forest industry culture does not encourage innovative people to put forward ideas
• Success in the biorefinery business cannot be achieved without collaboration
• It will be challenging to share profits among the partners in the consortium

The aim of the study was to explore the current forest industry's change features, necessary resources and management for the biorefining business in Scandinavia and North America. A total of 23 representatives from the forest, bioenergy and bioproducts sectors participated in themed interviews in the last round of a three-phase Delphi study. In both Scandinavian and North American forest industries, a conservative organizational culture and lack of financial resources create barriers to change. The role of the forest industry in the forest biorefinery consortium is largely seen to be that of a biomass provider. The scope of change depends on context-specific features, such as biorefinery location and raw material availability. Operating a commercial-scale biorefinery facility requires both new managerial and operational-level skills. Readiness for change needs to be embedded in the organizational culture — and the key to attaining this is open-minded organizational management. It is believed that there are innovative personnel in forest industry companies, yet the current culture does not encourage such people to submit their ideas. Success in the biorefinery business cannot be achieved without collaboration. However, sharing of profits among partners in the consortium will be challenging.